Renault R16 then and now
01/11/2012
As a five-door hatchback, the Renault 16 was a milestone in 1965. The large tailgate gave access to the gigantic trunk. Thanks to the fold-down backrest, the family car could hold around 1600 liters.
Not even the spare wheel got in the way in the luggage compartment. It was stowed in the engine compartment, in front of the engine, on top of the gearbox. This was because the R16 had an engine installed longitudinally behind the gearbox and therefore offered enough space for the spare wheel behind the radiator and next to the battery.
A special feature of this car was the different wheelbase on the left and right - the difference was six centimeters - due to the rear axle design. The two torsion bars were one behind the other, but both axle rods were the same length, which resulted in a 6 cm shorter wheelbase on the right-hand side of the vehicle.
We recently discovered two more or less disintegrated R16 TSs on Tenerife.
The white vehicle, full to bursting with spare parts, probably serves the owner as a spare parts store for the blue R16.
More high-resolution pictures of the Renault R16 can be found in the Zwischengas archive .
