Month: September 2014

Some cool turning parts manufacturer photos:

Renault four CV

Image by pedrosimoes7
Belem, Lisbon, Portugal

in Wikipedia

The Renault 4CV is an economy vehicle produced by the French manufacturer Renault from August 1947 to July 1961. As the first French automobile to sell more than a million units, the 4CV was eventually superseded by the Renault Dauphine.

The 4CV was a 4-door sedan of monocoque building,[1] three.6 meters in length with rear suicide doors[three] and making use of Renault’s Ventoux engine in a rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout.

The car’s name, 4CV, translates from the French for four cheveaux or four horse, particularly 4 taxable horsepower.

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of the 4CV, in 1996 Renault presented a fully roadworthy idea auto, the Renault Fiftie, with styling that recalled the 4CV, only in a two-door, mid-engine style.

Conception and history

The 4CV was initially conceived and created covertly by Renault engineers for the duration of the German occupation of France for the duration of Planet War II, when the manufacturer was below strict orders to design and style and make only commercial and military cars. A style group led by Fernand Picard, Charles-Edmond Serre and Jean-Auguste Riolfo envisioned a little, economical car suitable for the economically hard years which would inevitably adhere to the war.

The very first prototype was completed in 1942 and two far more prototypes were created in the following 3 years. Pierre Lefaucheux tested the 4 CV prototype at Renault’s Herqueville estate.[four] The 4CV was in the end presented to the public and media at the 1946 Paris Motor Show. The cars went on sale a year later.

In 1940 Louis Renault had directed his engineering team to &quotmake him a auto like the Germans&quot. And until the arrangement was simplified in 1954, the 4CV featured a ‘dummy’ grill comprising six thin horizontal chrome strips, intended to distract consideration from the similarity of the car’s general architecture to that of the German Volkswagen,[1] whilst recalling the modern day designs of the fashionable front engined passenger cars created in Detroit for the duration of the earlier 1940s.

An critical part of the 4CV’s accomplishment, owes to the new methodologies employed in its manufacture, pioneered by Pierre Bézier. Bézier had begun his 42 year tenure at Renault as a Tool Setter, moving up to Tool Designer and then becoming head of the Tool Design and style Office. As Director of Production Engineering in 1949, he made the transfer lines (or transfer machines) making most of the mechanical components for the 4CV.[five] The transfer machines have been high-efficiency perform tools made to machine engine blocks. Whilst imprisoned throughout WWII, Bézier developed and improved on the automatic machine principle, introduced before the war by GM (Common Motors). The new transfer station with numerous workstations and electromagnetic heads (antecedants to robots), enabled different operations on a single component to be consecutively performed by transferring the element from 1 station to one more.

On the 4CV’s launch, it was nicknamed &quotLa motte de beurre&quot(the lump of butter) — due to the mixture of its shape and the reality that early deliveries all employed surplus paint from the German Army cars of Rommel’s Afrika-Corps, in a sand-yellow color.[1] The 4CV was initially powered by a 760cc rear mounted 4-cylinder engine coupled to a 3-speed manual transmission. [7] In 1950 the 760cc unit was replaced by a 747cc version [7] of the &quotVentoux&quot engine generating 17 hp (13 kW).

Despite an initial period of uncertainty and poor sales due to the ravaged state of the French economy, the 4CV had sold 37,000 units by mid-1949 and was the most popular auto in France. The automobile remained in production for a lot more than a decade afterwards. Claimed energy output enhanced subsequently to 21 hp (16 kW) as enhanced fuel octanes allowed for greater compression ratios, which along with the fairly low weight of the car (620 kg) enabled the makers to report an – 90 km/h (56 mph) time of 38 seconds and a best speed barely under 100 km/h (62 mph).[1] The engine was notable also for its elasticity, the second and top gear both being usable for speeds among 5 km/h (three mph) and 100 km/h (62 mph): the absence of synchromesh on initial gear would presumably have discouraged use of the bottom gear except when starting from rest.

The rear mounting of the engine meant that the steering could be very geared although remaining reasonably light: in the early automobiles only 2¼ turns had been necessary from lock to lock.[1] The unusually direct steering no doubt delighted some keen drivers, but road tests of the time nonetheless integrated warnings to take fantastic care with the car’s handling on wet roads.[1] In due course the companies switched from one particular intense to the other, and on later cars 4½ turns have been needed to turn the steering wheel from lock to lock.

The 4CV’s direct replacement was the Dauphine, launched in 1956, but the 4CV in fact remained in production until 1961. The 4CV was replaced by the Renault 4 which employed the same engine as the 4CV and sold for a related price tag.
Even though most of the cars were assembled at Renault’s Île Seguin plant located on an island in the river opposite Billancourt, the 4CV was also assembled in seven other countries, getting Australia, Belgium, England, Ireland, Japan (exactly where the Hino assembled examples gained a reputation for superior good quality[1]), Spain and South Africa.[1] 1,105,543 cars have been developed the 4CV became the first French car to sell more than a million.

The 4CV was easily modified and was used extensively as a racing automobile. The very first collaboration in between the Alpine firm and Renault was the Alpine A-106 which was based on the 4CV. The partnership which would go on to win the Globe Rally Championship with the legendary Alpine A-110 in later years,