Shifting France into Ghia

RENAULT TURNED TO ITALY IN THE QUEST TO CREATE AN IMAGE-BUILDER

- MICHAEL STAHL

AMERICA HAS BEEN responsible for some truly cool cars. That includes cool European cars. America’s post-war riches prompted cars from the Mercedes-Benz 300SL to the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia – and a French imitatrice, the Renault Floride.

Pierre Dreyfus presided over Renault from 1955 to 1975. He replaced Pierre Lefaucheux, killed when his briefcase struck him in the neck as his Renault Fregate slid off the road on black ice. Lefaucheux had overseen development of the rear-engined Dauphine sedan, a hit on its launch in 1956.

That year, Dreyfus and director of research Fernand Picard travelled to the US to meet with Renault’s US dealers. The recurring theme was for an affordable, sporty model to appeal to young buyers and drive image for the Dauphine – as the Italian-designed Karmann-Ghia was doing for Volkswagen.

At a dinner party in Florida, the Renault men hatched Project R1092 (the Dauphine was R109). The car would later be named Floride, or Caravelle in the US, fearing interstate resistance.