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In 1945, the guns are silent in Europe. Peace has arrived but the wounds of the terrible war that has been World War II are still there.
Le Mans, the setting for that most famous of races, the Grand Prix d’Endurace, has not escaped destruction. First the British RAF and then the German Lutwaffe used the Les Hunaudieres straight as a runway and the pits as hangars and workshops, making the facility a target for bombing.
But four years later, in 1949, the Automobile Club de L’Ouest, the famous ACO organizer of the test, obtains state aid to rebuild the facilities and resurface the La Sarthe layout (you know, part of the Bugatti permanent circuit and part of roads that are closed to traffic) used for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and with an environment in which there are still areas where you cannot enter because they are still mined….
The inscription is a curious mix of automobiles, many from before the war. But in this panorama, a solitary Renault 4 CV, the model that in Spain we know as 4/4, does not cease to attract attention.
a son of war
At the end of 1940, the Germans have occupied France. Charles Édouard Serre and Fernand Picard, two Renault engineers, launch the idea of a small popular car for when the conflict ends. The 4 CV project is taking shape behind the backs of the occupants and even Louis Renault himself is unaware of the scope of the work. At the beginning of 1942, the 757 cc engine takes its first turns. Faced with the fait accompli, Luis Renault approves the job with a small mouth. The first prototype miraculously escapes Allied bombing. The second, which has changed the aluminum of the body and engine for steel, appears two years later. After liberation, the factory is nationalized and Louis Renault dies in prison.
Pierre Lefaucheux, the first general director of Regie Renault, approves the launch of the small car, which is presented to the public at the 1946 Paris Motor Show, and begins to leave the chain on the famous Seguin Island in August 1947 .
The 4 CV is a very popular model, with a significant list of buyers. But it is not only of interest to those looking for a means of transportation or to enjoy the freedom that a car brings. Competition lovers also see, at least in the most modest steps, a car for rallies or circuits.
the big date
And this must also have been thought by Camille Hardy and Maurice Roger, when they entered their 4 CV in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1949, in the «Class of less than 1100 cc». On Saturday, June 26, the output is given. In the seventh hour of the race, the Renault breaks a valve on its small 759 cc four-cylinder engine.
But a door has been opened and in the edition of the 24 hours of 1950, there are five registered 4 CVs, always in private hands. And this time, three of them pass under the checkered flag on Sunday June 25, occupying places 24th (Sandt-Coatalen), 25th (Lecat-Pons) and 27th (Vernet-Eckerlein). That of Hervé Coatalen and Jaques Sandt, has covered 171 laps (2,314 kilometers) at an average speed of 96.4 km/h. They may seem modest figures, far from the winning Talbot -Lago T 26, of Louis and Jean Louis Rosier (256 laps, 3,465 kilometers and 144 km/h average speed) but the Rosiers’ car had a 4.5 liter engine…
But for Regie Renault this feat of Coatalen and Sandt does not go unnoticed and, by 1951, at the start of Le Mans there are six 4CVs, five of them officers entered by the brand. It is the type R1063, some “4/4” already quite elaborate, with important work at the engine level (which sees its power increased to 35 CV) and reformed rear suspensions. The displacement of the engines had been slightly reduced to be able to enter the 501 class at 750 cc, a class in which the team formed by André Briat and François Landon is going to prevail at an average of 111, 198 km/h. Another two 4 CV will finish the hard test.
This causes the operation to be renewed in 1952, but with less success, since, of the six 4 CV, only two pass under the checkered flag on Sunday. Of course, occupying positions 15 and 17, the latter being that of Jean Rédélé, the future father of the Alpine. As a result of this, the REGIE makes its official participations more discreet, even if another 4 CV, even with aerodynamic bodies, will be registered until 1954.
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