Renault Dauphine

Renault officially revealed the model's existence to the press through L’Auto Journal and L’Action Automobile et Touristique in November 1955, referring to it simply by its unofficial model designation "the 5CV".

Advance press preview testing began on February 4, 1956, under the direction of Renault press secretary Robert Sicot, with six Dauphines shipped to Corsica. Journalists were free to drive anywhere on the island, while under contract not to release publication before the embargo date of March 1, 1956.[18]

The Dauphine debuted on March 6, 1956[13][19] at Paris' Palais de Chaillot[13] with over twenty thousand people attending,[13] two days before its official introduction at the 1956 Salon International de l'Auto in Geneva.[20]

In addition to its internal project number, Project 109, the prototype had been called by its unofficial model designation, the "5CV".[15] Lefaucheux, Renault's chairman, often simply called it La machine de Flins (the Flins machine),[15] referring to the Flins factory where Renault would ultimately initiate its production (and which would later be named in Lefaucheux's honor).

Renault considered the name Corvette[21] for its new model, but to avoid a conflict with the recently launched Chevrolet Corvette[22] instead chose a name that reinforced the importance of the project's predecessor, the 4CV, to France's postwar industrial rebirth.

The final name was attributed to a dinner conversation at l'auberge de Port-Royal, chaired by Fernand Picard, where either Jean-Richard Deshaies or Marcel Wiriath said "the 4CV is the Queen of the road, the new arrival can only be the Dauphine.[15] Dauphine is the feminine form of the French feudal title of Dauphin, the heir apparent to the throne.

Ironically, both Robert Opron and Flaminio Bertoni of Citroën had wanted to name the Citroën Ami 6 the Dauphine, though by that time, Renault had registered the name.

The Dauphine used a version of the 4CV's water-cooled Ventoux engine with capacity increased from 760 cc to 845 cc, and power increased from 19–32 hp (14–24 kW). According to Road & Track, the Dauphine accelerated from 0–110 km/h (0–68 mph) in 32 seconds. Engine cooling was facilitated by air intakes behind each rear door and a vented rear fascia.

Heavier and 12 in (300 mm) longer than its predecessor, the 4-door body featured monocoque construction with "a pair of perimeter-shaped longitudinal box sections and substantial cross-bracing",[19] but without the 4CV's rear-hinged suicide doors.

Swing axle suspension characteristics: :
camber change on bumps, jacking on rebound

• Transmissions: Renault offered a three-speed manual transmission for the Dauphine, with synchronizers on 2nd and 3rd gear. In October 1961 synchromesh was provided for the 1st gear.[23]

There was also the option of a semi-automatic transmission - in effect, a manual transmission coupled to dry clutch that engaged and disengaged by touching the gearshift – beginning in 1957 with an electromagnetically-operated Ferlec clutch and no separate clutch pedal – similar to Volkswagen's Autostick.[19] Beginning in 1963, the Dauphine could be had with the three-speed transmission with electro-mechanical control, developed by Jaeger, which functioned as a "fully-automatic" transmission. Renault's "automatic transmission" was controlled by five dash-mounted push-buttons: R-N-D-2-1. A Renault advertisement at the time said "out went the stick, in went the push-buttons – and in stayed the zip, the fun, the economy (35-40 miles a gallon isn't unusual). That's because the only difference between our shift and shiftless cars is this: an electronic control unit on our pushbutton model shifts the gears for you, automatically."[24]

Drive layout

• Suspension: Front suspension was conventional coil-spring/wishbone layout with an anti-roll bar and rack-and-pinion steering, on a detachable front cross member. Rear suspension was a high-pivot swing axle with concentric coil-spring/telescopic dampers sitting atop the swing tubes which Renault called trumpet casings. With the exception of the trunnion arms in the transaxle housing, there was no fore-aft 'location' of the rear suspension.[19] The pressed engine/transaxle/suspension mounting member was detachable from the main body structure.[19] 61 percent of the Dauphine's weight was carried by the rear wheels.[19]

The rear swing axle design, unless ameliorated by any of several options, can allow rear tires to undergo large camber changes during fast cornering, leading to oversteer – a dynamically unstable condition in which a vehicle can lose control and spin. Renault relied on a front anti-roll bar as well as tire pressure differential to eliminate oversteer characteristics – low front and high rear tire pressure — and induce understeer. The tire pressure differential strategy offered the disadvantage that owners and mechanics could inadvertently but easily re-introduce oversteer characteristics by over-inflating the front tires. In the United States, drivers (and General Motors) experienced virtually the same issues with the Chevrolet Corvair. In 1960 Renault revised the suspension with the addition of extra rubber springs up front and auxiliary air spring units (mounted inboard of the conventional coils) at the rear – marketing the system as Aerostable[19] – and giving the rear wheels a small degree of negative camber and increased cornering grip.[19]

• Engine configuration: Speaking about the Dauphine's rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, Renault's Fernand Picard said in a paper he delivered in 1957 that the car was part of a rear-engine trend led by Volkswagen, Fiat and Renault whereby the rear drive/rear engine configuration had increased from 2.6 percent of continental western Europe's car production in 1946 to 26.6 percent in 1956.[25] The United Kingdom auto industry, which had also managed largely to avoid the front-engine/front-wheel drive trend of the 1930s, was excluded from Picard's figures.[25]

The Dauphine used a three-box design of the ponton genre,[26] with cargo volume forward and engine volume rearward.

Overall, Dauphine styling was a scaled down version of the Renault Frégate,[22] itself a classic three-box design of the ponton genre. Renault received styling assistance for the Dauphine at the request of Lefaucheux in June 1953 from Luigi Segre of Carrozzeria Ghia, especially with integrating the engine's air intake at the rear doors.[15]

The Dauphine had a front-hinged trunklid, which housed the headlights and opened to a seven-cubic-foot trunk.[19] The spare tire was carried horizontally under the front of the car, behind an openable panel below the bumper.

The interior featured adjustable front bucket seats and a rear bench seat, a heater, painted dash matching the exterior, twin courtesy lamps, a white steering wheel,[22] rear bypassing (vs. roll down) windows, twin horns (town and country) selectable by the driver and twin open bins on the dashboard in lieu of gloveboxes. Exterior finishes included a range of pastel colors.[22]

Subsequent to its introduction, and as a promotion for both companies (and an early instance of co-branding), Renault worked with Jacques Arpels of the prominent jewelers Van Cleef and Arpels to turn a Dauphine dashboard into a work of art.[27]

In 1950, the president of General Motors (GM) had visited Renault, noting the cars' drab colors, inside and out.[16] According to their own 1951 Survey, Renault's studies had shown that women held stronger opinions on the colors of a car than the actual choice of a particular model.[16] Coincidentally, well-known Parisian textile artist Paule Marrot (1902–1987) had written to Renault's chairman, Lefaucheux,[15] giving her opinion that the cars of postwar Paris were a uniformly somber parade, and wondering whether an artist could not help find fresh, vibrant colors.[16]

Marrot had attended Paris' prestigious L’école des Arts Décoratifs, had won a gold medal in 1925 at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes and had received a 1928 Prix Blumenthal.[15]

Convinced of her value to the project, Pierre Lefaucheux made her a member of the Dauphine team — "to rid Renault of their stuffy image. After decades of being dipped in various shades of black and grey, car bodies [would be] painted in happy pastels."[27]

Working with four others and after setting up a new test laboratory to measure fabric wear as well as paint wear and uniformity, Marrot proposed new body and interior colors. The new paint colors contrasted with those from the competition, the Peugeot 203 and Simca Aronde, including bright colors with names such as Rouge Montijo, Jaune Bahamas, Bleu Hoggar and Blanc Réja.[15] Marrot and her team then developed complementary interior fabrics for the seats and door panels, turning to Paris' large textile houses.[15] Marrot also designed the Dauphine's emblem of three dolphins over a crown,[27] which adorned the Dauphine's steering wheel and hood throughout its production.[15]

Later in life, Marrot went on to win the French Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor),[28] and Marrot's textiles were later licensed by companies as diverse as Nike and Hayden-Harnett.[28]

In 1966 a Renault press statement said Dauphine production passed the million mark in just four years – more quickly than any other car manufactured in Europe.[45]

In the United Kingdom, the Dauphine was one of the first imported cars to sell in large numbers, in a market formerly dominated by British manufacturers and local subsidiaries of American manufacturers.

A total of 2,150,738 Dauphines were produced in its production run of 10 years.[32]

A 1958 Time article said: "The car that has come up fastest in the US market in the past year is Renault's Dauphine. A snub-nosed 32-hp Sedan, it is low-priced, economical and small enough to shoehorn into a small parking space."[22] The same article said "The Dauphine is already outselling Volkswagen in eleven U.S. states, including Texas. So brisk is demand that Renault and the French Line have formed a new shipping company CAT (Compagnie d'Affrètement et de Transport).[46] with six freighters that ferry up to 1,060 Dauphines each across the Atlantic. To serve the U.S. buyer, Renault in just 18 months has also built a nationwide network of 16 U.S. distributors and 410 dealers."[47] In 1959 survey, 85.4% of users rated the car as excellent, and only 0.7% as poor, while only 5.4% experienced a breakdown.[48] By that time it was second most popular imported car after Volkswagen, which apart from having only two doors, offered slightly worse economy and manoeuvrability.[48]

After initial success in the U.S. market, the Dauphine began to suffer.[49] An internal agent, Bernard Hanon (who would later become chairman of Renault),[50] conducted a thorough market study that signaled trouble, and sent his report to the director of Renault Inc. in New York.[49] The director filed the report away without acting on it; it was found years later by envoys from corporate headquarters in Billancourt. The damage had already been done; thousands of unordered Dauphines sat at ports worldwide, decaying. The damage to Renault was immense;[49] and the company faced the first serious crisis in its history.[46]

By October 1960 a slump had hit imported cars in the US. Time reported that "In August the U.S. imported 50% fewer French cars than in July, and for the first six months of the year imports ran 33% below the rate for the same period in 1959. Two ships loaded with Renault Dauphines were turned back in mid-Atlantic because the docks in New York were already overcrowded with unsold Dauphines."[51]

In the U.S., Renault sold 28,000 Dauphines in 1957, 57,000 in 1958 and 102,000 in 1959[13] — falling to 12,106 by 1966.[19]

This Renault Dauphine at the top of the Continental Divide, in Colorado, US in August, 1964

A 2008 retrospective article in The Independent said "as soon as the US market had come to grips with the Dauphine's swing-axle manners and useless acceleration, they were pole-axed by its abysmal corrosion record. It would take only one New York winter of driving on salt-strewn roads to give a Dauphine front wings that resembled net curtains."[22]

In 1967, in debut U.S. magazine advertising for the Dauphine's successor, the Renault 8, Renault said: "Our [earlier] cars were not fully prepared to meet the demands of America ... More than a fair share of things went wrong with our cars. Less than a fair share of our dealers were equipped to deal with what went wrong," describing the Dauphine's replacement as "The Renault for people who swore they would never buy another one."[19]

In a 2000 survey, Car Talk named the Dauphine the 9th Worst Car Of The Millennium, calling it "truly unencumbered by the engineering process"[52] — albeit in a survey where Tom Magliozzi called the voters "a self-selecting bunch of wackos, most of whom are really aggravated by a bad experience with one of the cars".[53]

In 2007, Time with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dan Neil named the Dauphine one of the 50 Worst Cars of All Time, calling it "the most ineffective bit of French engineering since the Maginot Line" and saying that it could actually be heard rusting.[21]