Nowadays my father regularly goes out with his partner and the Toyota RAV-4 Hybrid and caravan. In days gone by, my father's car world looked fundamentally different. During the hopeful sixties, a long career as a civil engineer, a colorful family life and a decent basketball career were still at his feet, the courtship with my mother was fairly early. A bright future lay ahead. And meanwhile, the world got bigger thanks to my father's first car: the Renault 4CV.
In the mid-sixties my father, still a distinguished HTS student, exchanged his sturdy moped with high steering wheel for the Renault 4CV from 1956. According to his own tradition, he bought his car for less than a hundred guilders. It knob of butter was nine years old, and that was certainly a respectable age for a small Volkswagen car during the sixties. But my very young father and mother drove carefree around the uncluttered world. It was bigger than Haarlem and Kampen, the respective birthplaces of my mother and father.
The Renault was the start of a long car career, in which successively French, Italian, again French (Citroën!), German, Japanese, French, Japanese, Italian, German and again Japanese were reviewed. My father can tell you about it in a beautiful and contemplative way. Our conversations about it are always fun. He knows how to remember the history of many cars flawlessly. And what he did about it. About our he effortlessly brings up the history of cars with the greatest inconveniences. Does he know exactly what he was doing about it. Rather: what he there all of them did. This often concerns the GS and the two 2CVs. These cars also evoke fond memories for me, but they could never boast of a close association with the concepts of build quality and reliability. All subsequent cars were virtually problem-free. Just like my father's first car was. For as long as it lasted, of course. It took longer than expected before the sturdy French car was exchanged for a Fiat 600.
So even in the sixties you could no longer count on an impeccable car for a hundred bucks. But that twisted 4CV with its 21 DIN-PK strong 747 cc Billancourt engine did damn well. Moreover, he literally and figuratively offered the space and it was so comfortable. My father still has a soft spot for it. I noticed it regularly, and still do. When I bought him a miniature model of Solido, it was a hit, he was genuinely happy with it. And last year I brought him the AMK edition, with a report about the GS Pallas and the Renault 4CV. In the summer of twenty twenty I was in the Dordogne with my family, and I combined that successful holiday trip with a visit to the beautiful semi-open air museum in Salviac-Pépy. Benoît Jouclar had a lot to do with mainly French heritage, and the 4CV was certainly not lacking. Of course I took pictures, and I sent the 4CV pictures to my father, because I knew he was very fond of the little Renault. Success assured, even if that's not what I'm aiming for.
In Salviac-Pépy my sympathy for the 4CV turned into a weakness. I saw countless contemporaries and suddenly I understood. The 4CV finally matured the small and useful car in France. The first French millionaire formed the starting point for more with its rock-solid foundation. The Alpine brand stems from there in a straight line. And 4CV successor R4 flourished not only because of its devilishly handy concept. He also reaped the benefits of his predecessor's success. It also paved the way for the Renault Dauphine and its successor: the R8. In addition, the 4CV was successful in many large rallies and races and was built under license, including by the Japanese Hino. The lump of butter was in many ways an important ingredient in Renault's tasty and much-loved post-war menu.
Yet this history is not the reason that my father has a great weakness for the 4CV. The little Renault had a very different meaning for my father in the 4s. It was his first car, a symbol of even more freedom in the eventful sixties. The 4CV also stood for young happiness for my father, which opened new roads on the way to a beautiful and promising future. The Renault XNUMXCV faithfully served those roads with its round and old-fashioned shapes during the XNUMXs. The cart can never break with my father. Hundred peak, and a love of life!
Also my father's first, I don't know what he paid for it, but quite a nice car.
Because the paintwork was not too nice anymore, the whole car was painted by hand and picked up a good used radiator at a scrap yard in Soest (by bike from Naarden) and installed it together ourselves. Then a Volkswagen Beetle, in which I got my first driving lesson. Steering straight ahead turned out to be the most complicated on the road along the Naarder trekvaart….
Then an Opel Record, Peugeot 404, Peugeot 504, a Ford, a Renault 16 and last but one, a new small Toyota and finally a Ford Fiesta.
Based on this, I myself have always preferred a somewhat larger and then somewhat older car that was at least comfortable than a small car…. and with an LPG tank in it fine right!
Dear,
I've had three such cars. No, not to drive on the public road, but on the field next to our house. Just to romp with as a kid. It may sound strange, but that's how it was.
I was only 14-15 years old but I was car minded. The little cars, they were only small, were bought for an apple and an egg. Dad, who was a mechanic, arranged for them to drive and my parents at the time made sure we stayed close to home.
The starter was placed between the front seats, an arm that you had to pull up after the ignition was turned on. And the car started right away. We enjoyed this immensely as children. Yes, some days it didn't go well but we learned to work on the engine ourselves, something we took with us for the rest of our lives.
I remember them as great little cars and still look at them with admiration and nostalgia when they appear in movies or car shows.
Why do I automatically start to think of a certain Sonneveld after this story with the song “Het Dorp”?
Great car!
I have one, a light green one. Like a child so happy.
Also my father's first car by the way, he had a gray one.
Beginning of a long fondness for Renault and French cars.
The 4CV: first French car of which more than a million have been built.
The 4CV: already an international car back then: produced in France of course, but also in other countries, such as Belgium and even Australia! In Japan, the 4CV was built under license by Hino.
The 4CV: class winner in Monet-Carlo . rally
The 4CV: class winner in the 24h of Le Mans
And indeed in the hands of Jean Rédélé (founder Alpine) many victories in the Alps; then as the basis for the Alpine A106.
Monte Carlo of course.
an uncle of mine had a 4cv in the 60s
As a child I rode a few times. We had to withdraw our feet, because there was almost no bottom left so you could see a lot of street passing under your feet while driving.
I have always loved this sympathetic model, especially in light green it looked good.
In addition, my uncle had a Vespa with which he went every 2 days to get milk from a farmer in a tin milk jug.
I was also allowed a few times on the Vespa, sitting in the front with the milk jug clamped between my legs, bumping on the cobblestones without a helmet. Back then the traffic was not so busy and no-nonsense.