Saved from the scrapyard: the Riffard-Renault Tank
The fact that the Riffard-Renault Tank survived to make an appearance at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard at all owes a lot to fate. It has been crashed, rebodied and, at one time, ended up in a scrapyard. Despite its chequered past, it has come through it all and, early in 2018, was bought by Renault Classic to be added to its collection of historic road and race cars.
As you have no doubt gathered, the Riffard-Renault’s history is complicated. Its tubular spaceframe chassis and mechanicals came from one of two Renault engined Guepards built in the early 1950s. That car, which used the engine from a Renault 4CV, was driven by Paul Bobet in the 1954 Bol d’Or where it finished 22ndout of 26 finishers. It was a subsequent crash that led it to become the Riffard-Renault you see today.
Following the accident, Bobet decided to have the car rebodied with a view to taking on the world speed record for 750cc cars. He enlisted renowned aerodynamicist and engineer Marcel Riffard to design the body, and he took lessons from aviation – where he conducted most of his work – to create the wing-shaped form you see today. It was crafted by coachbuilder Heuliez in Cerizay. It officially became known as the Riffard-Renault in 1956.
Details of the car’s competition history are sketchy, but it’s known that it competed at Montlhery at least twice in 1956, crashing out of its last outing. It was repaired after two years and then taken on by the Agaci driving school at Montlhery, but remained unused before ending up in a scrapyard in 1968. Fortunately it was discovered and bought a year later before becoming a museum piece and eventually ran again in 1997 thanks a former mechanic at the Briare museum.
The Festival this year was the car’s first public appearance since Renault Classic bought the car for more than double its upper estimate last year.
It’s an odd looking creation, that’s for sure, but as such a unique machine, with such an interesting past, we’re very grateful it made it out of the scrapyard.
Photography by Joe Harding and Motorsport Images.