Renault Dauphine, successor of the Renault 4CV presented for the first time at Genève Motorshow in 1956 was known in Spain as „El coche de las viudas“ (widowmaker). Unfortunately, Vintage District crew have not had the chance to drive it yet, but it is said, that Dauphine was pretty unstable in the corners due to not very favourable weight distribution. Now you can imagine why this nickname.

 
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We are not here to judge this car due to its nickname though, we are here to show you that there are people who still love them. Why not? They are good looking cars, especially in the version Gordini presented at Paris Motorshow in 1957. Renault, being aware of Gordini´s talent, called Gordini to prepare limited series of their Dauphine. Dauphine Gordini engine got a new cylinder head, carburettors and exhaust manifolds, which increased engine power to 36hp (10hp more than original Dauphine). Transmission was upgraded too and Gordini got 4 speed manual gearbox. Dauphine in Gordini version was also seen at rally stages.

Dauphine Gordini became really successful and Renault surprised by sales requested Gordini to prepare other Gordini versions from their other models. Successor of Dauphine was Renault R8, also prepared in version R8 Gordini which was tremendously successful just as it is now.

Read also story about BMW 3.0 CSL. We are not afraid of the future.

By Jacob Almohada