The Sunday News
Lovert Mafukure
It was post war period for France in the 1960s, they had a new-found sense of exuberance and it’s quite apparent when you look at their designs then.
Who remembers the Renault 4, it’s one the oldest cars to ever come out of France with much of that French vibe.
Back in the 90s I remember as a child I enjoyed the Citroen Gs Club, I had a friend whose dad owned a Renault 4. Back then, I just felt myself the better one as my dad owned a better car that could work the magic of going up and down as it willed. It didn’t occur to me then that fast forward time, even those Renault 4s would be the classics of our generation.
For car enthusiasts, the similarity of the Renault 4 to the Citroen 2CV is quite apparent. History has it that the R4, as it was commonly called in Zimbabwe, was a response to the 2CV and Renault wanted to produce something better than the 2CV. The 2CV was already a hit with the French farmers at the time with its soft suspension that took on farm tracks like a joke. The Renault 4 was also a charmer when it was introduced and wooed many of the people who perhaps loved the quirkiness, the space and of course the French vibe.
The French are known for some pretty exotic stuff and the cars to come out of this era were more quirky than they were beautiful. That quirkiness is what made them different though. They were not quite like the Americans, the Americans new nothing about small engines and quirkiness. They knew everything about flamboyance and power. I guess the bureaucratic issues regarding the manufacture of cars limited the Europeans at the time.
Whatever the case may be, France lived in its own world and produced cars then that would make a mark even decades later, talk of the Citroens, the Peugeots and of course the Renaults.
I will quote one journalist who said, “the Renault 4 had enough space for children, prams, wives, groceries, husbands, dogs, bags, baggage and room to spare”. As I said, the French were more about the functionality and economy of their cars. Here is a car that was easy on fuel, had space for Africa and was never in that much of a rush to go anywhere even if it wanted to, simplicity at its best. It was all about mobility — how fast you got to where you were going is a story for another day.
The Renault 4 was a simple car, simply designed with a sharp pointy stance. It came with 4 doors with sliding windows, you know the type that you found on yesteryear’s kitchen cupboards? Yeah, wind up was a thing of the future for them. Slim chrome bumpers were found in front and at the back.
It had large fenders and very small lights upfront housed inside an aluminium grill which was later changed to plastic.
As much as the French were limited in many ways, they didn’t compromise on ride comfort. Soft suspension and comfortable seats came standard.
Remember, France then had just come out of war and the Renault 4 was a success of worthy mention in its post war era and was assembled in more than 20 countries including South Africa. It went on to be one of the most produced cars following closely after the VW Beetle. It’s nice to see people that still love them as I have seen quite a couple running and in very good shape.
At a time when companies like VW were making it with their air-cooled engines, Renault contemplated going that route seeing as though even France’s own Citroen was getting a good run from the air-cooled engines. After some deliberations, they opted for the water-cooled engine. They designed a “sealed for life” cooling system that did not need topping of coolant, I’m not sure how well that worked out in the end because to me it seems like it wasn’t well thought out.
The Renault 4 had a 700cc 4 cylinder overhead valve engine. It produced some 25 horses. Like I said, the French were not flamboyant and power hungry like the Americans, I believe they were just after mobility and functionality! It was designed to have a three-speed manual gearbox, which was described then as an obsolete feature for a car designed in its time. Other models already had four and five-speed gearboxes. In 1968 however, the Renault4 received a lifeline in the form of a 4-speed manual gearbox, thumbs up to the French.
It was one of the first Renaults to ever have front wheel drive. Most cars at that drive were designed with rear differentials (diffs) because they had not yet figured out how one could have power and steering on the same axle. Later, CV joints were developed and for Renault, it was the R4 that started the front-wheel drive business.
Give us feedback if you have similar classics in your garage.
@lovert116
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