1956

The following timeline of Renault cars was produced by the Renault Club of the Czech Republic.

1939 - The war started and production of civilian cars had been stopped. Only a few pieces of Juvaquatre and Primaquatre with a hydraulic braking system were produced. During those years all of the firms in the area occupied by Germany were forced to produce for Germany. Louis Renault tried his best to slow the production as much as possible. Development of the French "Beetle" continued under security measures and the prototype, called 4CV, was born on December 23rd 1942.

1942-43 - Allies bombed Renault`s factories. About 80% of the machinery, buildings and raw materials were destroyed.

1944 - Louis was arrested and imprisoned because of collaboration with Germans. He died during the investigations on October 24th 1944. Rumours that he was poisoned started to appear immediately after his death.

1945 - Even without Louis, the name Renault lived on. In January, Charles de Gaulle decided to nationalize Renault company. The name of the company was changed to Regié Nationale des Usines Renault. 21,000 people had been employed in the factory; 12,000 vehicles were produced, but just about a half of dozen of it were cars.

1946 - Production of the passenger cars was relaunched again that year. Renault produced 8,500 cars, most of them being of a Juvaquatre type with saloon or estate body. They had hydraulic brakes and dampers.

1947 - The first production car 4CV was produced in August. A legend was born.

1948 - Renault had 40,000 employees. 96,000 cars were produced.

1950 - Production of Renault Frégate started.

1951 - 4CV`d won 24hrs race Le Mans in its category. The Renault company was the first to start a diesel-engine tractor production.

1952 - Prototype of Renault Dauphine was presented.

1954 - The 1,000,000th car after the nationalization and 2,000,000th since the founding of the company was produced. Serial production of Renault Dauphine started.

1956 - The company received information about Amédé Gordini`s financial problems. As a direct result a contract was signed regarding the production of a modified Dauphine model. One of Renault's eminent dealers founded the RDL company and the first Alpine 106 was born that year. It was based on Renault 4CV and equipped with a GRP body designed by Michelotti.

1957 - A new model of Renault, Dauphine Gordini, was introduced during the Paris Motor Show. Preliminary works on new prototypes R4, R8 and R16 commenced that year.

1959 - Renault car company became the world's 6th largest car producer. Production of models Caravelle and Floride, based on the Dauphine model, which was shorter started as well.

1960 - Production of Alpine 110 "Tour de France" commenced. The model gained great popularity.

1961 - On 4th June the last 4CV car left the factory. It bore a number 1105543. After 16 years 4CV was dead -- long live R4! The first R4 was produced on the 3rd August 1961. Total production of this model reached 8,126,200!

1962 - The first R8 was manufactured. It was the first production car with disc brakes on all of 4 wheels.

1964 - On the 22nd June the first R8 Gordini left the factory. It was a sports car derived from R8 Major.

1965 - The first R16 left the factory gates. It had another primacy as well - the first Renault car with the title "the car of the year" and the first car ever with a hatchback body.

1968 - Production of a little sister of R16, R6 started. It never achieved the same popularity as its older sibling. R6 had 850 ccm engine capacity and following review from contemporary press: "It does not matter how much you throttle it will not bother it anyway".

1969 - Renault presented a new model - R12. It was to become a very popular model produced under license in Romania (Dacia car), and in Brasil.

1970 - Production of R8 Gordini was over and R12 Gordini took its place. There were about 10,000 units of R8 Gordini manufactured in total.

1971 - Production of R15/17 and new Alpine A 310 was started.