Time flies -as if that’s a surprise to anyone. And in the same vein of kicking in open doors, it’s not much of a secret that I have a soft spot for France, as long term readers of this blog will have noted. If memory serves me right, the first “French” post on this blog was that on the wonderful Citroën DS, which I just saw that I wrote five years ago, during the first Covid summer. Those were not happy times so I guess we should be grateful that time flies at least in that respect, but also that floating down a French “départementale” (country road) in a DS has lost none of its charm ever since.
If Citroën was the technologically leading car brand in the late 1950’s and 60’s, Renault was still the largest. Unfortunately, design-wise the brand was far behind the competition in Sochaux, something that became shockingly clear when Renault launched the R8 sedan in 1962, later called only the 8. Just by looking at one and comparing it to a DS, you would think 20 years sets them apart. Of course it was the DS that was the exception, as at the time, far more cars still looked like the R8 than the other way around.
The R8 was a rear-wheel drive, small family sedan with the engine in the back as was still popular at the time. The standard version of the R8 was the definition of unspectacular, but I remember it clearly as it was also built on license in Romania under the name Dacia 1100. Growing up in Stockholm a couple of blocks away from the Romanian embassy, on the way to school, I would see some of these Dacias parked on the street in front of the embassy, together with a later version based on the Renault 10. Somehow the design felt like a far better fit to a Soviet-era, communist dictatorship than to lovely France!
American readers may be interested to learn that the R8 was sold in the US as well, with the French trying to position it as the nimble city and close proximity car it was typically used as in France. At the time however, the US was all about far longer drives on the new interstate highway net, an environment where the small R8 with its 43 hp made much less of an impression. Needless to say, the R8 never became much of a success on the other side of the Atlantic
In Europe however, things were about to improve a couple of years later, in 1964. The regular R8 got a performance boost to 50 hp, but more importantly, the 8 Gordini was launched. Initially only available in the elegant blue called “bleu de France”, which has become a signature color for Renault’s sports versions, the extra power came from greater displacement (all of 1.1 litres!) and a different Weber carburettor setup. Power would be further increased to 100 hp in 1967, when the Gordini also got the double headlights it’s become known for.
The name Gordini comes from the company of the same name and its founder, Amédée Gordini. Specialized in tuning and motor racing, Gordini was founded in 1946 and competed in F1 in the 1950’s and Le Mans in the 60’s. Amédée Gordini was so good at building race cars that he became known as “The Sorcier” (the sorcerer) and whilst he also worked both on Simca and Fiat cars through the years, most of his work was on Renaults, who bought his company and incorporated it as a subsidiary in 1968. Before the Renault 8, Gordini had also built notably the Renault Dauphine Gordini, another rear-engined, small family car.
The 8 Gordini was a true race car, not only with more power than the standard version, but also with lowered suspension and various other technical modifications throughout. It had assisted steering, a five-speed box and disc brakes on all four wheels. And those wheels were typically very small and very wide! For homologation purposes the 1967 version was also produced as a road car, with a few horse power less than the rally version and a different light setup at the front, but otherwise pretty much the same car. This made it one of the first road-legal race cars, as well as arguably the first GTI car (sorry Golf!). Of the few Gordini’s that remain, it’s mostly this street-legal version you see.
The 8’s predecessor, the Dauphine Gordini, had a lot o success on the rally scene in the early 60’s and sticking with tradition, Renault entered no less than six brand new 8 Gordini in the 1967 Corsica rally. Remember that back in the 60’s, motorsport was almost synonymous with rallying as F1 had not yet got the popularity that would follow in the 70’s. The 1967 Corsica rally would very much lay the foundation for the 8 Gordini’s future success on the rally scene and its position as one of the 60’s leading rally cars. In the first year, the winner and a further three cars in the top five were Gordinis. It would go on to win the Corsica rally another two years, and a long list of other rally victories until 1970 would follow.
If the regular Renault R8 still looks like a not very exciting 60’s family car, the 8 Gordini is a different story. Everything from the front lights to the lower suspension and the small wheels give it a cool poise, and the 100 hp have no problem with the car that weighed it at around 800 kg. Neither do the disc brakes, leaving the gearbox and rust protection as the weak spots. The gear change, given the gearbox in the back next to the engine and thus a long way from the gear lever makes it quite vague, and rust protection as on any French car form the 60’s is largely non-existent.
That said, if you’re lucky enough to find an 8 Gordini today, it will most certainly have been renovated. Rare as they are, a good car will be yours for EUR 30-40.000 and will provide the kind of pure mechanical driving pleasure only a 60’s car can, including the drifts from rear-wheel drive combined with the rear-engine setup. All of it brings back memories of an era when Renault was not just a manfacturer of boring family vans, but a name to be counted with on the rally scene!
The Thrill of Driving 