Renault in Australia: The Useless Info File

[JohnW]

Simon, thank you muchly.
It is adr spec 761.
Did these cars get a compliance plate fitted?
Mine does not have one. An orange 17G type 1317, spent 1978 to 1994 in Sydney before i got it.
Propose we start a list of tt rego numbers used. Open to Peugeot and Renault. Start with mine.
5663TT92 from 11/6/1975 to 31/5/1976. Then uk MOP390P 2/6/1976 to 6/10/1978.
I do not have what first nsw plate was but with 2nd owner had CB825. Anybody in RCCA remember it.
It still has a RCCA sticker.
Cheers
Stew.

I didn't realise you had a 17G. Very nice. Rare car.

 

[Stew H]

Thank you 8&10.
That is the owner that i suspected was the member.

Can I PM you?

Thank you also Simon re: compliance plate.

Stew
Stew.

 

[bowie]

These threads are always so fascinating. 1970-1980 might have well been another dimension away.

 

[renault8&10]

Stew W
Happy for you to PM me, but don’t think I can add much extra detail. We can’t divulge his address and even if we could it would be nearly 40yrs old. If you’re trying to locate him you may be best using your best detective skills on google; whitepages; Facebook etc.

I don’t know if that number plate is still associated with him or not.

Regards
Kevin

 

[Stew H]

I didn't realise you had a 17G. Very nice. Rare car.

Thanks John, when we chat it is about rear engine renaults, for many years, my everyday car.
Stew

 

[Kenfuego]

Thanks for the reply. I know of Pitt and Sherry, but any site assessment needs to be done by a certified person.

"The Launceston Interim Planning Scheme 2015 includes a Potentially Contaminated Land Code which requires that prior to development of land that is, or is adjacent to land that is, potentially contaminated, a report is provided by a suitably qualified person confirming that the land is not affected by contamination or is otherwise suitable for the proposed use.

A suitably qualified person is ... a person certified by the Site Contamination Practitioners Australia. The nearest such person is in Burnie. Anyway, I'll keep digging.

Wondered how you ended up did you sort this out with the Launceston Council? You would think that some common sense would prevail or the council have some contamination record of tests on the site that would back up their demand for you to test before disturbing the soil. Seems a bit airy fairy of them, I hope all landholders don't just get "put through the hoops " because of a possibility of contamination? , and what does it add to cost?

Regards

Ken

 

[Russell Hall]

This pic of Pound Motors was posted on a French Fregate forum as a possible source of my Fregate.

I have not a clue where my car came from and probably will never.

It's very interesting to note the presence of what looks like a Juvaquatre van..:headbang:

Pardon the intrusion - but when the Ottawa tariffs expired in 1938 Renault was imported again. Pound Motors was advertising a 12hp for around 220 pounds which was a good price. The 1939 import figure for French cars was 73 vehicles. Most were Renaults. French cars continued to be shipped from France until mid 1940. A shipment of Peugeot motor bikes arrived June 1940. When France fell nobody wanted to buy French products so it took until 1944 to clear stocks. The sales figure of French cars 1940 -1944 are 186 Renaults and 5 Citroens.
Selling French cars might have been hard but you have to feel for the importer of a shipment of DKW's (The German Wonder Car) that arrived in Melbourne in September 1939. The wharfies refused outright to touch them and they ended up being shipped to WA.

 

[JohnW]

Pardon the intrusion - but when the Ottawa tariffs expired in 1938 Renault was imported again. Pound Motors was advertising a 12hp for around 220 pounds which was a good price. The 1939 import figure for French cars was 73 vehicles. Most were Renaults. French cars continued to be shipped from France until mid 1940. A shipment of Peugeot motor bikes arrived June 1940. When France fell nobody wanted to buy French products so it took until 1944 to clear stocks. The sales figure of French cars 1940 -1944 are 186 Renaults and 5 Citroens.
Selling French cars might have been hard but you have to feel for the importer of a shipment of DKW's (The German Wonder Car) that arrived in Melbourne in September 1939. The wharfies refused outright to touch them and they ended up being shipped to WA.

And there are a few DKWs in Perth! Curious things and I quite like them.

 

[dacia4x4]

Renault History in Australia , thread started by Simon from Adelaide.

This should be a very useful exercise but I disagree that a leaning to minutiae should be avoided. My own Renault history began in the suburbs of Melbourne in the 1960s, mentored by the late Norman J. Wray in Box Hill [Victoria]. His daughter Ann, is still alive and may be able to fill in the gaps in our knowledge, specially about Norm's employment history.
Once I had moved to Sydney in the 1990s I had continuing contact with Colliers' Motors in Granville. In the latter case, Bruce Collier is still alive and should be a fount of knowledge for the NSW perspective, as too would be the next generation of Collier brothers. I have no doubt that a similar source of local Renault History would exist in all of the others of States of Australia. I suggest that to compile a history as a definitive exercise should be started now and could be auspiced by the several Renault Clubs or indeed this Aussie Frogs forum. But don't avoid the smaller histories, they obviously go to the making of the whole and the minutea can be sorted out in the editing. In other words: put it together now while the participants are alive, if we wait too long it may be too late!
What do others think?

hi bungabill, small world again. about 12months ago I was in the driveway with one of the garage doors up which exposed my treasures(my wife says junk) one being at the front is a 68mazda mpa coupe stripped down and used as storage shelf for many other treasures. a passing gentleman on a walk stopped and asked about the old car, got talking and his name is Chris may? and used to work for norm wray in late 60,s early 70,s,he lives about one k down the road and works from home restoring old fashioned. he laughed when l said I had norms old Floride in my back yard(also a storage shed) and like norm one day I will restore it. apparently he said he came from bending area and went back up that way when he left norms employ. norms daughter Anne and husband Ken bailey bought norms business from him,they were still operating a wholesale business not long ago, they may be as you said a source of Renault history...... more brain backspacing..... Jim

 

[bazzamac]

I have been invited by the editor of Losange Magazine to do an article on the assembly of Renaults in Australia - here is the text of his message:

I was thinking about something else. Renault assembled cars in the past in Australia. It would be fantastic to publish an article about this activity in Losange Magazine. So it would be great to receive pictures of cars in your club that were built in Australia, pictures from the outside and specially from details that differ from the European models. Do you think that is possible?

I have advised him it would be possible after I consult resident experts on aussiefrogs. Based on the excellent work by Simon on Renaults in Australia and the book of the same name by Tony and Pedr Davis, the models and their derivatives assembled in Australia were:

Renault 760 or 750 (1949 - 1962)

Renault Prairie/Colorale (1952-?)

Renault Fregate (1952 - 1958)

Renault Dauphine (1956 - 1963)

Renault 4 (1962 – 1966)

Renault 8 (1963 – 1970)

Renault 10 (1966 - 1971)

Renault 16 (1968 - 1977)

Renault 12 (1970 - 1981)

Renault 18 (1980 – 1981)

Renault 20 (1980 – 1981)

I have done an article drawing extensively from Simon's work that makes some general points indicating the differences between Australian assembled models and those built for mainland Europe (excluding the UK) were due to the following:

1. Australian models were built for a right-hand drive market and so various components like driver controls, headlights etc were built to suit.

2. Australia had adopted the UK imperial measurement system so various parts of the models like specification of engine capacity (cubic inches, gallons, pints, miles per hour etc) and instrumentation were different until the adoption of the Metric system for Australian roads from July 1974.

3. To encourage the local car industry, the Australian Government after WW2 prescribed that locally assembled models had to have some local content produced in Australia. Examples are quoted.

4. Australia’s tariff requirements also resulted in differences. Each major vehicle model required a 25% engine capacity difference to any other engine in that manufacturer’s range. As a result, the early 12s had a 1,250cc motor in lieu of 1289cc.

5. Locally assembled models were required to comply with Australian Design Rules (ADRs) and emission standards. ADRs were introduced from January 1970. Examples quoted cover the R12 and R16. I think that we ahead of Europe in adopting safety and emission standards.

6. Some cars were assembled that were unique to Australia. For example, the locally assembled Renault 10S and the R12 1.4 (Type R1179 sedan, R1338 Station Sedan)- both unique models not available in France.

I am not all that familiar with all the models assembled in Australia to identify differences to their mainland European counterparts so some advice with photos would be appreciated sent here or to my email address which would be more convenient (bardot@homemail.com.au).

The Losange Magazine is mainly pictorial and so would probably only use the minimum of wordage but my paper will give Tony some background and he can pick and chose items of main interest. I think it would be good if we could suggest a feature on the models unique to Australia like the R10S and R12 1.4 above. So if owners would like to send some text and photos on these models to my email address that would be great.

 

[simca1100]

Hi Bazzamac.
- One unique thing was the windscreen wipers on Australian R12s. Right hand drive Renault 12s made in France still had the LHD wiper pattern, which left a substantial unwiped area next to the driver. (Like R16s, Peugeot 504s and Citroen GS here, too.) The Australian Renault 12 had a unique mechanism, the linkages were reversed to pivot the correct way round for RHD cars, and the drivers side wiper used an articulated linkage (sometimes called a pantograph wiper) to ensure the blade swept right up to the windscreen pillar. It gave very good coverage. The steel panel in front of the windscreen still had the holes for the original LHD wipers, they were fitted with rubber plugs. see this video:

The look at a local car starts at 7:30.
- Later Renault 12s were badged as Virage in australia, I believe this was unique to Australia.(Not called R12 Virage, just Renault Virage.)
The Australian cars had some Australian content, which varied over time. Bosch alternators and starter motors, VDO dash instruments, Monroe shock absorbers, local seats and I think local glass??
The magazine might be interested that Renault Australia assembled Peugeot 504 and 505 under license, and they were sold in combined Renault-Peugeot dealers. They would have been fierce opposition at home.
- I think the "tombstone" seats were unique to Renault Australia weren't they? Those Renault seats were used in Peugeot 504s too.
-They also might be interested that Renault Australia assembled Ford Cortina station wagons under contract, as Ford's factories were running at capacity with other models and Renault had capacity to spare. I rememer reading here on Aussiefrogs that the Renault Australia workers commented that the Renaults went together much easier than the Fords - the Fords had much more variation in the panels and used a lot more lead fill to smooth out panel joins...
- I also remember reading that Renault Australia management would make suggestions back to head office, both for better assembly and for product improvement, but Renault in France was deaf to any suggestions from Down South and insisted the cars were perfect as supplied...
- The Australian Renault 12 had the 1250 cc engine in early years, unique to Australia. This is discussed earlier in this thread, see page 1 of this very thread.

 

[bazzamac]

Thanks Simca1100 for your contribution. I am pretty familiar with the R12s having owned a brand new 1972 R12GL purchased in October 1972 and then a 1976 R12 Virage Wagon before I got into Fuegos and Alpines. Both were great cars and did a lot of work when we moved to Canberra. The R12GL did heaps of miles on our honeymoon travelling from Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney To Melbourne, Melbourne to Brisbane and then across to Perth and back before the Eyre Highway in SA was sealed. All this during summer in December/January without A/C and it didn't miss a beat apart from having to renew front pads. Great car and I loved it.