You're viewing all posts tagged with Renault
Renault 30TS The 30TS is awesome and awkward at the same time. Like the offspring of a Renault 16TS and a 116-series Alfa Romeo GTV. /via Autorama 70 Click for high-res photo

Renault 30TS

The 30TS is awesome and awkward at the same time. Like the offspring of a Renault 16TS and a 116-series Alfa Romeo GTV.

/via Autorama 70

Renault Alpine A310 The A310 is on the top of my weird-fibreglass-French-cars-I-would-own-if-I-weren’t-so-scared-about-owning-a-weird-fibreglass-French-car list. You’d be surprised how long that list is. (Pic via Octane’s Specfinder) Click for high-res photo

Renault Alpine A310

The A310 is on the top of my weird-fibreglass-French-cars-I-would-own-if-I-weren’t-so-scared-about-owning-a-weird-fibreglass-French-car list.

You’d be surprised how long that list is.

(Pic via Octane’s Specfinder)

Renault 10 I was talking with a friend the other day he asked me why I thought American cars of the 50s had tail-fins. The answer is, of course, not so they look like rockets, though that is true, but because looking like a rocket is an expression of optimism for the future. America had won the war, everything was awesome and the cars reflected that. (Let’s ignore that whole cold-war thing. Though maybe that’s an explanation for American the cars of the 1970s?) On the other side of the world, Europe was decimated. There was no optimism. And then there was modernism. Modernism is optimism. It’s about the future, but in a much more abstract sense. I’m no scholar of design, but I think modernism says that the thing should look like the thing it is. That is, a car should look like the archetype of a car. The R10 looks like the cars we draw when we mean “car”. Not the car, certainly not Le Car, but a car. (pic via Octane Magazine’s wonderful specfinder.) Click for high-res photo

Renault 10

I was talking with a friend the other day he asked me why I thought American cars of the 50s had tail-fins. The answer is, of course, not so they look like rockets, though that is true, but because looking like a rocket is an expression of optimism for the future. America had won the war, everything was awesome and the cars reflected that. (Let’s ignore that whole cold-war thing. Though maybe that’s an explanation for American the cars of the 1970s?)

On the other side of the world, Europe was decimated. There was no optimism. And then there was modernism. Modernism is optimism. It’s about the future, but in a much more abstract sense. I’m no scholar of design, but I think modernism says that the thing should look like the thing it is. That is, a car should look like the archetype of a car. The R10 looks like the cars we draw when we mean “car”. Not the car, certainly not Le Car, but a car.

(pic via Octane Magazine’s wonderful specfinder.)

Renault 15 and 17 Quite why Renault decided to make two coupes on the platform of the R12 I don’t know. The R15 was a bit more conservative (it’s the green one) and had a more conventional look than the R17 with its upswept B/C pillar, rear buttresses and blacked out boot-lid. Underneath the R15 and R17 were mostly the same. The R17 could be had with a higher-spec motor than the R15, closer to that of the stove-hot R12 Gordini, and is the more desirable of the two. Especially with that awesome roll-back roof! The interiors of the twins, particularly the R17, are a sight to behold, featuring four hooded binnacles and veritable acres of stainless steel facing for a style that a Renault-loving friend calls “1970s French Fabulous”. (Pic via, strangely enough, Renault. (Link en français)). Click for high-res photo

Renault 15 and 17

Quite why Renault decided to make two coupes on the platform of the R12 I don’t know.

The R15 was a bit more conservative (it’s the green one) and had a more conventional look than the R17 with its upswept B/C pillar, rear buttresses and blacked out boot-lid.

Underneath the R15 and R17 were mostly the same. The R17 could be had with a higher-spec motor than the R15, closer to that of the stove-hot R12 Gordini, and is the more desirable of the two. Especially with that awesome roll-back roof!

The interiors of the twins, particularly the R17, are a sight to behold, featuring four hooded binnacles and veritable acres of stainless steel facing for a style that a Renault-loving friend calls “1970s French Fabulous”.

(Pic via, strangely enough, Renault. (Link en français)).