![]() Nice details, like a hammered-metal dashboard, abound, and the torpedo rear-end is a stylish way to round out the open bodywork. When the 5CV was introduced in 1924, the French automotive industry was firing on all cylinders, so to speak, and though this is a simple vehicle, it is very well-executed. That said, this was a good way to get acquainted with France's vintage offerings. As with the Rovin and the Helicron, we didn't take it on public roads 11 hp and a 40-mph top speed can only do so much in modern traffic. This was one of the first cars we drove upon arriving at the Lane. Ironically, that lack of quirky Frenchness probably contributed to its immediate global success, which it enjoyed almost everywhere except for the United States. Aside from its name, there was nothing about the Dauphine that screamed French to us - nothing to really set it apart from everyman contemporaries from Fiat or Volkswagen. There'd be something to be said for taking it for an unhurried drive through rolling (but not too rolling) countryside dotted with picturesque villages, fabric top rolled back, Francoise Hardy playing on the, uh, Sony tape deck that someone installed at some point in this car's past.īut you could say that about almost any car of the era. Because this thing is, how to put this, slow - you're going to be rowing that uncertain four-speed manual furiously on even gently undulating terrain, and the engine starts wailing the moment you spot a hill on the horizon.ĭon't get us wrong: The Dauphine is a cute car with a fair amount of personality embedded in its sheet metal, and it certainly helped millions get on the road. Having been spoiled by the Gordini version, we shudder to think of what it's like to drive the entry-level car. Base Dauphines got a 27 hp water-cooled inline-four, but this is a Gordini - opting for the sporty package turned the wick up to a whopping 36 hp or so. The Renault Dauphine was a French take on the Peoples' Car cheap, relatively cheerful, rear-engined, it seems a lot like the Beetle on paper, though it receives the added convenience of two rear doors. Lag? Sure, you could call it that we prefer to think of it as the car pausing a few beats to allow anticipation to build. ![]() The turbo seems to start whistling at 3,500 rpm, but you don’t really feel the boost until 4,000 or so - not the vicious, tail-loosening jolt of power we were expecting, but a firm, insistent shove from behind that urges you to push the car harder and harder. It's a goofily French take on the hot hatch, but the proof is in the driving: The first minutes on the road are a revelation. Well, look past the aggressive box flare fenders, rear-wheel-drive configuration and that brilliant forced-induction engine (you won’t find it under the hood - it’s been moved to the trunk, because why not) and yeah, we suppose it technically is a LeCar, known as a Renault 5 in its home country. Like the Hotchkiss-Gregoire, the Renault 5 Turbo (this was actually a Turbo 2) doesn’t seem like anything really exotic - just another 1980s homologation special hot hatch until hey waittaminute, is that thing a Le Car?! Can you really argue against a car Denise McCluggage saw fit to autograph? ![]() ![]() Is this tragic, desperate longing part of what being French feels like?Īlso, as it happened, Denise McCluggage signed this particular SM’s center console. Knowing full well the chances we’d be taking - the disapproving looks from friends and family, the spilled hydropneumatic fluid, the drained bank accounts - we’d still risk it all for the SM. We’ve never desired a car more after spending such a short time driving one, except for maybe the Alfa Romeo 4C. But between the eager motor, the crisp and extremely mechanical-feeling five-speed manual transmission, the close steering and that impossibly cosseting ride … once you get a feel for the car, you won’t want to relinquish the wheel. It takes a minute to adapt to the SM, to put yourself in the SM mindset, if you will. Just keep it cool, deliberate and smooth, and the car really does reward you with a magic carpet-like road feel. Don’t jerk the wheel - steering is a tight two turns-to-lock and there’s no feedback - or the body will rock a bit until it finds its level. The Citroen’s mandate is subtly, but significantly, different: Keep the cabin as level as possible at all times, at all costs.
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