Hello and greetings from Australia,
My R4 involvement is a rather strange story of luck and chance and I seem to be a magnet to them! The R4 is a very rare beast in Australia and were only sold here from about 1962 to 1965 or 66. To buy one in those years in Australia you had to have strong personal resolve. The average Australian's motoring preferance was for a car with at least 6 cylinders and at least 3 litre capacity, front engine, rear wheel drive, cart spring (leaf) suspension, shapeless uncomfortable bench seats front and back and BIG. Consequently Holden and Ford dominated the market selling these cars that accellerated well but handled and braked poorly rode badly, were uncomfortable and despite their outside dimensions weren't that capacious inside. To buy other than these products was seen as unpatriotic. To buy an R4 you were seen as an anarchist (or at least a communist), or an intellectual, or of dubious sexual habits, or a wine(plonk) drinker (everyone drank beer in those days), or out of your mind or everything rolled into one! Consequently despite the brilliance of the Renault 4 design very few were sold and even fewer have survived.
I have always been fascinated by cars with in-line engines against the firewall driving forward to a gearbox in the nose that drives the front wheels. Cars with this layout have all been landmark designs;- i.e. the Traction Citroen, the Citroen DS, the Citroen SM, the Renault 4, the original Renault 5 and the Renault 16. I own 2 Citroen DSs and 2 Renault 16s so an R4 was really inevitable. I finally found one a bit over 2 years ago in reasonable condition and have slowly been getting it roadwothy;- it now has brakes and can stop! This car came with an additional completely rebuilt as new engine;- so when I was offered two more engineless R4s and a lot of other spare panels and parts for nothing;-I couldn't refuse! One of these vehicles is in quite good condition and will receive the rebuilt engine;- the aim being to get two vehicles back on the road. Interestingly all these vehicles were first registered in '64 or '65 but have the opening rear quarter windows which I believe were discontinued fairly early in the R4's production run. Either it took a long time to ship them out here or even longer to persuade someone here to buy one! As the R4s here got older they were sought after by owners of supercharged Austin 7 racers;- because with little modification the R4 conrod/bigends could be put into the Austins 7 and were much stronger and reliable than those in the Austin 7. That was the fate of the two engineless cars I have been given. My teenage son teated the R4 with derision when he first realized it had little more power than our ride-on mower;- but I may get the last laugh. Several of his young lady friends love the R4s;- so when I get one back on the road ;-I( at 53) may at last, indeed, be driving a "chick magnet"! Ah, dream dream!
Regards,
Peter
My R4 involvement is a rather strange story of luck and chance and I seem to be a magnet to them! The R4 is a very rare beast in Australia and were only sold here from about 1962 to 1965 or 66. To buy one in those years in Australia you had to have strong personal resolve. The average Australian's motoring preferance was for a car with at least 6 cylinders and at least 3 litre capacity, front engine, rear wheel drive, cart spring (leaf) suspension, shapeless uncomfortable bench seats front and back and BIG. Consequently Holden and Ford dominated the market selling these cars that accellerated well but handled and braked poorly rode badly, were uncomfortable and despite their outside dimensions weren't that capacious inside. To buy other than these products was seen as unpatriotic. To buy an R4 you were seen as an anarchist (or at least a communist), or an intellectual, or of dubious sexual habits, or a wine(plonk) drinker (everyone drank beer in those days), or out of your mind or everything rolled into one! Consequently despite the brilliance of the Renault 4 design very few were sold and even fewer have survived.
I have always been fascinated by cars with in-line engines against the firewall driving forward to a gearbox in the nose that drives the front wheels. Cars with this layout have all been landmark designs;- i.e. the Traction Citroen, the Citroen DS, the Citroen SM, the Renault 4, the original Renault 5 and the Renault 16. I own 2 Citroen DSs and 2 Renault 16s so an R4 was really inevitable. I finally found one a bit over 2 years ago in reasonable condition and have slowly been getting it roadwothy;- it now has brakes and can stop! This car came with an additional completely rebuilt as new engine;- so when I was offered two more engineless R4s and a lot of other spare panels and parts for nothing;-I couldn't refuse! One of these vehicles is in quite good condition and will receive the rebuilt engine;- the aim being to get two vehicles back on the road. Interestingly all these vehicles were first registered in '64 or '65 but have the opening rear quarter windows which I believe were discontinued fairly early in the R4's production run. Either it took a long time to ship them out here or even longer to persuade someone here to buy one! As the R4s here got older they were sought after by owners of supercharged Austin 7 racers;- because with little modification the R4 conrod/bigends could be put into the Austins 7 and were much stronger and reliable than those in the Austin 7. That was the fate of the two engineless cars I have been given. My teenage son teated the R4 with derision when he first realized it had little more power than our ride-on mower;- but I may get the last laugh. Several of his young lady friends love the R4s;- so when I get one back on the road ;-I( at 53) may at last, indeed, be driving a "chick magnet"! Ah, dream dream!
Regards,
Peter
