Renault Domaine - The leisure frigate
Summary
The Renault Frégate didn't have it easy. When it was still ahead of the competition, teething troubles ruined its reputation. By the time it had finally matured, it was already considered outdated again. The estate called Domaine was no different: it was stylish and spacious - but not stylish or spacious enough. This article tells the story of the first large Renault after the war with lots of historical images and sales literature and shows a Domaine from 1957 in color.
This article contains the following chapters
- Progressively premature
- The Frégate for the lord of the manor
- Automated to the end
- Spruced up for the present
Estimated reading time: 9min
Preview (beginning of the article)
When the Renault Domaine appeared at the end of 1956, its creator was already dead. Pierre Lefaucheux, director of the Renault plants since nationalization in January 1945, had crashed his Renault Frégate on 11 February 1955 - the mid-range saloon for which he had been an advocate and pioneer during his time in office and whose offshoot with a powerful rear end only appeared six years later. Although he was the driving force behind the project, Lefaucheux was by no means the initiator. As early as 1943, a prototype for a new "Grand Renault" had been created on the basis of the Primaquatre as a competitor to the Citroën 11 CV, but ironically the liberation of France had prevented this, as the factory had been destroyed in an Allied air raid. The death of Louis Renault in October 1944 sealed the end for the time being.
Continue reading this article for free?
Photos of this article
































































































































