Early Volkswagen pan under a 1960 Renault + 2332 = Big Fun Factor! Lets go for a ride! This mini monster will be looking for you in his rear view mirror.
This is EXACTLY what I would have done with a Dauphine. My parents had one of these when I was a really little kid. It was a really cute car and they got all sorts of comments on it where ever they went. But the engine and drive train were complete junk! They bought it brand new from the dealer. If you drove it down a steep hill, flat out full throttle you might see 55 mph. The car blew the engine at around 15,000 miles. They put a brand new engine in it from Renault and it blew when the car had around 30,000. That's two engines in about a year and a half. No young couple with kids can afford that. Then, in the late 70s, I was old enough to drive and I drag raced VWs. I got to really know them. I always wanted to find a Dauphine and put it on a VW pan JUST LIKE THIS! I love you man!
In my career I've seen so many yet-another fiberglass Ford kit with yet-another SBC, it's just "ho hum- so what?". This, I am very impressed. Thank you for that.
I like the fact that the Renault has a stock outer appearance with exception of the exhaust, but what the hell, you can't have everything. A real sleeper no doubt.
Randy is really enjoying it and the local Hot Rodders put the word out not to mess around with this sleeper. Thank you for your comments and support. Check out some of my other fun video's
This shows precisely why sleepers are so cool. They're the ultimate underdog. And who doesn't love an underdog? The ingenuity, vision, and skill it takes to pull off an engine swap and suspension mods like these impress me a whole lot more than many of the restorations is see where someone pays a fortune to build a car back to factory stock. It's certainly a lot more interesting than a restored Camaro or Mustang. I respect a proper restoration as well, but the result is often something too nice to risk driving, so it becomes an automotive art exhibit you trailer to car shows. On the other hand, I bet the owner of this Renault gets a whole lot more enjoyment by actually using this thing. You have to wonder how many times some muscle car owner has wound up saying "That little what-the-fuck just kicked my ass!"
Thank for your comment. I am amazed how many people have watched this and get critical about paint and safety and every little detail. The fact of the matter is what you said. This was one of the very first drives on this project car. The plan was as you described. The local car guys give it a thumbs up. Have a great day and thanks for the support.
WOW! That just happens to be almost exactly like the one I built in 1969 when i was growing up in Puerto Rico. I had told my dad I wanted to have a car, so one day I come home from college and he told me he got me a car. It was exactly like yours, but paint and interior was almost new. I got into it immediately and started it, only to find that it had overheated, so it was missing badly. Long story short, ended putting the half back of a VW beetle with 1500cc engine, and boy did I have fun with that car. Later I changed motor to a 2130CC stroker motor, and that was even more fun. Could beat 427 Corvettes, Camaros, Malibu's all day long. Wish I could back in time with what I know now...
That was so cool I would have never thought that was a Renault until you said something. I saw the exhaust and thought it was some long lost Karman Ghia . I would love to see what that car can do WOT it just sounds so damn good
i just love it, ithink its just a thumbs up.its a assome car ,weared you come upp with the idea,i havent seen one of those cars in35 years. on the street even longer.thanks for showing us. mike elcamino
My uncle was in Navy Intelligence. One of the men was getting orders for a new assignment and wanted to sell his Renault Dauphine (1961 model) so held a raffle. My uncle won his for $5. When we visited in 1968, we got to ride around in it. I had only been in Beetles as a small foreign car, but loved the Renault right away.
My brother had one of these..3 lug wheels.. indestructible 4 cylinder unibody. He jumped a RR crossing just to shear off one wheel. We stayed upright as long as we didn't slow down or stopped laughing. He totaled it out when he clipped a 2in pipe holding up a street sign.
Wow.....and "import jalopy" for sure.....very cool!! My older brother had one of these back in the mid '60s. It was fixed up for fun back then too. He used to pull up next to Corvettes at the street lights and rev his little engine just to make the Corvette's take off when the light turned green....Hahaha it worked every time!! ;-)
Have not seen a Renault like that since the early 70's when the fuel shortage/ Embargo was Prime along With Watergate ,very nice to See the old Car radical And Badical. !
Awwsome its one of them you say look look LOOK then you say to late its gone,the last time i seen one of these was way back in the 70's at one of the custom show's at alexandra palace in london.
i had a duaphine when i was apprentice, mine was very patinated too ... Lots of fun times with it on an apprentice wage of $35 a week while i rebuilt my proper car, a '39 Ford V8 Coupe. Dauphine means litle prince BTW.
I saw two Dauphines for sale in front of an old junkyard in MI and had a look. I immediately started thinking of a project something like this! There is something weirdly appealing about this body.
My friend Randy who built the car told me that the body was much lighter than the stock VW body that he removed from the pan. Power to weight is everything when it comes to performance. He was talking about adding an interrnal roll cage after he got all the bugs worked out.
Cool. Bet it took a lot of work on the VW pan and Renault body to make it fit. I never had anything like that, but I did used to have a very faded dark green 1966 bug with a lot of surface rust on it. It was completely stock looking, even had the stock bumpers. It had a Gene Berg 2213 engine with dual Webers. The entire drivetrain, steering, brakes, and suspension were seriously upgraded. I ran it against a lot of Japanese "ricer" cars at the track, and never got beat.
Hi Guys! Just thought I'd throw in a bit more. First, the engine sounds too good. Maybe poke a hole in one pipe, near the collector and find a quieter muffler. If you succumb to the guys who want you to paint it, load it up with 60's hippie "art". Put Flower Power on it and when someone questions you about it, you have to explain that they're mispronouncing the first word. It's not Flower like flour. It's Flower like goer. 2332cc HAS to flow thru those DP heads. Just funnin'. It'd be fun to hook up a springy wire with a big nut on it and position it so it taps on the fan housing. making it sound crappy is part of the sleeper camouflage. The more innocent it looks and sounds, the better. My last sleeper was a '73 Chevy Caprice with a gently massaged 454/400 combo, stiffened suspension and better brakes, all behind stock wheels with the factory wheel covers. It was a 4door no post model in a slightly homely shade of green with a bit of a raggedy white vinyl top. Looked like grandma's church and groceries car... until it was dusting a Trans Am.
That is freakin Beautiful, It just shows, the VW craze will NEVER end, ! That little beetle started a Car Craze that has never been matched, Bruce Meyers started it all with the Meyers Manix, back in the early 60's, That's over 60 years ago and still going strong.. Car Guys have been using the VW chassis for everything. *It's a work of Art* .. The VW bug still holds the record for most cars sold in the entire World.. No Car has ever sold more than the beetle.. And You can still buy every part, new, for the bug and it's chassis, including the chassis.. All steel remanufactured to original factory specs, plus there's thousands of after market performance parts world wide... I guess you can tell I'm a beetle fan, I've had a few myself.. I'm still in love, after all these years.. It's great to see another VW in a "one of a kind" piece of fun,
ThomasTheSailor Chubby Its not a VW. Its a Renault. The Renault Alpine was developed from this same car and was a very successful race car with only a slightly bigger than stock engine. That bug engine really is overkill.
ThomasTheSailor Chubby I say putting that body on a VW pan was a great idea because of parts and availability. I did really want to see the original motor though. An R10 I believe is the motor it came with
In South Africa in the late 1960's and early 1970's Renault Gordini's were the iconic boy racers. Highly desirable and fast. The models that evolved from the Dauphine pictured here were square and box shaped. The VW floor pan makes an ideal fit as they were both rear engined cars. This does has the 5 stud VW wheels. If I remember the Dauphine had a curious 3 stud arrangement. The steering wheel also looks like VW but with the central hooter missing. Later on the hooter was a chrome ring on the inside of the steering wheel, so this was indeed an early VW floorpan
Scamp Porter thru Renault Africa imported & raced with great 'giant-killing' success several Renault Gordini's 1300's..of which I was fortunate to own one. Renault Racing Blue, (they were all blue)...Nice..Ran rings most and were great thru the twisties with; 4-wheel discs, 5-speed close-ratio Gordini box, hemi head, twin side-draught Webers, second petrol tank up front...All from the factory..Very nice indeed...Scamp would with great regularity beat most of the 'big boys' on the race tracks in South Africa...(RIP Scamp)
My brother had a 3-lugger like this...We were jumping RR track crossings when one rear wheel and tire past us on a jump. He stuck a almost perfect 3-point landing...almost!
Yes, this is a Dauphine (but this particular model has only been made for export, the french one gor a different back). My father got one of the very first Dauphine, then another called Ondine. Some models were prepared by Gordini, royal blue with 2 white stripes.
Is a very tipical car of the Spain in the years 50 (Renault Dhaphine, Ondine, Gordine), my dad repair this cars many years, the nick name of the cars is "El coche de la viudas" (the car of the widow) for its bad brakes. Regards from Spain.
there is one here in new zealand thats a race car and runs a sb chev and manual with engine mid mounted facing rear with gear box next to driver through a vee drive ..awsome wee car
He is just a friend in our VW group and does not post video's. I am familiar with the car. Maybe I can answer a few questions. Basically it is a stock VW pan with beefed up tranny and custom built VW engine.
Not a 'sleeper' at all. A sleeper is an everyday car which looks 'stock', but is secretly massively over-powered. A 'Renno' Dauphine can no longer be mistaken for an 'everyday car'.
+bingola45 oh for fuck's sake. A sleeper can be a 1940's chev styleline even. Not common any more, but if it goes a lot harder than you'd expect, judging by appearance, then it's a fucking sleeper. This Renault looks like a box of shit that would get dominated by almost anything on the street, but it goes hard... it's a sleeper. Unless you expect this sort of performance from one of these...
No, if it looks slow, but is unexpectedly fast, THEN it's a sleeper. This only attracts attention for being mildly obscure and looking like some old granddad's car. If you saw this and thought it would be fast, then mundane cars like Fiat Ritmo's must blow your mind
It doesn't matter what it attracts attention for. If you've noticed it, it isn't sleeping. The reaction to a sleeper is "What was that?", not "That funny old car we were looking at... it was dead fast"
