Having check a thing or two about rear - enginecarsfrom the little 4CV it put on the market right after World War II , Renault was ready for something bigger and better by the mid Fifties . The 1956 - 1958 Renault Dauphine for sure was bountiful and – arguably – easily enough to make it a success .
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Dr. Ferdinand Porsche has a hatful to answer for . If he had not originally plan the Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle , the fashion for building small rear - engined cars might never have taken off . Without the Beetle , possibly , there might not have been aChevroletCorvair , a Renault 4CV – or the Dauphine . But how could such a pretty and appealing picayune elevator car as the Renault Dauphine come from a caller that had lain in ruin only 10 old age originally ? How could such a car be build in a nation devastated by war as recently as 1945 ?
When American troops from General G. O. Barton ’s 4th Infantry Division broom into Paris on August 25 , 1944 , to complete the sacking of France ’s capital , the commonwealth was on its knees . During World War II , France had been under Nazi occupation for four years . If its factories had not already been subvert by French resistance fighter , they were regularly thump byU.S. Army Air Forcesand British Royal Air Force bomber sally .
With its factory in downfall and its boss , Louis Renault , in prison as an aver collaborator with the Germans and soon to die , France ’s big carmaker was in a parlous province . Many of its factories had been flatten , and up to one third of its machinery destroyed . Somehow , though , the country nationalized it , rescued it , and main administrator Pierre Lefaucheux got thing up and running .
A brand name novel Renault , the 760cc 4CV , run short on sale in 1947 . Actually , the 4CV owed its existence quite straight off to Porsche ’s little sedan . Well cognizant of the specifications – and the possible – of Germany ’s " citizenry ' gondola , " Renault secern his engineers in 1940 that he wanted something like it .
Development come on in privacy during the war , for Renault ’s Nazi overlords wanted the company to produce military hand truck at its Paris plant . Irony of irony , Porsche himself even played a hand in the new small Renault . While in French custody in 1946 , the authorities sent him to take care over the drawings of the impendent 4CV model . It was Porsche who suggested changes to improve the weight distribution and roadholding , and for a time he grind in Renault ’s own engineering science workshops .
Although the 4CV was a cute little posterior - engined four - room access machine that helped to regenerate Gallic private motoring , it looked nothing like what would watch over . Snub - nosed and Beetle - track , it had marginal public presentation and poor roadholding – but it was tinny , it was reliable , and it was available . More authoritative than this was that almost every look of the design would be used again , developed , made dear , but still recognizable .
In 1951 , RÃ © gie Nationale des Usines Renault – as the government - back ship’s company was now make love – decided that it was time to try again . It took a farsighted fourth dimension to get the new R1090 project cable car quick for cut-rate sale . The first epitome black market as ahead of time as July 1952 , and a further batch clocked more than 2 million miles of testing .
Said Renault of the cognitive operation , " Arctic condition were sampled in the North Cape arena [ of Europe ] by one cable car , another machine was sent to knead in the Swiss mountains , and a third to the United States . A fourth go to the sands and dusty roads of Africa for tropic growth . "
This all film time , so the first car did not drift off a newfangled assemblage line of credit at Flins until December 1955 . ReÂnault , incidentally , had in the beginning want to call its new auto " Corvette , " but General Motors got there first . rather , the company got in touch with its feminine side . Although France was a commonwealth , it still enjoyed its royal connections . consort to the Gallic hierarchical organization , a dauphin was the firstborn son of the mogul ; the dauphine was the distaff equivalent weight of that statute title .
For more info on railway car , see :
1956 Renault Dauphine
Renault ’s " princess " – the 1956 Renault Dauphine – made her public entry in March 1956 , and the French were transport .
Renault keep its conventional " Ventoux " ohc inline four - cylinder water - cooledenginewith removable piston chamber sleeves in the backside , and swathed it all in pretty and curvaceous bodywork . At 89 inches , its wheelbase was 6.3 in longer than that of the 4CV . The Dauphine was a full ft longer end to end , and it was extensive and slimly low than its predecessor ( which hang around until 1961 ) .
The result was a peoples’carthat looked much classier than it was , could swallow up an impressive payload of masses and luggage , and would swish along France ’s tree - describe Routes Nationales at more than 60 miles per hour .
Unhappily for Renault , at that stage , it knew no more than Dr. Porsche did about controlling tail - clayey golf stroke - axle handling feature . If the hard engine and gear box were mounted in the shadower , and most of the front sheetmetal surrounded nothing but brisk aura for carrying luggage , the lead weight distriÂbution was leap to be scary .
Nearly 62 percent of the Dauphine ’s system of weights was carry by the rearwheels , and since the rearsuspensionwas by elementary high - pivot swing axles , those bicycle always had a punishing sentence . Everything you have heard about Dauphine handling – the nervous way in which it might reach a tractor trailer on the Interstate , and the skittish room it cross mellow exposed bridge – was rightful . Not even a weird combining of urge tire pressures –15 psi at the front and 23 psi at the rear – could wholly domesticate that problem .
Early road psychometric test in U.S. publications were quite content with the Dauphine ’s manipulation , but by 1960,Motor Trendhad this to say : " There is nothing in the handling at normal speeds to indicate that the engine is stowed in the rear but labour up to some high - speed cornering and the rear end becomes quite spooky , requiring skilled control of an oversteer stipulation that presents itself . "
The Glamorous Dauphine
The Renault Dauphine ’s unit - construction bodyshell was really that of a ceremonious body under which a duet of perimeter - shaped longitudinal box discussion section , with substantial cross - bracing , had been welded . The four - piston chamber 845ccengine , fundamentally the 4CV powerplant with large cylinder tidal bore , lived in the extreme tail with cool down outlet vent in the engine chapeau – I most called it a " trunklid , " though that was at the front – and clean air intakes in each rearward passenger door to give away the game . The rearwheelswere driven through a three - speed transaxle mount in advance of it . ( Even in 1956Road & TrackandMotor Trendlonged for a quaternary gear . )
One technical oddity was the alternative of the Ferlec clutch , which had reflex electromagnetic operation , and no separate clasp pedal point . The front - hinged trunkÂlid , in which the headlamp were mounted , flipped up to unveil a seven - three-dimensional - foot shipment hold . The spare tire was carry on its side under the front of thecar , hidden behind a swivel instrument panel below the center part of the bumper .
Thesuspension , lease ’s now be reliable about this , was a mixture of the sensible and the bizarre . Up front , there was a established coil - bound / wishing bone layout , with an antiroll bar , all neatly box with rack - and - pinion steering , on a detachable front crossing member . Then , at the rear , there was a high - pivot golf shot axle of the simplest nature , with homocentric coil - spring / telescopic damper sit down atop the swinging tubes ( Renault called them " trump casings " ) themselves .
Fore - and - aft location ? Except for the trunnion arms in the transaxle housing itself , there was none at all . The whole of the pressed locomotive / transaxle / suspension mounting member was detachable from the chief body structure .
One oddity , which was carried over from the 4CV , was that the axle hub at front and rearward were quite large , with five very widely spaced thunderbolt location for the road wheels . The wheels themselves were really no more than sturdy rims with five mounting lugs to match up with the hub , the outer space in the halfway being pure fresh air !
Maybe it all looked technically refined , and maybe the Dauphine was very cheap to ramp up , but this certainly was n’t the kind of car likely to last for decade . At the front end , it count positively unconvincing ( in any sort of headspring - on crash , that clean hollow nose would close down up to the windshield in no clock time at all ) , and it was n’t long before customers discovered the alarming disposition for body panels to eat away .
Commercially , none of this seemed to matter very much . New at the ripe time , when France ’s economic system was pick up well , and when the cosmos was still bet for really modern - looking motorcar , the Dauphine was shortly a fashionable machine . It was n’t long before Paris and other Gallic cities were teeming with these little four - seaters .
1957-1959 Renault Dauphine
Before long , 700 Renault Dauphines were being built every day , the 100,000thcarbeing produced in March 1957 .
Renault , never likely to escape too many publicity trick , made sure that movie stars like Brigitte Bardot were photographed in a Dauphine . A whole shebang team of five cars with tweakedenginesand five - velocity gear box swept the first four place in class at the ' 56 Mille Miglia , the smashed - up fourth - place car having survived a tumble into a ravine along the way .
Kit assembly began in several countries ( including England and Italy ) , and Renault even hoped to deal big numbers in the USA , where the automobile first appeared in April 1956 at the New York Auto Show .
Could they have been serious ? Could they really have expected a 30 - bhp machine that take an age to drag itself away from dealings spark ( 0 - 60 mph in about 31 second ) , one that could n’t open to altercate the same piece of route as a Checker cab , to take over on Main Street , USA ? They could – and they were swiftly proved wrong .
Customers soon found that they could not really beat 45 miles per hour in 2d gear wheel , and somehow , too , they sense vulnerable . At least the Dauphine had frugality kick the bucket for it . In addition to its affordable start price ( $ 1,645 at its U.S. introduction , or $ 150 more than a stem VW Beetle ) , the Dauphine averaged as much as 39.1 sundry - economic consumption mpg in mag run .
The glamourous side , though , was before long enhanced with burnished , quicker , and more sporting models . fortuitously for Renault , when the Dauphine was being set up , the impecunious Gallic backwash - car builder , Amà © dà © atomic number 99 Gordini , had abandoned Grand Prix racing , and was looking for work . Renault apace hired him , and set him to improve the Dauphine ’s performance .
In September 1957 , the result was the Dauphine - Gordini , which not only had a different cylinder heading and a 38 - bhp engine , but a four - speeding gearbox , too . The supererogatory apex major power does n’t sound like much , but it was , after all , a 27 pct melioration on the standard car – enough to provide a top amphetamine of 74 mph , much more suitable for keeping up with larger - engined cars , in particular in the U.S. ( The Dauphine further show its performance mettle by bring home the bacon the punishing 1958 Monte Carlo Rally . )
Little more than a year later , Renault then tote up the very fashionable Floride models – called Caravelles in the USA – with styling by Frua , and bodyshell industry by specialist coachbuilders Brissonneau et Lotz . Though available in extremely bright 2 + 2 coupe or two - backside convertible form , these cars were both based on the Dauphine platform , albeit with a more knock-down locomotive . For a sentence , a Floride was the railroad car in which to be seen in Paris , or in Gallic seaside resorts .
Renault Dauphine of the Sixties
The Renault Dauphine models of the Sixties started off with a bang . For the 1960 model year , Renault astonished everyone by introducing a new Dauphinesuspensionsystem , called Aerostable . Do n’t get too emotional , though ; this was not a renewal for the agricultural swing - axle rearward close , but the addition of extra rubber bound up front , and supplementary air fountain unit ( mounted inboard of the conventional ringlet ) at the rear .
Although this setup gave a gentle ride in most precondition , it tauten up apace as the payload increase . For the sporty driver , the main advantage was that when only two hoi polloi were being carry , the rear roulette wheel now had a small degree of negative camber and more hairgrip when cornering .
By that time , Renault had pushed up 845ccenginepower to 32 bhp in the received Dauphine and 40 bhp in the Gordini ( the latter now picking up the Caravelle ’s locomotive engine rather than its own special castings ) . As such , the Gordini was good for 0 - 60 times of around 20 mo and a top speed of about 80 mph .
With more than 200,000 Dauphines being build every year , and the 1 millionthcarbeing produced in 1960 , a bit of midterm examination complacency might be expected , but there was none of that at the RÃ © gie .
For 1961 , the Ondine Dauphine appeared , this being a received manikin equipped with the four - speed gearbox of the Gordini , then from mid 1961 came the DeLuxe poser , in which the backrest of the front seats could be recline , the luggage container was draw , the passementerie was enhanced , and whitewalltireswere monetary standard .
There was more to come . For 1962 , Renault give the canonic Dauphine an all - synchromesh three - velocity gearbox . At the same time the fierce limited - variant Dauphine R1093 ( radius for " Rally " ) made its show . Because almost all of those cars stayed at dwelling house , exportation enthusiasts missed out on a motorcar with no less than 55 bhp that could beat 90 mph .
Although the Dauphine was soon outshone by the novel rear - locomotive engine R8 sedan – a square - manipulate , larger - engined railway car with updated version of the Dauphine ’s suspension systems that first appeared in mid 1962 – it nibble up the R8 ’s four - wheeldisc brakesfor 1964 . New options for the year included air conditioning and a three - speedautomatic transmissionwith pushbutton controls wax on the dash .
Here , at last , was a well - mature piddling car that wait practiced , was brisk enough , and stopped very well indeed . If only Renault had ever taken attentiveness of critique over the handling problems – if Porsche could find direction of dealing with it in its sports cars , why not Renault ? – the software package might have been even more appealing .
By the mid Sixties , however , time was running out for the Dauphine . It had been run for nearly 10 age with no way change , and , in canonical var. , with very little improvement in public presentation . Serious trunk - corrosion trouble that come on with age were now well known , and the light ( some said thin ) construction was sometimes criticized .
sympathetic or not , the automobile was also under onset from within Renault itself : from below by the new front - bicycle - drive R4 , and from above by the more spacious , more capable , R8 .
In America specifically , some other component were at piece of work cooling requirement for the Dauphine . Renault ’s U.S. sales , which had been in the simple hundreds per year in the other Fifties , shot up in the ten ’s latter years , a meter when more and more Americans were turning to small , economical European car . Led by the Dauphine , Renault sold 91,073 cars in the States in 1959 . But from that high point , the amount slip precipitously to just 12,106 for 1966 .
When new domestic compact from Ford , Chrysler , and Chevrolet bring together existing modest cars from Rambler and Studebaker on the market for 1960 , all the imports – even Volkswagen – suffered to some degree . Even a price cutting off instituted for 1961 could n’t help the Dauphine .
Renault face more than a sudden freshet of Yank contender , however . There was also growing disenchantment with its service financial backing in the U.S. You need n’t take our word on it ; Renault freely admit as much in its powder store advertising when it introduced the R8 ’s successor , the 10 , for 1967 . " Our [ earlier ] cars were not fully prepared to encounter the demands of America . . . . More than a fairish portion of matter went wrong with our automobile . Less than a fair parcel of our dealers were equip to handle with what go bad ill-timed , " the company confessed as it beg erstwhile customers to consider " The Renault for masses who swore they would never purchase another one . "
Renaults would in brief trade in large number in the USA again , but not until the early Eighties , when they were being manufacture in American Motors Corporation plant and sold by AMC dealers .
The last of the base - model Dauphines was produced in December 1966 , though the higher - powered Gordini types carried on until 1968 . In the end , about 2 million of the piffling sedan chair were build , which made this a commercial succeeder by any standards . And no matter how hard Renault taste in the next few years , it never again produced anything that bet quite as precious .
1956-1968 Renault Dauphine Specifications
The Renault Dauphine relish a long rill – 2 million of the niggling sedans were built between 1956 and 1958 . Here are selected specification for the Dauphine :
Â*U.S.-specification railcar ; 26 others .
