RENAULT CAR – year 1898

Manufacturer: Louis Renault, Billancourt, France.

Louis Renault built in 1898 r. your first car. When he rebuilt de Dion's small tricycle into a four-wheeled Voituretta, had 21 years. It replaced the belts and noisy chains used until then with a gearbox with a novelty, with three forward and one reverse gears. On the third, direct gear, the driving force was transferred to the rear axle differential via the universal drive shaft. This system has spread to other cars as well and is still used in a little changed form. Renault's first car had a water-cooled single-cylinder engine from de Dion-Bouton. With cylinder diameter 66 mm and the piston stroke 80 mm reached displacement 273 cm3. The engine in the front of the car developed power 1,3 kW (1,75 KM). Voiturett weighing only 350 kg developed maximum speed with a load of two people 32 km/h, a-N-A 100 km it only used 6 liters of fuel.

Immediately after demonstrating his car to a circle of friends, Louis Renault received twelve orders for it (most were prepaid). In order to achieve them, he had to establish a larger company. Thus, in 1899 r. The Societe Renault Freres company was established in cooperation with the brothers Marcel and Fernando. In the same year, the company released 72 copies of the world's first closed-body saloon, so-called. Renault Coupe. W 1900r. the second model of the Renault brothers with a more powerful engine appeared - 2,6 kW (3,5 KM). The engines were still supplied by de Dion-Bouton.

Two years later, the Renault brothers began producing engines of their own design. Creator of the new, water-cooled 2- and 4-cylinder engines was Monsieur M. Viet, former designer of de Dion-Bouton. Renaults from this period had two coolers, located on the sides of the car bonnet.