Renault 4CV - 56

The Renault 4CV (French: "quatre chevaux") is a rear-

engined, rear wheel drive, four-door economy car

manufactured and marketed by the French manufacturer

Renault from August 1947 through July 1961. As the first

French car to sell over a million units, the 4CV was

superseded by the Dauphine.

The name 4CV refers to the car's tax horsepower. In 1996, Renault presented a concept car — the Renault Fiftie — to celebrate the 50th  anniversary of the 4CV's debut. It was a two-door, mid-engine design with styling similar to  the 4CV.

Conception and development

The 4CV was originally conceived and designed covertly by Renault engineers during the  World War II German occupation of France, when the manufacturer was under strict orders to design and produce only commercial and military vehicles. Between 1941 and 1944 Renault  was placed under the Technical Directorship of a francophile engineer, Wilhelm von Urach  (de; between 1927 and 1940 employed by Daimler Benz) who failed to notice the small car  project emerging on his watch. A design team led by the company's Technical Director  Fernand Picard, recently returned from Renault's aero-engine division to the auto business  and Charles-Edmond Serre, who had been with Renault for longer than virtually anyone else,  envisioned a small, economical car suitable for the period of austerity expected after the  war. This was in contrast to Louis Renault himself who in 1940 believed that after the war  Renault would need to concentrate on its traditional mid-range cars. Jean-Auguste Riolfo,  head of the test department, was made aware of the project from an early stage as were  several other heads of department. In May 1941 Louis Renault himself burst into an office to  find Serre and Picard studying a mock-up for the car's engine. By the end of an  uncomfortable ad hoc meeting Renault's approval for the project, now accorded the code  "106E", was provided. However, because the Germans had forbidden work on any new  passenger car models, the 4CV development was defined, if at all, as a low priority spin-off  from a project to develop a new engine for a post-war return of the company's 1930s small  car, the Juvaquatre: departmental bosses installed by the Germans were definitely not to be  trusted in respect of "Project 106E", while von Urach, their overlord, always managed to turn  a blind eye to the whole business.

Volkswagen influence

In November 1945 the government invited Ferdinand Porsche to France to explore the  possibility of relocating the Volkswagen project to France as part of the reparations package  then under discussion. On 15 December 1945, Porsche found himself invited to provide  Renault with advice concerning their forthcoming Renault 4CV. Earlier that year, newly  nationalised Renault had officially acquired a new boss, (after the death in suspicious  circumstances of Louis Renault), the former resistance hero Pierre Lefaucheux, (he had been acting administrator since September 1944). He had been arrested by the Gestapo in June  1944, and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. The Gestapo transferred him to Metz for interrogation, but the city was deserted because of the advancing allied front, the  Germans abandoned their prisoner. Lefaucheux was enraged that anyone should think the by  now almost production-ready Renault 4CV was in any way inspired by the Volkswagen, and  even more enraged that the politicians should presume to send Porsche to provide advice on  it. The government insisted on nine meetings involving Porsche which took place in rapid  succession. Lefaucheux insisted that the meetings would have absolutely no influence on the  design of the Renault 4CV, and Porsche cautiously went on record with the view that the car  would be ready for large scale production in a year. Lefaucheux was a man with contacts. As soon as the 4CV project meetings mandated by the  politicians had taken place, Porsche was arrested in connection with war crimes allegations  involving the use of forced labour including French in the Volkswagen plant in Germany.  Porsche was accompanied on his visit to the Renault plant by his son Ferry, and the two were offered release in return for a substantial cash payment. Porsche was able to provide only  half of the amount demanded, with the result that Ferry Porsche was sent back to Germany,  while Ferdinand Porsche, despite never facing any sort of trial, spent the next twenty months in a Dijon jail.  The first prototype had only two doors and was completed in 1942, and two more prototypes  were produced in the following three years. Later Pierre Lefaucheux, appointed to the top  job at Renault early in 1945, tested the 4CV prototype at Louis Renault's Herqueville estate. 

Ready for release

In 1940, Louis Renault had, according to one source, directed his engineering team to "make  him a car like the Germans'." Until the arrangement was simplified in 1954, the 4CV featured  a 'dummy' grille comprising six thin horizontal chrome strips, intended to distract attention  from the similarity of the car's overall architecture to that of the German Volkswagen, while  recalling the modern designs of the fashionable front-engined passenger cars produced in  Detroit during the earlier 1940s.  An important part of the 4CV's success was due to the new methodologies used in its  manufacture, pioneered by Pierre Bézier. Bézier had begun his 42-year tenure at Renault as a  tool setter, moving up to tool designer and then becoming head of the Tool Design Office. As  Director of Production Engineering in 1949, he designed the transfer lines (or transfer  machines) producing most of the mechanical parts for the 4CV. The transfer machines were  high-performance work tools designed to machine engine blocks. While imprisoned during  World War II, Bézier developed and improved on the automatic machine principle, introduced  before the war by General Motors (GM). The new transfer station with multiple workstations  and electromagnetic heads (antecedents to robots), enabled different operations on a single  part to be consecutively performed by transferring the part from one station to another.

Launch and market reception

The 4CV was ultimately presented to the public and media at the 1946 Paris Motor Show and  went on sale a year later. Volume production was said to have commenced at the company's  Billancourt plant a few weeks before the Paris Motor Show of October 1947, although the cars were in very short supply for the next year or so. Renault's advertising highlighted the  hundreds of machine-tools installed and processes adopted for the assembly of the first high  volume car to be produced since the war, boasting that the little car was now no longer a  prototype but a reality. On the 4CV's launch, it was nicknamed "La motte de beurre" (the lump of butter); this was  due to the combination of its shape and the fact that early deliveries all used surplus paint  from the German Army vehicles of Rommel's Afrika Korps, which were a sand-yellow color.  Later it was known affectionately as the "quatre pattes", "four paws".The 4CV was initially  powered by a 760 cc rear-mounted four-cylinder engine coupled to a three-speed manual  transmission. In 1950, the 760 cc unit was replaced by a 747 cc version of the "Ventoux"  engine producing 17 hp (13 kW).  Despite an initial period of uncertainty and poor sales due to the ravaged state of the French  economy, the 4CV had sold 37,000 units by mid-1949 and was the most popular car in France.  Across the Rhine 1,760 4CVs were sold in West Germany in 1950, accounting for 23% of that  country's imported cars, and ranking second only to the Fiat 500 on the list. The car  remained in production for more than another decade. Claimed power output increased  subsequently to 21 hp (16 kW) as increased fuel octanes allowed for higher compression  ratios, which along with the relatively low weight of the car (620 kg (1,370 lb)) enabled the  manufacturers to report a 0–90 km/h (0–56 mph) time of 38 seconds and a top speed barely  under 100 km/h (62 mph). The engine was notable also for its elasticity, the second and top  gear both being usable for speeds between 5 and 100 km/h (3 and 62 mph); the absence of  synchromesh on first gear would presumably have discouraged use of the bottom gear except  when starting from rest. 

Handling

The rear mounting of the engine meant that the steering could be highly geared while  remaining relatively light; in the early cars, only 2¼ turns were needed from lock to lock.  The unusually direct steering no doubt delighted some keen drivers, but road tests of the  time nonetheless included warnings to take great care with the car's handling on wet roads.  In due course, the manufacturers switched from one extreme to the other, and on later cars  4½ turns were needed to turn the steering wheel from lock to lock.

Broadening the range downmarket

Early in 1953 the manufacturer launched a stripped-down version of the 4CV bereft of  anything which might be considered a luxury. Tire width was reduced, and the dummy grille  was removed from the front of the car along with the chrome headlamp surrounds. The seats  were simplified and the number of bars incorporated in the steering wheel reduced from  three to two. The only colour offered was grey. The car achieved its objective of retailing for less than 400,000 Francs. With the Dauphine already at an advanced stage of development it  may have made sense to try and expand the 4CV's own market coverage downwards in order  to open up a clearer gap between the two models which would be produced in parallel for  several years, but reaction to the down-market 4 CV, branded as the "Renault 4CV Service",  must have disappointed Renault as this version of the car disappeared from the Renault  showrooms after less than a year. The poor sales performance of the stripped-down "4CV  Service" may have been linked to the growing popularity of the Citroën 2CV: although at this  stage powered by an engine of just 375 cc and offering sclerotic performance, the 2CV was  bigger than the Renault and in 1952 came with a starting price of just 341,870 francs. 

Replacement

The 4CV's direct replacement was the Dauphine, launched in 1956, but the 4CV in fact  remained in production until 1961. The 4CV was replaced by the Renault 4 which used the  same engine as the 4CV and sold for a similar price. 

Around the world

Although most of the cars were assembled at Renault's Île Seguin plant located on an island  in the river opposite Billancourt, the 4CV was also assembled in seven other countries. In  December 1949 it was announced that the car had replaced the company's Juvaquatre at the  company's factory in Acton, West London, where right hand drive 4 CVs were assembled  using, for the most part, components imported from France. Other countries where 4 CVs  were assembled included Australia, Belgium, England, Ireland, Japan (where the Hino-  assembled cars gained a reputation for superior quality), Spain and South Africa.  Across the world 1,105,543 cars were produced; the 4CV became the first French car to sell  over a million units.  • In Spain, the 4CV was produced by FASA's Valladolid factory from 1951-1961.  • The 4CV was also manufactured in Japan under licence by Hino Motors, Ltd. from  1953-1961, rebadged as the Hino Renault 4CV, then later replaced by the Hino  Contessa while still using the Renault powertrain.  • The 4CV was marketed in Australia from 1949-1961, initially as the Renault 760 and  later as the Renault 750. It was imported in both fully assembled and CKD form, with  assembly of the latter undertaken in Sydney. The 4CV was easily modified, and was used extensively as a racing car. The first collaboration  between the Alpine company and Renault was the Alpine A106 which was based on the 4CV.  The partnership would go on to win the World Rally Championship with the legendary Alpine  A-110 in later years. 

1956

Engine 850 cc 4 cylinders Power 36 HP Lenght/width 3,35 m/1,49 m Weight 720 kg The collections Renault went through a complete restoration. It has been inspected by museum authorities.