Here’s a picture of a 7-year old me taken in 1960 at the family home, in front of the 1960 Renault Dauphine my Dad had purchased for my older sisters and brother, who were 16 to 21 years old at the time. In theory, this second car was also for my mother’s benefit, but she never mastered the floor mounted 3-speed. My mom had learned to drive on a 1950(51?) Studebaker using a column- mounted 3-speed, but just couldn’t ‘find’ the gears on the Dauphine.
Note the hole in the center of the bumper. Yes, you could start the rear-engined Dauphine using a hand crank, if you were so inclined. The jack handle doubled as the crank handle.
I remember that the fuel filler was under rear hood, which caused a lot of amusement at gas stations as the attendant circled the car looking for the filler door.
Looks like I’m dressed for a special occasion, probably at church. I don’t look too thrilled about the whole thing, however. Maybe I’m just embarrassed about posing with the Dauphine?
Another great shot. I love those occasional photos of unhappy kids – such a refreshing dose of reality after so many pictures of happy, smiling people.
I am younger than you, but still remember Dauphines running around. In fact, on a family trip to California, some relatives did the same thing as your parents, and bought a mint green Dauphine for the kids to run around in (the parents had a 59 Ford). I enjoyed riding around in it at about 6 years old, and recall it as the first car with a sunroof that I had ever been in.
My friend lived down the street and his parents had a pair of Dauphines. Blue and pink, his and hers. They were gone in about 6 months.
Only remember a couple of Dauphines as a kid,I later read they were a serious ruster.The first model car I built was the Airfix Dauphine
In Mom’s defense, shift linkage in these was pretty sloppy. A 1651 Studebaker column shift would be like a Mercedes compared to it.
As I remember it, the Dauphine was the first car to be advertised on British TV. It was a good ad, with a catchy jingle I still remember. That may be why it sold so well, though it was a very pretty car too. It had a big brother, the similarly styled but front-engined Frigate, but that wasn’t sold in the UK.
Very rare cars here they rusted quickly Ive seen more caravelles than Dauphines recently
One on the neighbors had a Dauphine when I was a kid. I remember it had an automatic transmission with a push button selector like the Chrysler products had. They had it for quite a while so it must have been dependalle.
Hand crank starters and gas station attendants… when was the last time those two subjects came up in a car conversation?
*sigh*
My sister had one of these in Sacramento in the early 70’s and it was the only car that was slower than the 1959 English Ford Anglia that I had at the time. On the freeway her’s would do about 55mph while the Anglia would roar by at almost 60mph, with a load of kids in both cars. We were a moving road block on our way to Shasta to see my other sister. Also, my first car was a 1950 Studebaker and it was better built than both cars and would do 100mph and get 26mpg on the highway, kind of didn’t make sense driving these little penalty boxes.
Thats quite a sad Angle box those could hit 75mph if the engine was tuned properly
Well, to be fair to both cars they probably needed overhauls; the Anglia had 60,000 some miles on it and as the body was in perfect shape (California weather) I considered it low miles compared with the upper Minnesota cars I was used to. This was also the 100E flat head model not the overhead model as stated in Wikipedia. According to wiki, the British Motor magazine got one up to 70mph and mine with just me in it would do 65. I had two Consul’s before this car and really liked the handling; although the Anglia with it it’s 5.60/13 in. tires would slide all over Winding way in North Sac, a curvy little road we used to test our cars and bikes on, it always felt composed.
55? I’m pretty impressed. My dad had one of these in the mid 60’s and my recollection is that it didn’t do much above 45. If you floored the accelerator at 45 it just made more noise and shook more, but didn’t go much faster.
Hand cranks- Dad had a 1965 Datsun that could be cranked, very handy when a small boy turned on the lights and flattened the battery. I wonder what the last hand cranked car was outside relics like the Hindustan Ambassador.
My Peugeot 404s all had hand cranks. My white sedan would always start on the first pull; it was a stunt/parlor trick I used to do just for effect: in front of an expensive store on Rodeo drive in the middle of Beverly Hills or such. It always got attention. And the darn thing would always start on the first pull, without fail.
Growing up we had a auto shop owner 2 houses down who had spent several years in europe during and after WWII. His shop specialized in French cars, so he always had several Renaults ( we called the ren-alts) in front of his house. And a number of other mysterious French automotive horrors. But the Dauphines were rather charming in a VW bug sort of way.
I remember seeing a few Dauphines around in the late ’60’s – I would have been 5 or 6 at the time. As a fellow Ontarian, I can attest to the fact that the salt on our roads would have dissolved most of them in short order.
My first car was a used Dauphine. I lived in Omaha and drove it to school and work. In the winter it would rarely start on its own, so that crank through the back bumper was essential. It always worked, and the jack handle (crank) was a permanent feature in the back seat floor all winter long.
Once it did start, it would never warm up. Believe it or not, it was worse than a VW. The heater core was in the back, with the warmed air coming through a somewhat insulated flat duct to the front. By the time it got there, it was cold. This meant serious issues involving defrosting, etc. A second permanent feature was an ice scraper for use inside the car.
In the summers, the problem was reversed. The car had huge problems keeping its engine cool. I had a girlfriend in Kansas City and occasionally drove down there to visit her. I did always make it, but usually had to drive with the heater on full bore (and the windows open) to add the heater core to the radiator’s cooling capacity. It helped. I also frequently had to replenish the cooling system with antifreeze (a waste of money), ice tea, any handy water from a ditch, coca cola, and yes, of course, I even peed into it.
Minor brake failure occurred one day coming down a big hill. I just couldn’t get it fully stopped in time to avoid running into my pastor, who was waiting at a red light at the bottom of the hill. The minor crunch didn’t hurt him but it broke loose all the rusty body and frame panels within the car. This was near the end. I was working at a sheet metal shop part time, and just crafted a really terrible homemade “front” on the car as it was still drivable. 1″ pipe served as the bumper, though I’m not sure it was attached to much. In a few months I traded it on a new 67 VW, and they gave me $25 just to take it off my hands. Very generous.
Though I loved the VW (my first new car) it would swallow a valve and require a major engine overhaul at 40,000 miles (not an uncommon event, I learned, unless you adjusted the valves EVERY 1500 STONE COLD), which I would do thereafter. The beetle ran fine and I traded it on a used 1969 Saab 99 with my first-ever radial tires, freewheeling (I still miss it), and a Triumph engine. (Wow!! except for that last thing). But that’s another story.
🙂