Mario de Almeida sent this collage of photos in, and he explains the history of the car:

'Hello! Congratulations for your fab site! I am a R4 fan from Lisbon. I am sending u these photos taken to my R4 that came from former Rhodesia (1974), passed trough Mozambique, RSA and then came by boat to Lisbon in 1983. I bought it in 2001 and proceded to a full restauration in 2002, at the same shop my friend João Seabra, also a great friend of mine, did his orange a couple months ago. In fact it was a kind of virus that both João and I got, although I consider João a real "4L conaisseur": he gave me some hints to do my restoration and I did a bit the same to his.'

I asked Mario why the car had been imported all the way from Rhodesia when there is such a glut of Renault 4s in Portugal. He says:

'This car was the first one that the lady that sold it to me owned. I am the second owner. They were going to put it down when I saw it for the first time in 2001. This lady was raised in Rhodesia and then she moved with her family to Mozambique that soon had its independence. So they moved again to South Africa and stayed there until the begining of the fights against apartheid. This car moved along with all the big political changes in Eastern Africa in the 70's: it is almost a piece of history. I think it was certainly a matter of emotional involvement with the car to ship it to Portugal... I think the sea transportation payment was as expensive as the car itself in begining of the 80's.'

You can find João's orange R4 pictured in this section at number PP118, and elsewhere around the site, including a thorough breakdown of its restoration process in the Technique section.