UK's rarest cars: 1969 Renault 16 GL, one of only 14 left
Arguments about the world's first hatchback are often as tedious as the so-called jokes about Ladas and Skodas. The 16 was not even Renault's first five-door car, but 60 years ago it revolutionised an entire market sector and was voted Car of the Year for 1966. Today, David O'Leary's 1969 example is one of only 14 GL specification models still running on British roads.
Renault began work on Project 115 in 1961. Not only would it be produced in a new factory, but it would also be front-wheel-drive and employ the five-door format pioneered by the company's R4. Some dealers were concerned that the 16 would not appeal to 'traditional' French motorists, who would most likely opt for the ultra-conventional, rear-wheel-drive Peugeot 404. However, Pierre Dreyfus, Renault's chief executive at the time, believed: 'By virtue of its design, the R16 will be a successful car. It's everything we need, with its distinctness and originality.'
This newspaper alerted readers to the Renault 16 on January 21 1965, while the formal launch took place that March at the Geneva motor show. Once French motorists became acclimatised to the shock of the new, the 16 did achieve success, appealing to go-ahead family motorists with Jean-Paul Belmondo pretensions. Government departments also favoured the new Renault and it became a popular military staff car as there was sufficient headroom for an officer's kepi hat.
The company further claimed the 16 'was designed for an international customer base, in markets affected by improved living standards and especially the need for quality and escapism'. By December 1965, the UK concessionaire used equally elaborate language, boasting: 'The Renault 16 is a new breed of car for the new man.' Potential buyers were invited to 'Compare the looks of the new Renault 16 with other 1.5-litre cars. Makes them look dowdy, doesn't it?'
Autocar thought 'beauty might not have suited its character, and most people enjoy such bold originality'. This was the company's aim: Dreyfus stated the 16 would not look like other European medium-sized cars and it could never be confused with a 404 or a Simca 1500. There would be no front-wheel-drive, 1.5-litre, five-door saloon produced in Britain until the Austin Maxi appeared in 1969.
Renault GB first imported the TL, costing £888 9s 7d, and the GL, with a cigar lighter and separate front seats, at £948 17s 11d. Dealers could also tell customers that the 16's 1,470cc engine was Europe's first with a die-cast aluminium cylinder block (Renault's claim, at least) and its four-speed all-synchromesh gear-change on the steering column was one of the best of its type. In addition, the transverse torsion bar rear suspension layout resulted in an asymmetrical wheelbase.
The 16 was not only 'Today's car for today's man', but also Car of the Year 1966. The GL was more expensive than a Singer Vogue for £896 or the Vauxhall Victor De Luxe for £775, but they were of a different ethos: rear-wheel-drive, reassuringly conventional and quasi-American in appearance. Autocar regarded the 16 as a mature design 'of great merit'. Motor Sport believed it 'oozes individuality, but this is more apparent in its ingenious and unusual details than in its manner of quiet, easy running, for it handles like a conventional car'.
By 1970, Renault exported half of 16 production. The last example left the factory at Sandouville near Le Havre in January 1980 after 1,845,959 had been produced.
O'Leary's GL has all the 16's trademark idiosyncrasies, from the headlight adjustment levers to the wonderfully elaborate dashboard, with switches apparently placed entirely at random. The practical interior has a choice of seven seating configurations, including creating more luggage space by folding the front-hinged rear bench forward and then suspending its backrest from the grab handles. O'Leary finds 'even some other owners are unaware of how versatile the 16 is'.
This example's first owner passed the 16 to his grandson, but engine problems meant he retired it to a lean-to shed circa 1980. O'Leary bought the Renault several decades later when the family moved house, and it took him several years to restore it to a showroom condition.
He greatly appreciates the 16's road manners and column gear-change: 'That was one of the main reasons for my buying the car.'
At its launch, the 16 genuinely was 'more than an estate car. More than a saloon' and 'a new breed of car'. Even if O'Leary was recently amazed by a bystander at a classic car show asking: 'Is that an Alfa Romeo?'
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