5k: Strange Brew: 1967 Renault R10
4-Nov-2013: The Renault R10 was a small boxy-styled 4-door sedan from the Frenchmen in the small town of Flins and Aubergenville, 40km outside of Paris, France. The R8/10 family was allegedly one of the first 4-door family cars to offer 4-wheel disc brakes and its rear-engine rear-drive setup is unique for the number of doors..but not its class. Not sure what the reality of driving an R10 is in modern traffic…but guaranteed you’d be the only one in the company parking lot. Find this 1967 Renault R10 for sale in Long Beach, CA for $4,900 via craigslist.
Update 12-Apr-2014: This Renault R10 is back on the market, now with updated pictures and much lower $2800 asking price.
You need to be a bit of a wierdo to have any vintage French automobile in your driveway – not just because they aren’t known for reliability/useability but also because they weren’t seen much when new and today are rarer than just about anything. A vintage R10 will probably require regular maintenance and constant fiddling, but it could be worse (see Lada, Gaz…etc)
The R10 used a 1.1 liter inline-4 cylinder watercooled engine that put out 50 horsepower into the rear wheels. The big competitor to the R10 was Volkswagen’s ubiquitous Beetle and the R10 shared a swing-axle rear end, engine placement, engine size…but was obliterated in sales numbers (in the US market) by the German car.
See a better boxy but good classic? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
"its rear-engine rear-drive setup is unique for the number of doors"
In the air cooled rear-engine rear-drive 4 doors camp we have
Corvair
VW type 4
Tucker
most Tatras
And in the water cooled rear-engine rear-drive 4 doors camp we have
Simca 1000
Renault Dauphine
Renault 8
Mazda Carol
Hino Contessa
Yeah but do any of those have a ram air snorkel ????
Tuckers were mid-engine, water-cooled flat sixes…
Definitely rear-engine, over the rear wheels.
And you can add the Tata Nano and a whole host of Skodas to the RR/water-cooled camp.
I actually bought one of these brand new in '67. Everyone was driving VWs and I wanted something different. It was! Water cooled so the heat and defroster actually worked. Very comfortable seats, 4 wheel disc brakes. Shifting was like stirring paint. Faster than a Beetle (barely).
40MPG when gas was 35 cents! Michelin X radials when no one ever heard of radials. Drove it for a few years. Sold it to a college kid and never saw it again, thankfully.