It has a different wheelbase on the right and on the left: it is 4 cm shorter on one side than on the other. She is the “Quatrelle”, which we all know, about which we all talk, but about which we know nothing …
Everything has been said about this grandmother who, from the top of her sixty brooms, is one of the models the most important of the world automobile heritage.
However, many questions remain about it; what does the “L” of 4L mean? ; how many specials have been produced? ; who drew it? No answer.
At the time, no one clearly claimed this model; the “design department” was not yet a very clear concept, and the lines of the 4L were not at the heart of the concerns.
On the production side, the number of chassis produced was known, but not what we had positioned on it: no register allows for example to know precisely how many Plein Air models were produced.
Finally, no one today is able, with confidence, to specify whether the “L” of 4L (it was initially a more upscale version than the Renault 4) meant Luxury or Limousine.
What everyone is aware, however, is that this R4, officially called Renault 4 from 1965, has had incredible success.
8,135,424 models left factories in 28 countries, including France, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Ghana, Australia and Colombia, where the “Quatrelle” is considered a national car…
The Renault was produced much more than the Citroën 2CV (5.1 million units), the other tricolor icon.
But, while the “Deudeuche” was studied in the 1930s, at a time when France was a rural country, the R4 landed at the time of the exodus.
This migration, synonymous with new towns and suburbs, where public transport remains almost non-existent, change the game. The car is necessary.
And the evolution of the female share in the world of work contributes to an increase in income per household: the purchase of a car becomes possible.
Pierre Dreyfus, Renault boss since March 1955, passionate about sociology, directs his teams towards the design of a model that meets new needs.
From the start, the decision was made not to design a conventional profile, with a hood, interior and trunk. “So make me a volume”, He slips to Yves Gorges, director of the design office.
In his memory book, the Renault boss indicates that he asks his employees to create “a blue-jean car”.
Here are the specifications of the 4L …
That is to say, in his own words “a garment that can be worn in all circumstances, if one has no pretension to snobbery nor to social conformism. It’s a garment that provides you with all the services, that you drag everywhere, that is inexpensive and that you can replace without feeling disoriented ”.
What may seem banal today, with a two-body profile, is revolutionary for the time.
Renault does not even know what to name commercially its first front-wheel drive car, which looks a bit like a station wagon and has the first mass-produced hatchback, then called the “service door”.
Its trunk has a flat floor, like a minivan sill, and the ability to tilt the rear seat serves versatility.
Another novelty: no need to add water when going on vacation, including traffic jams. The sealed cooling circuit with expansion tank eliminates the risk of overheating.
Renault goes further, with the removal of lubrication points ; until now, during long journeys, we stopped to refuel … and grease. For example, kingpin mounts, steering rods, and some bearings required regular greasing.
But with the 4L, it’s over. This car is easy to use, puncture-proof, indestructible, very robust and versatile. In return, it remains quite minimalist, but nevertheless superior to what a 2CV offers, for an identical price.
Having become a symbol of freedom, the 4L has affected all populations over time. Like the blue jeans mentioned in the specifications.
It is the car of the administrations, the car of the priest, that of the neighbor and the teacher, that of the mayor, the EDF, the postman, the police car and the hippie car…
The production of the 4L stops.
1992: pollution standards ring end of career. The costs of keeping it in business are too high and sales are running out of steam. Production stops.
But the story continues, as much through the 4L Trophy, the most traveled car raid in the world, that by collectors or those who, even today, request their 4L on a daily basis.
There are even clubs of enthusiasts everywhere, as far as Japan, and countless books on the history and industrialization of this icon, which are full of anecdotes and various information.
This explains why the wheelbase is different on one side and the other: the transverse torsion bars of the rear suspension and the hydraulic shock absorbers positioned horizontally could not be installed face to face. They were therefore shifted, and the wheels with !
Reading documentations related to the French rondouillarde also allows to glimpse the multiple variations launched, with more or less success, of the versions. 4 × 4 helicopters designed for the army up to that of La Poste, whose door hinges were reinforced.
Initially called “the 350” at the start of the project, because of the expected sales price (350,000 francs maximum), the vehicle under development then benefits from another classification: this is the project 112.
At that time, it was not on computers that we designed a car; it is developed on the road.
It is the specialty of Louis Buty, director of tests, which will oversee all the road tests of the car, in North Africa, the United States, Guinea, in the desert but also in very cold places, far from cameras.
Buty, in Sardinia, at the very end of the tests, receives Pierre Dreyfus, who has come to test one of the last prototypes. Dreyfus drives, with Buty on the passenger side, and commits an “unforgivable lightness”, as he himself would say years later.
The Quatrelle race ends in the ravine, the car is in a bad state. We then decide to keep the accident silent, which occurred a few weeks before launch, despite injuries to both occupants and Buty’s swollen and sutured face.
The truth will be publicly restored a few years later, when Pierre Dreyfus, who has become Minister of Industry, awards his passenger the National Order of Merit.
An honorary title that the Renault 4 would also deserve, a French AND global phenomenon: around one in two models was sold for export.
At the wheel of the old ones …
Two trips, two models: to celebrate the sixty spring of the 4L, we do not blow the candles. But Renault allowed us to take back the controls of the French.
Choice number 1: a brilliant F4 version, in the colors of an imaginary Renault garage. The chubby, appeared in 1961, could carry 300 kg of load in its hold of almost 2 cubic meters.
Used by many craftsmen on five continents, this utility was also illustrated by its “La Poste” versions, vestiges of another time.
Ruled like clockwork and inhabited by the inimitable smell characteristic of a 4L interior, “Our” F4 allowed us to discover the origin of the term “nightingale”, qualifying the noise of furniture perceived inside the cars.
In this one, the sounds coming from the back part really sound like the song of a nightingale. For the rest, everything seems simple and essential, outdated but functional. And handling remains very honest.
Second test: the famous “Plein Air”, uncapped version less known than the Citroën Méhari, and yet much more convenient, especially with regard to the driving position.
Produced by Sinpar in very small series and in a single color, from May 1968 until April 1970, this featherweight convertible (590 kg) does without doors and has a half hatch.
Only a small chain is used to prevent occupants from tipping over in the ditches! In perfect condition, this 1969 model was bought in Canada by Renault, so it has a mileage counter.
The 4-speed gearbox is identical to that of the F4, with a first “down”, towards you. And this one-hour walk in the Vexin is a reminder of how pleasant the convertibles of yesteryear are.
And with 27 horsepower under the hood and a simple drum brake on each wheel, it is better to take the time to appreciate …
Small history of the automobile, by auto-moto.com:
A brief history of the car manufacturers involved in the Tour de France
Citroën Ami 6: the secret story
The Renault Clio is 30 years old: its history in pictures – Slideshow
