The British Parisienne!
by Oliver Webb, 22 June 2008
One of the most rare and treasured special versions of the Renault 4 was manufactured over a relatively short period of the car's life in the sixties, and very few examples survive today. The Parisienne was an aesthetically modified R4 featuring, amongst other things, wicker panels on the sides and rear of the car, and themes based on popular fashions of the time. The chances of unearthing one of these models in the UK are slimmer than one of the Elle magazine models used to advertise the car in its heyday, but in 2008 I was contacted by a reader who offered the next best thing.
Oliver Webb wrote to me with a tantalising picture, adding:
"What fun I've been having looking through your website! Makes me all nostalgic about my old 1973 R4. I've included a picture of my car taken at a Renault Owners Club event sometime around 1987, I think. It was at Bridgnorth. The three speeder next [to mine] was on an E plate (1967?) and was lovely. HTR 974L was owned from nearly new by my grandmother. I bought the car when nine years old (1982) and drove her until 1993. I'd love to know if HTR 974L has survived in any shape or form."
At first I wrongly assumed Oliver had been a somewhat privileged child allowed to hare around the neighbourhood terrorising grannies with his underage driving skills, until I realised that it was the car, and not himself, that was nine years old in 1982. His remarks still left one thing unclear, however. Looking at the photograph attached, I was puzzled by something.
Many of you may have come to the same confused conclusion. That is, how could a Renault 4 from 1973 have been produced with the styling of a 1960s Parisienne? My intrigue prompted the further supply of information, and Oliver offered the lowdown on the life of this unique, oddball vehicle:
"I should have explained a little more about my old R4. The Parisienne look was created by me using miles and miles of adhesive white pinstripe. I cleaned out two car accessory shops of the stuff and when I asked if they could order some more the bloke said 'Bloody Hell! What are you sticking it on, Ark Royal?'. I replied, 'No, a Renault 4'. He gave me the sort of look I imagine he normally reserves for faulty chainsaws and suchlike. The idea had been to recreate a Parisienne and I went to some lengths to locate the wicker adhesive decals; the nearest I got was a set of very ancient ones for a Mini. So I set about creating my own version. Basically I worked out that the pattern uses twin lines travelling vertically, horizontally and diagonally to both left and right. This would have meant acquiring every inch of self adhesive pinstripe in the whole of Europe, and to be honest, it would have added several pounds in weight to the poor old car and there would have been so many thicknesses of sticky tape that the resultant drag coefficient would have ended up as a poor second to a Routemaster bus. So I just contented myself with the vertical lines and the stripey finished product was rather pleasing I thought. It was quite hard getting the curves at either end just so, and I also carried the pattern forward onto the front wings, unlike the Parisienne whose design also had an awkward kick-up on the front doors.
"The demise of my poor old R4 was extremely sad. My wife met a fool in a Cavalier (was a car ever more aptly named? Vauxhall Moron, perhaps?) who decided not to bother himself with de-icing his windows one morning. This plan fell spectacularly short of expectations when, at a cross roads, he simply didn't stop. The R4 ran into the side of him, happily removing much of his suspension and, very sadly squashing the 4's nose. However, although the frostbitten GM pratt was rendered immobile, the 4 did drive home under her own steam. The damage was limited, amazingly, to bonnet, bumper, offside outer wing and front crossmember (which was bent at its right hand extremity). I duly got all the bits to sort it out, but before I could get it done a neighbour's son decided to nick the radio from the 4. Having broken a window and been unable to fathom where the door handles might be, he levered one door open using a fence post, which he also used to beat the bodywork about with. He jumped on the roof and had a jolly smashing time. Very wisely, he has never crossed my path from that day on. The Renault was battered but still probably - just - saveable. Since the car was fundamentally sound and the panel damage was mostly limited to the upper portion of the body, I gave her as a project (along with her spares car and a pile of spare parts including a gearbox and spare bonnet) to a friend of John Henderson of the ROC, a guy by the name of Noel Parkin. He declared an intention to chop the good top off the red spares car (complete with original Renault factory sunroof) and graft it onto my R4. Whether or not this ever happened, I wouldn't like to say. It was a few years ago and R4s weren't quite so thin on the ground then as now, so maybe the incentive wasn't sufficient. If HTR 974L has survived in some shape or form I'd be absolutely over the moon. I'd bring a bottle of Champagne to a reunion!!
"The red spares car was actually a bit interesting. It had an M plate, but had been 'ringed' (simply take off the oval and diamond plates and pop rivet 'em on the other car! Oh, yes, and screw the other number plates on; no need to take the old ones off first....). It also had the most breathtaking corrosion underneath I've ever seen in a car that still retained sufficient [parts] of its structural integrity to be hauled from a field on the end of a chain, and towed home. The bottoms of the sill sections quite simply weren't there at all.
"Going back a little earlier, my Uncle John bought a brand new 3-speeder R4 in 1966 and I vividly remember meeting this glittering white little car - with a big round toffee for a gear knob - for the first time. RRO 881D, or Tin-Tin, was finally sold in about 1976, in favour of a bright red N-reg 4 which had an unfortunate propensity towards overheating. Tin-Tin was spotted for sale, looking slightly down at heel, in 1984 near Trowbridge. Her owner was sad to be parting with her, but ferrous oxide was catching her up. The last RHD 3-speeders I remember 'in the wild' were a maroon one in Stonehouse in about 1984 and a blue one (I tried to buy this one, sadly unsuccessfully) at Bromyard in 1985. In the early 1990s a white 3-speed Fourgon appeared in Builth Wells; it was a LHD vehicle on an S plate. This one also defied my attempts to purchase, and appeared soon afterwards in a breaker's yard in Kington, Herefordshire, with an Escort thoughtfully placed on top. This was heartbreaking; it had failed its MOT only quite lightly, apparently. The most tantalizing one cropped up during a holiday driving around Picardy and Normandy in about 1993 when, whilst exploring a little country breaker's yard disappearing into the landscape, the lichen smeared form of an R3 loomed defiantly from amongst the 2Cvs, 403s and undergrowth. Alas, I imagine it is long gone, along with so much else.
"My personal toy nowadays is a '74 Peugeot 204 saloon, family owned from new, but off the road since 1994 when she was our wedding car. Shortage of funds.... My daily Peugeot 104 got sold with only 420,000 miles on the clock (original throughout - all except for the Dulux) a couple of years back, and I'm now seriously in withdrawal as far as driving something different is concerned.
"Anyway, I've ranted on long enough. Thanks for taking the trouble to champion such a great little car as the humble yet mighty Renault 4. One day (perhaps) the British Cla££ic Car movement might yet look beyond the Morris Minor and Triumph Herald; both delightful, charming and worthy but, by comparison, engineered in the iron age.
"Good luck with the 4s. The Fours be with you...."
It would certainly be wonderful news if this special car still survived today, so if you know of its whereabouts at any time since Oliver's ownership then please get in touch. It shouldn't be difficult to remember the registration, since it ends with '4L'! I went to look at a 1973 model of the same colour in Lewisham some years ago; another example that showed promise if only its almost completely absent floor could be replaced. Indeed, if you know of any older models still alive and kicking in the UK then please ensure their preservation for the record books at least, by sending the details here.
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