By John Waterhouse
Hot on the heels of last week’s review of the new Bugatti Automotrice book came an email from VeloceToday contributor and resident Renault expert John Waterhouse, who said he once visited the
The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
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From our Archives, October, 2018
By Vince Johnson and Pete Vack
Photos by Vince Johnson
A Bit on the Brescia
Vince Johnson will detail the ‘Butterfly’ Bugatti below, but first a few interesting facts about Ettore’s most successful model in terms of sales. The Brescia Bugatti was an evolution of Bugatti’s first production car from 1910, the Type 10 and Type 13. During that period, Bugatti model nomenclature was based on the length of the wheelbase, in general, the T 13 being the shortest, and the T23 the longest. But in 1921, after the total domination of an event in Italy, Ettore Bugatti decided to name his most recent model after the race.
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Story and photos by John Waterhouse*
After the new Renault 4CV was exhibited at the October, 1947 Paris Motor show, the car went into series production. The new model’s success matched the economic recovery of Europe after World War II, half a million examples being built by 1955. A successor offering better performance and comfort and larger boot (trunk) space was the obvious next step for Renault and design work began in the early 1950s.
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Story by John Waterhouse*
The new Renault 4CV was soon used as the basis for what the author refers to here as “specials”, mostly lightweight coupés of one type or another, which began to appear by the late-1940s and early 1950s.
These “specials” ranged from an unknown number of both professionally-built cars that were made in very small numbers and home-made cars that are not the subject of this article. A few coupés were made by professional organizations in numbers that ranged from very few (like the V-P coupes discussed below) to many hundreds, like the Autobleu and Brissoneaux et Lotz coupés. Some of these cars were extremely stylish and those few that were made commercially were far more expensive than the standard saloons.
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By Alan Yankolonis
In addition to winning two French Sports Car Grand Prix and setting land speed records in 1936 which stood for 29 years, the Simeone Foundation’s Bugatti T57 G Tank was the first Bugatti to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Initially the car was built for the 1936 French Sports Car Grand Prix that was established and later to set speed records in 1936. Of three, perhaps four built, this is the only Bugatti Tank known to survive.*
In 2013, Audi was introducing the new limited-edition Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, and Audi USA approached Dr. Fredrick Simeone to obtain color samples from the 1936 Bugatti T57G, and to discuss the possibility of displaying that car at the Quail Lodge during the 2013 Pebble Beach Concourse in Monterey, California. The idea was to paint the show car in the same color scheme as the 1937 Le Mans winner. Their request to Dr. Simeone was to conduct color matching tests on the Le Mans winner and explore the opportunity to have the museum car displayed side by side with the new Vitesse at the Quail Lodge. After much discussion an agreement was made to copy the color of the Le Mans winner, and make arrangements to have the museum car transported to California for display alongside the Vitesse.
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Story by John Waterhouse*
After the new Renault 4CV was exhibited at the October, 1947 Paris Motor show, the car went into series production. The new model was soon involved in competition, the first recorded example being the July 1948 “Rallye Internationale des Alpes” . After this, various private and factory (“usines”) entries followed in a range of events, initially using the 760 cc R1060 model, competing in the 751 to 1,100 cc class.
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Story by John Waterhouse
Author photos unless otherwise noted
Background
After being exhibited at the October, 1947 Paris Motor Show, production of the Renault 4CV gradually increased from 503 cars for sale that year to a peak of 138,000 in 1955. The grand total was 1,089,918 by the time production stopped in 1961.
The Renault 4CV was the first model in France to exceed a production total of one million, quite enough to put it in the automotive history books. The outcome was more noteworthy as it was a complete change for Renault, who pinned the very survival of the Regie to the success of a small, unorthodox car that was unlike anything they had built before.
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Story by John Waterhouse*
The Renault 4CV was a child of World War II. The German army had occupied northern France, including the Renault works at Billancourt on the outskirts of Paris and production continued, under strong pressure to provide vehicles for Germany’s war efforts. [Read more…] about The Renault 4CV Part 1: First of a Million
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Review by Pete Vack
In a colorful, imaginative and creative manner, author and historian Graeme Cocks brings to life the story of Renault’s Type A – the first car to feature a direct drive with the engine, clutch, transmission and differential in line. (read Two Old Renaults). It all began in that perhaps not so humble woodshed in the Renault family’s back yard, as you probably ‘heard tell about’ many times. (Renault’s family owned a button-making factory and were well-off.) [Read more…] about Louis Renault’s Amazing Type A – Reviewed
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By John Waterhouse
Perth, the capital city of the state of Western Australia, seems an unlikely location for two very early examples of Renault production cars. Nonetheless, it is the home for a 1899-1900 production version of Louis Renault’s first car, the single-cylinder, De Dion-Bouton-powered Type A, and a 1903 Type N, a car that used Renault’s first four-cylinder engine. 1 [Read more…] about Two Early Renaults in Western Australia
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Story by Brandes Elitch
A series of unfortunate events transpired to seal the fate of Citroën’s SM.
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By Brandes Elitch
All photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt unless otherwise marked.
“That the car was a moonshot didn’t concern our judges. Rather it invigorated them. Viewed in the perspective of the last 21 years, the SM fits more precisely in the spirit of the COTY, maybe better, than anything else being made in the world today.”