The Renaultvation continues

It's been a few months since the excitement of finding the Renault 6 hidden in Bob's garage and bringing it to its new home. A lot has happened since then and the car now looks very different from the dusty and forgotten relic we first clapped eyes on, although there is still a long way to go before it sees the road again. There has been a lot of frustration and the term 'because French' has been coined to describe its wilful idiosyncrasies that cause so much swearing and head-scratching, but an overwhelming outpouring of love and support from everyone who has come into contact with the car has kept us going.

It's come a long way from here. Still doesn't run though.

It quickly became the subject of the most popular thread ever on the Autoshite forum with over a hundred likes, and everyone is keen to see it recommissioned. The generosity of forum members is incredible, gladly offering advice and donating rare parts and literature to the cause for no more than the cost of postage, and massive thanks go to everyone who has contributed to the rescue of this rare car. Here's how things have progressed so far...

We're hoping it'll end up like this once more

Unsung heroes: Eagle Premier

This month the unsung heroes series returns to the USA with an especially bizarre choice that non-American readers will probably never have heard of and even Americans are likely to have forgotten. The Eagle Premier is a product of the 1980s, a dark time in US automotive history that created some frankly terrible cars, and if remembered at all is often cited as a perfect example of these with its unreliability and dull-as-ditchwater styling - a site called TheStreet.com even declared it the worst car of all time. I feel that is completely unfair: while the Premier may seem pretty boring it was actually very competent and quite innovative by American standards and I can think of cars that are far, far worse. Read on for the fascinating story behind this Franco-American crossbreed and how it should have shaken up the US motor industry. 

The perfect combination of American and European? It looks a bit like an Audi if you squint
(Image: allpar.com)

More Bobmobiles

Work on the Renault 6 continues at a steady pace and there will be an update soon. In the meantime, an envelope arrived a few weeks ago from Barry, who had been sorting Bob's photos and found some not just of our Renault but of various other cars he owned over the years. Looking at what he drove provides an interesting insight into his character: he seems to have been a Ford man originally before getting into Renaults, then towards the end of his life he had a couple of Vauxhalls. Even though he never married and spent his whole life living alone so he didn't really need two cars, there were times he owned more than one, and of course the R6 sat unused in the garage for more than 20 years while other cars came and went.

Magnum opus

The Renault Magnum in showland

If I was to ask you to name a typical British fairground lorry, chances are you'd say the classic duo of ERF and Foden, although with those marques gone for over a decade, nowadays Volvo, Scania and DAF are all making considerable inroads into showland at their expense. One manufacturer you probably wouldn't think of is Renault, and there are only a handful of this company's products to be found on the fairs and circuses of Britain.

The Renault Magnum however is one of my personal favourite types as it looks like nothing else on the road with its enormous boxy flat-floored cab and styling that must have been quite space-age at launch in 1991. My love for the Magnum no doubt comes from living in an area where my local fairs are frequently graced by at least one example, so this piece focuses on the Magnums I have photographed on the travelling scene in recent years.

A trio of fairground Magnums in one place, a very rare sight in this country

The Renault 6: a potted history

By now you should know all about how we found and rescued Bob's Renault 6, but it occurred to me that many of my readers might not know what a Renault 6 actually is. It was never an especially popular car when new and is now an uncommon sight even in its native France. There are only about 20 left in the UK, many of which are fairly recent imports, so it's fair to assume a lot of you will have never seen one or even heard of it. We had no intention of ever owning one and knew very little about them, so some research was called for. What exactly is a Renault 6 and what purpose did it serve?

An odd little car and a very rare sight even in France

Renault 6 rescue: part deux

I told you last time how we discovered my late friend Bob's Renault 6 that had been hidden away for 23 years, but where I left the story the car was still in his garage and no attempt had been made to move it. We went there purely to buy some model buses and had no idea we were going to find a car, so we were totally unprepared and had no tools with us on that first occasion. Here we pick up the action just over a week later, back in Rugby with the trusty Zafira packed to the rafters with tools to deal with any eventuality, including a six-foot scaffold pole for applying some brute force should that prove necessary. Transport had been arranged, thanks to Chris of Field of Dreams fame, so our aim was to get the car rolling so it could be moved out of the garage ready for the journey to its new home.

What have we let ourselves in for and will it come out of there?

Renault 6 rescue

A genuine garage find...

Isn't it every car enthusiast's dream to open up a long-forgotten garage and find a rare classic hidden inside? That dream still comes true surprisingly often and some amazing barn finds have been discovered in recent years, but I never thought it would happen to me. We were quite happy with the Maxi and weren't looking for another classic, and certainly had no intention of buying a Renault 6 but then this one unexpectedly found us and had to be saved. Read on for the story of its discovery after more than two decades hidden away in storage...