September 2010 44 Pages Draft.pdf - Renault Owners Club Forum

C L A s s I C - A N N I V E R s A R I E s - C o L o R A L EColorale 60 th Anniversary2010 sees the 60th anniversary ofthe launch of one of Renault’s leastknown range of models – certainlyas far as anglophone markets areconcerned – the Colorale family. Indeed,there is some confusion about its propernomenclature. ‘Colorale’ (an amalgamationof ‘Coloniale’ and ‘Rurale’, which is selfexplanatory)is the range’s family name(surname) and ‘Prairie’, ‘Savane’, ‘Taxi’and others are the model names(given/Christian names, as it were). Bychance, the range might have been named‘Pastorale’ or ‘Tropicale’, but the eventualchoice of ‘Colorale’ had a pleasant ring anda tenuous sound association with theAmerican world ‘corral’ (an enclosure intowhich [generally] cattle are herded), whichis a tangental compliment to the vehicle’sorganic ancestor, the station wagon of theAmerican mid West farming way of life.History records that there were twopassionately defended faiths espoused by,on the one hand, the Louis Renault-reared‘old guard’ and, on the other, the moreopen-minded, state-appointed ‘youngsters’of the newly-created RNUR (RégieNationale des Usines Renault), of whichPDG Pierre Lefaucheux was the primeexample, over the commercial viability ofthe Colorale range. Those managers, whohad served under the authoritarian Masterof Billancourt (and, indeed, many of theremaining pre-war Renault sales agents,too) were heavily influenced by theunequalled and extensive pre-war Renaultmodel range, which allowed them to offer aRenault model to virtually any possibletype of customer, and they were unable (ordid not want) to countenance making andselling a very narrow range ofcomparatively inexpensive vehicles, whichwas, in reality, all that the majority of animpoverished and war-weary general pubiccould afford at the time.Briefly, Pierre Lefaucheux decided to gofor broke with the 4CV and the rest, as theysay, is history. However, he was not totallyblind to the dangers of a ‘monomarque’culture (which later very nearly scupperedVolkswagen and its Beetle) and he wasaware that the RNUR neither offered a carto Renault’s pre-war rural customers stillcruising around in their ancient andunburstable Vivaquatres and Novaquatresnor to business and trades people, forwhom the 300kg Juvaquatre-based van wastoo small and the 1000kg asthmatic butindestructible van was too big. There was,indeed, room for something in between butwas it a viable market for the newlyfoundedRNUR?The ‘old guard’ believed that there wassuch a market and, championed by AlbertGrandjean and Gilbert Lescoat from thecompany’s inner circle, it was suggested, asfar back as 1946, that a ‘station wagon’-type vehicle should be studied, using amaximum of bits from the extensiveRenault spare parts bin tominimise investment costs.The appearance of theoriginalprototypewas verysimilar to thecontemporaryPlymouth, with‘woodie’ (called‘canadienne’ in French)bodywork. PierreDreyfus, who was tobecome PDG of the RNURupon Pierre Lefaucheux’untimely death in 1955, was one ofthose vigorously opposed to theproject as being non-viable andWoodiebackward-looking, not to mention thatdevelopment resources would be divertedaway from essential work needed toaddress the urgent necessity of developinga larger saloon, that is to say the thencurrent rear-engined Project 108. This wasaborted, late in the day, in favour of theFrégate range - also to be ultimatelydisappointing. However, his fears wereoverruled by the commercial arguments putforward by the Colorale’s supporters.The necessity to minimise unwarranteddevelopment costs led to the adoption ofthe pre-war, indestructible ‘85’ (from its85mm bore). This was a fainthearted petrolengine first seen in the 1936 Primaquatre,which every mechanic in France couldoverhaul blindfolded, and of which wellover a quarter of a million exampleshad been manufactured thitherto.Likewise, the choice of thesturdy, but heavy, chassis ofthe 1000kg smallcommercial would ensuresolidity, as would thesemi-ellipticallysprung one-pieceaxles front andrear. The latterwere assisted byJ. -A Gregoire’svariable flexibilitycorrectors for tropical markets.For the body design, Renault tookadvantage of the pertinent expertise of14 R E N o T E s m A G A Z I N ER E N O T E S M A G A Z I N E