Returning from a holiday lunch at my mom’s (it’s Passover here in Israel), I took my favorite toll-road route. It’s fast, wide and because it costs money, most people don’t use it so holiday traffic is much more scarce than on regular roads. The downside is not seeing many CCs on it, maybe it’s the rapid movement of traffic that doesn’t suit old cars. But sometimes you stumble upon exceptions, such as this in-your-face-yellow Renault 4.
Its driver wasn’t hanging about either. I was doing around 125 Kph, and it took me a while to catch up to this Renault, as you’ll see in the video. Naturally, once caught, I slowed down to about 110 Kph and captured the 4GTL:
I love the Hot Rod look- high at the back and low at the front, as most of these 4s usually were. Although it must be said this particular car seems very exaggerated- it looks as though the front sunk a little more than it should.
This car is a 1984 model, the last year 4s were imported into Israel. It was, after all, very long in the tooth by then, and (for several years) imported alongside its replacement, the Renault 5. Not surprising, as it was a true sales’ hit in Israel, no doubt spurred on by the IDF’s chosen Majors’ vehicle for many years. It was part of what we used to call “white rides”, meaning these were cars meant to transport officers to-and-from their command posts in large bases, and not used in the field (“brown rides”). Although as you may well know, these little Renaults were capable of driving almost anywhere. I entered my service duty in 1990, and there were still Military R4s in service, always in white. I can vividly remember hitching a ride in one of these, a Major stopping at the bus stop I was waiting in and offering a ride. Already back then it was to me like something out of the dark ages- not surprising since it was originally introduced in 1961. And don’t forget- in 1990 the “white rides” were much more modern by then, in the shape of the Renault 5 and Peugeot 205.
But they were still holding on, those 4s. Here are some photos I shot in various places and times, most at classic car meetings:
Really early ones of the first series (1961-1967) are no longer to be found in Israel. This is the closest you’ll get- a series two car, built during 1967-1974. This was when Renault started calling the car Renault 4L and not R4.
After 1974, The 4 received another facelift, which more-or-less stayed with it until end of production. This is a similar car to the yellow 4 in the video, also a GTL (same car in both photos above- the owner painted the red wheels silver). GTLs were introduced after 1978, had a 1.1 liter engine (larger than the 845cc unit of the previous 4L), and of course had upgraded interior and exterior details, such as a new grill, plastic side moldings (clearly visible here) and more.
There was also a panel-van, called Fourgonette. Pictured here in 4L version, these were the first 4s to receive the 1.1 liter unit, later installed in the GTL above. Amazing to think how popular they were, and how few have survived.
And maybe, the whole preservation story ends the same; a stubborn owner who runs his classic to the ground. once a proud and shiny classic car, now sad and neglected CC rotting away. I can remember this particular 4L when I first saw it parked while on my run. It was as good as that red wheeled 4GTL above. But it never moved nor covered, and in a space of three years it has downgraded into this. Inside, it was even worse: someone broke the left rear-side window, so most of the area’s cats made the interior their home. And to top it all, after about two years of neglect the owner had the stupidity to hang up this cardboard sign, well after the car has deteriorated:
“This vehicle belongs to Miri (phone no’). Do not touch!”
I mean, really? You put up this sign after you’ve neglected the car all by yourself? Furthermore, I’ve had reports from my friends at the classic commune that people tried to buy this 4 from the owner, practically begged to save this car from the elements. But She wouldn’t hear nothing of it. Anyway, after five years in total, the car was gone- who knows, maybe someone saved it after all.
And yes, it was most certainly the first modern hatchback. Read more of this lovely French icon in PN’s post here.
I worked on a farm where the owner was a bit of an eccentric. Large farm, he could afford anything he wanted, but he had an old Renault 4 as his main vehicle. He also had an old Landie, but for most of the day-to-day bumping along farm tracks with farm stuff in the back, this was what he used. Never had any serious maintenance, but it carried on for many years, decrepit but never quite broken.
I gotta say there YOHAI71, I really like the music that always seems to accompany your dash-cam videos.
Nice write up too, as always. ;o)
Im sorry, but as an European experiencing these in the flesh in its heyday, I have zero enthusiasm for these. If “good riddance” was ever appropriate for any car on CC, this must be it.
Makes the sad Morris Marina seem downright luxurious and desirable.
That’s a bit harsh. Of course, this is an economy car designed in he early 60s and it shows.
On the other hand, it has loads of charm and the shifter position is super cool.
Fun fact: you can drive one of these on a dirt road at cca 80 km/h with no issues. In 2nd gear.
Source: me in cca 1993, driving my father’s 1984 R4 GTL. I think I haven’t yet told him about this 🙂
I may be a “fun” car as an exercise in comparison of simplicity and being “different” compared to newer cars. But its hardly any fun if this is your rusty beat up dented daily driver for 10 years, because you can’t afford any better.
Being a world’s third best-selling vehicle after the Volkswagen Beetle and Ford Model T (not counting Toyota Corolla here because it was not the same car during production run), with official figure of 8,135,424 cars produced, it must have certain quality. And yes, it was fun to drive, i can testify for that. One of my friends used to drive it on twisty roads and streets at such insane tempo that I sweared that I will never sit in the car again with him (imagine the crazy nun in the “Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez”
– that level of crazyness). Luckily for him, he never had an accident with that car, because (of course), being designed in the 50’s, dont have much crash protection.
Interesting stance of the R4 in your video. However, I prefer stock suspension height. This yellow example looks like a wasp on meth.
“Amazing to think how popular they were, and how few have survived.” – indeed, the R4 are notoriously rust-prone, although I would expect more would survive in the warm dry climate of Israel where you probably don’t salt the roads in the winter…
Here in Slovenia these cars were very popular (no doubt also because they were license built here) and they were everywhere, but nowadays a R4 is a very rare sight, very few examples have survived.
Love it! Brings back a lot of memories because it was our first family car, 1971 forest green. Dad purchased another one in orange color. Everyone liked the green one better. I still think they were the better choice in the alternative R4 or 2CV. Today though 2CV seem to find more enthusiasts who take care of them.
Hopefully the white one falls into caring hands some time.
Yohai: I too like the music you add to the videos. Could you let us know the artists and titles?
I cannot believe these made it into 1984. Per wikipedia, it ran from 1961-1992 That is crazy. Were these really sold alongside the R5s and R9/11s? Obviously it’s a cousin to the Citroen 2CV so I’m guessing it was cheap and rugged but I think I’d rather do something more modern. It certainly is practical, and oddly styled, and has a cheap utilitarian look. A little too utilitarian and cheap for me though. It is a reminder that Renault sent us in America their BEST cars.
R4 and R5 were contemporaries. The big difference was the number of doors: The R5 was only available with 2 doors and hatch, the R4 was only available as 4 door and hatch. By the way the hatch went all the way to the floor so there was no lift over. The R5 gave up some of these practicalities.
The overlapped some, but the R4 (1961) came out eleven years before the R5 (1972), and the R5 did get four doors starting in 1979, but that was not sold in the US. The R5 was priced to be a distinct step up from the R4; they did not compete directly.
The four-door LeCar (5) was sold in the US. (see ad from Alden Jewell’s collection on Flickr below) but if the R4 was offered here it was in the early ’60s before their first withdrawal from the market.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/autohistorian/5091096431/sizes/l
The r4 was never sold here afaik
The first gen R5 also enjoyed a hatch that opened nearly flush with the cargo floor. Some nice design elements in my R5, With my GLC and Civic, I always had to plan ahead and leave the flimsy molded cargo area cover home when I was going to be carrying something tall or folding the back seat down for a long load as there were no easy means of stowing the cover in the car. The R5’s cargo area cover was a flat piece of plywood, piano hinged to the back of the back seat. I could fold the cover down flat against the seat back for tall loads, or flip the seat forward with the cover flat on top of it for long loads.
As to the R4’s stance, yup, those front torsion bars have seen better days. Maybe one is broken?
The way the powertrain is set in the R4/5, with the trans in front and half the engine tucked up under the cowl, I have always suspected the powertrain was yanked from the back of an R8/10 and welded in front with no accommodation for it’s change of location, other than the dash mounted shifter, presumably so the shifter rod could reach over the engine as in a Cord L29. US spec R5s received a less than precise floor shifter instead.
To add to the pantheon of R5 mutations, the big butt R7 produced by Renault’s Spanish affiliate.
I highly doubt, Renault sent the US, it’s best cars…More like the opposite.
I don’t recall, seeing any Renault R5 Turbos, Renault Clio Turbo Rallys or Alpine A110s, at my local AMC dealers back in the day. 🙁
Hot rod look? You need to lay off the Lebanese happy smoke. Its designed to carry a load and will sit level when laden.
You’re the one that needs to lay off the NZ happy smoke (and that goes for more than just this comment). There’s no doubt that this R4 is sitting lower on its front wheels, and higher on its rears than a stock R4. Compare it to any of the other R4 pics in this post or from any others. It clearly has been modified to accentuate the tail-high look.
You’re the one that needs to lay off the NZ happy smoke (and that goes for more than just this comment). There’s no doubt that this R4 is sitting lower on its front wheels, and higher on its rears than a stock R4. Compare it to any of the other R4 pics in this post or from any others. It clearly has been modified to accentuate the tail-high look.
Suspension is torsion bars, so it is relatively easy to adjust the ride height – you just have to remember to change both sides by the same amount.
Yes! I’m not sure of the exact details on Renault’s torsion bar design, on 80’s VWs with torsion bar rear suspension you need to remember to mark the threads on the long bolts that tension the suspension so as to replace everything correctly- if you don’t the results can be….unexpected.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who notices the interesting stance of the yellow example in Yohai’s video.
Because that takes the “California Rake” look, to a whole new level. 😛
Putting aside the pointless argument over whether this is “the original hatchback” – or Kaiser-Frazer Vagabond – or the DeSoto Suburban – or the Citroën Traction Avant Commerciale – I’ve always wondered why this body style wasn’t stumbled upon much, much sooner in the evolution of the automobile.
I’ve owned several, and if you count crossovers you could easily say that hatchbacks comprise the majority of cars that I’ve owned. Just my opinion, but the slight increase in weight and noise is more than offset by the additional utility. I have no idea why they’ve fallen out of favor in the US, unless of course it’s the popularity of crossovers (which, as I’ve stated earlier, actually ARE said to be hatchbacks by some).
I think it gets my vote, after all its a full height hatch; I think the rear seat folds down and may well be very readily removed too.
The British Austin A40 is another contender; I was about to say that it’s tailgate was split so it doesn’t really count but now I’ve seen photos with a single piece so I’m not really sure.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an R4 in the US but I’ve had one experience with them. In 1984 I visited some old family friends in the U.K.; one of them offered me a tour of southern England (Surrey to Brighton and back), along with her sister. I had a rental car (Opel Corsa 3 door hatch) but she insisted on driving; as the local, and the host, it was probably appropriate, but I recall her R4 as feeling seriously agricultural for a passenger. Of course, on that same trip I had seen R4’s bouncing across fields in France, stuffed with goats, so that wasn’t a surprise. 33 years later I’m happy to tell the story, but at the time I would have much preferred being in the modern Opel.
https://youtu.be/xDkZWHKvVEA
I wouldn’t want to be a crash dummy in one of these. Yikes.
Seeing the way these idiots abuse them, no wonder, they’re so scarce.
Not merely fugly or funky or weird, it’s just plain UgLEE!
These cars had concave-lens headlamps made by Cibié. Seems Renault did some bogus “research” concluding that a concave headlamp lens face was aerodynamically preferable in that dirt and bugs would be less likely to adhere to the lens and rock hits would be less likely. Um, yeah, that’s not how any of this works. Nevertheless, Renault were one of Cibié’s biggest customers, and so Cibié dutifully churned out a bazillion units of a bazillion variants of concave-lens headlamps and auxiliary lamps for Renault and universal-fit use. Photo attached shows the version they made that fits in place of American 7″ round sealed beams.
Anyone else remember the R4 in “Romancing the Stone”?
I also remember seeing small levers right beside the headlamps so they can be vertically adjusted. I’ve always wanted to drive one of these Renault 4’s and my wish is to eventually import one to California. Right now I make do with a 1/18 scale blue Gendarmerie version by Solido on my desk.
That lever is to point the lamps way down when driving on the other side of the English Channel. You don’t get to see where you’re going, but your front bumper is nicely illuminated and oncoming drivers are spared from pretending to have been “glared” by the feeble headlamps aimed far too low even without the use of the lever.
I thought the reason behind the adjustable headlights is to be able to compensate for the headlight beams pointing upward when the car is fully loaded. UK drivers can get a pair of trapezoidal stickers at Halfords and affix them to the lower part of their headlamps to prevent glare to oncoming drivers when driving on the continent. I don’t know if such stickers are available to continental drivers driving in the UK/Ireland.
Oh, yes, thanks, sorry—I write about headlamps all day long, but I really shouldn’t do it when I’m nearly 3 hours overdue to eat lunch! Yes, the lever near the headlamp on the 4 is for load compensation.
(those stickers remove the hot spot and upkick from the top of the low beam, turning it into basically a fog lamp…driver doesn’t have enough seeing distance for more than about 45 km/h, but exaggerated glare complaints are avoided)
We used to get these in Australia, but only the early ones with the separate headlights and grille. I used to pass one on the way to school every day. All the ones I remember were in a strange pinkish-beige. As a kid I thought they looked weird. By the time I started buying car magazines in 1968, they were no longer listed as available.
IIRC the headlight aim in these is easily adjustable, though I have to wonder what that extreme rake would do for front-end alignment.
I used a borrowed 4 van in the UK during my student days and I have fond memories of it; it was reliable, could go round corners a lot faster than you’d expect it and was not too bad performance wise (I could cruise on the motorway at the 70MPH speed limit all day and id did not seem strained). Plus it had all that space in the back for my tools and car parts (I was working on cars part time to pay for my study fees). The secret to enjoying an R4 is understanding what the brief was when it was designed, and there’s a lot to be said for what I term as an “honest car” – it does not pretend to be something it is not. Accept it for what it is and it is actually very good (in my view, a better 2CV, if one could say that).
There are still plenty of these on the road in France – although they are now mostly cherished examples – beat-up R4’s full of farmer, his dog and hay bales etc have all but disappeared from France’s country roads – there are a lot of new Dacia cars fulfilling that role as well as 4×4’s and pick-up trucks – all of which were a rarer sight even 10 years ago.
The first hatchback – I’m voting for the 1958-67 Austin A40 Countryman version, designed by Pininfarina – although it did have a split tailgate of course.
Right, @Turtle! When I was a poor student in the Netherlands in the early seventies, a slightly rusty late-sixties R4 became my second car. My first car had been an even older Fiat 500 (a really old one, still with suicide doors).
The tiny egg-shaped back-engine Fiat surely had been great fun to drive, but the boxy FWD five-door R4 offered a much more creative and practical (even comfortable) design, and slow as it was, it still proved faster than the Fiat while its running costs where hardly more.
In the conditions back then, that R4 was a really cheap but perfect compromise: fit for all kinds of city errands, for carrying bulky loads, for adventurous cross-country tracks and camping, and even capable (just) of carrying four people with their luggage (slowly) over German Autobahns to Italy. The latter I could never have done with the Fiat!
Once in a while I still see a R4 on the road here, they’ve become true collectors items now. I wouldn’t mind having one as my third car today, preferably the version with a big canvas sunroof…
Mine was an 1100 which I don’t believe existed in the early 70s and those extra ccs made a big difference. An R4 would still make a good town vehicle even today.
I still remember the French Master at school buying a white R4 in 1961. This was the base version, 750cc, three speeds, and no rear quarter-windows. It was a real oddity at the time.
I would forgive the 4 anything, except the way they would disintegrate with rust.
I drove an R4 van a few times, and remember the funny gear-change. Because it was originally a three-speed box, reverse was opposite first, so when they added a fourth gear it was tacked on the end where you expected fifth to be.
Thanks for all you comments, they’re greatly appreciated. 🙂
As for “the original hatchback”- it’s true I wrote this in the headline. But at the end of the post I also wrote it was the “first modern hatchback”, i.e. the forefather of all hatchbacks around. Just look at the R4: it has the classic two-box shape (engine & passenger areas), has four side doors and most importantly- a true, bona fide rear door = tail-gate.
Not like an Alfasud or an Austin allegro which had a fixed rear window (I think it was a deadly sin introducing those cars to the public like that, once you’ve had the R4 or even the bigger R16 show the way. What’s the point of having hatchback shaped cars, particularly mass produced family cars, and not use that shape to its full advantage?)
Well, leave it to the Germans to figure it out. We all know the Golf.
As for the soundtrack; I used to leave whatever sound the dash-cam was recording, but found out it wasn’t always acceptable in terms of audio quality, wasn’t interesting to listen too (just talk), or wouldn’t sit right with me slowing down / speeding up the video in editing. I couldn’t just attach my favorite artists because of YouTube’s copyright rules. So eventually I just pick a number that sounds right to me from YouTube’s free MP3 library. Those are short and meant to accompany videos such as mine.
This particular piece is called “Blakey’s Burnout” and is by John Deley. More here: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music
As for Lebanese happy smoke- well, let me see about finding some…
“Anyone else remember the R4 in “Romancing the Stone”?”
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~ My first thought on seeing this was Danny De Vito bouncing across some field in one .
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-Nate
One if the best cars ever made, made Europe mobile in a practical way, if you’d compare this to the Beetle or the 2CV, this was lightyears ahead, so many lightyears ahead it did create a whole new concept we now call the hatchback and it 4 cylinder 850 cc liquid cooled engine was revolutionary, the first car with an enclosed cololing system and no grease point any more.
France’s most produced car people bought one, ran it into the gorund, went off and bought another one.
Ita spritual successor of having a transport means for people and cargo came in 1992 in the form of Renault’s Twingo I, as brilliant as its mother.
Operation Soraya, the introduction of the Renault 4 in 1961 to the French dealers, a Renault factory film unfortunately only French spoken.
This car was a giant step forward for Renault, who became market leader in innovation with the Renault 4, before this they made rather safe dull cars like the Dauphine and the not much loved Frégate series.
This little car put them on the map and made Reanult a company with lots of innovative cars.