You know what I like? Rear-engined Renaults. I think there’s plenty of reasons to enjoy the Renaults with the rear revvers, from the 4CV to the Dauphine to the Alpines to the one I want to talk about now, the R8. Where the 4CV and Dauphine had a curvy, jelly-mold charm to them, the R8 and the later, larger R10 derivative were products of the rectliniarism of the ’60s. But there’s one thing I’ve just realized about the R8 that I’m excited to talk about with all of you, so, you know, prepare accordingly.
I mean, there’s multiple things about the R8 that I feel like are worthy of talking about first thing in the morning, but I think the one I want to focus on has special resonance today. I noticed these things, by the way, in this 1969 Renault brochure.
Of course, there’s other stuff that excites me, too that I saw in the brochure, like this picture of the R8’s rear luggage well:
I’m not going to lie; I love a good luggage well in a rear-engine car. Most rear engined cars seem to have something like this, usually above the transmission, and varying pretty wildly in size and shape. The R8 has a somewhat narrow one with decent depth, but wide enough to accommodate a fishing rod. Also, I love that someone involved in the making of this brochure had to got out and find a wicker basket-case of just the right dimensions to fit perfectly in that little volume.
There was plenty of other luggage room in the R8, as you can see in this picture of its pretty voluminous front trunk, incredibly well packed with saffron-colored luggage. And a battery.
I’ve teased you enough, though. I mean, that’s a fantastic cutaway drawing there, and I thought perhaps it would distract you, allowing me to build a bit more drama before I reveal this:
Oh yeah, that’s right, look at that! Look at those HVAC controls! They’re magnificent! See what’s going on there? The controls are shaped based on their functions! The up and down fan buttons are shaped like up and down arrows! The temperature slider is a little sorta hourglass shape! You can feel the different controls without even looking at them, like how aircraft control handle knobs are shaped:
I’ve never really seen this before on a car, and in this era of way too many controls being shoved into some menu on a flat touchscreen, it feels more powerful and important than ever to see how things could be, if we gave a damn about keeping eyes on the road.
I’ve not had the chance to mess with Renault 8 controls in person, and now I desperately want to. I hope this idea catches on again – these shaped knobs and buttons look cool, and, I suspect, probably feel great, too.
What a world!
Those controls are just amazing design. They’re lovely to look at, sure, but in terms of functionality, they may be the polar opposite of touchscreen controls in a submenu. Amazing design, sorry for repeating myself.
Off-topic: I may or may not have just realised that the spare tire in the R8 seems to be hidden behind a swivelling license plate holder, as in the Dauphine. That’s also pretty damn good design for rear-engined cars.
I don’t fancy all that battery acid spilling all over my nice leather luggage.
I had one R8 when I was in college, bought it for the equivalent of $200 from an elderly neighbor.
Because of its very tall tires it was great on rutted unpaved roads, so I used to take my gf or bunch of friends to a small secluded lake between hills.
Right before we got off regular roads, there was a railway crossing where you had to go up-and-over the embakment, and that was agreat spot to floor it and catch a lot of air before landing on the other side. A few of those landings ended up with the engine cutting off because the battery would jump out of its location and I had to open the frunk and reconnect and secure it in its spot, but it never got cracked of damaged where it would spill its acid.
I’ve never seen that before, so THANKS Jason! 🙂 I’ve only been in a few small planes, and none recently, but I only remember there being a LOT of controls (compared to the average car, other than perhaps some late-model Panameras ;-)).
All that expensive luggage sharing space with a lead-acid battery made my eye twitch
Following this logic, the horn button should be a middle finger.
R-8’s never had air conditioning – at least cooling. They did have heat of course.
I liked how R-8’s drove, they had a nice ride but didn’t lean like Citroens of the era.
My favorite HVAC controls were in my 1990 E30 325i.
Three horizontal sliders, each controlling the airflow at their relevant levels (Defrost,Dash,Floor). On one side of the slides there was a temperature knob… on the other side a fan speed knob. It was simple, intuitive, and could be adjusted by feel.
BMWs from that era are the only cars I have ever driven that let me set the airflow anywhere I wanted… say 1/3 defrost, the floor ducts open all the way, and just a touch through the dash outlets. All flowing A/C at full cold! Whatever you choose! It was glorious.
I have an e24 and I agree with you, but you wouldn’t believe the number of people that find that confusing. I suspect it’s because IT IS intuitive and simple. That said, hope you never have to repair that stuff..
As intuitive as the controls are the engineering seems very Rube Goldberg, power transistors to control fan speed buried deep in the bowels of the car, transistors behind the fan speed knob.. It’s like someone in Munich hired a EE and they decided to see how many discrete semiconductors they could bury in an automobile. That said, the do got the Visual Torque.
I would good money for a retrofit onto my
Wrangler… god I hate digital climate controls!
The better and simpler version was only available in the most basic trims unfortunately!
The right-sized wicker basket is a fishing creel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creel_(basket)
It fits perfectly, and leaves room for their rod and… *squints… iPhone?
Box of lures.
that’s just their tackle box Lock Screen.
Good (alternative) name for an iPhone 🙂
I remember when I was a teenager and first rode in a Mercedes 300SD, I was impressed by the fact that the power-seat controls were shaped like a seat and made perfect sense – you move the little backrest to move the actual backrest, and so on.
Up to that point, I’d only ridden in craptastic American cars occasionally that had two little chrome rocker switches and a tiny chrome joystick and made no sense at all. My family only owned air-cooled VW’s where everything was manual.
Most if not all Mercedes still have seat controls like that – my E350 wagon does. I hate grubbing around with my hand jammed between seat and door to work the seat.
I know Volvo have (or had) this too, so did Volvo copy Mercedes seat controls or vice versa?
I have owned 14 Volvos from ’76 to ’04, and driven lots newer than ’04 (most recently a ’25 XC60 rental last week) but not EVERY model – I have never seen one with seat controls on the door. Which model stole it from Mercedes? They debuted with the W126 S-Class in 1979, and AFAIK were a Mercedes innovation.
Other companies have done it too – Ford for sure.
Arg. I think I was misremembering.
Volvo starting with the v70 had that seating human shaped body in the center console for the vent controls
My grandmother, in the 1980s, had a Cougar CR7. And if I recall correctly, the wiper knob was octagonal, and the headlight knob was round. And they were right next to each other. I always thought it was a good idea because you could feel the difference.
A buddy had an R8 back in the day. Took 135R15 tires. Buddy couldn’t find any. Put 2 F78 15 on the rear. Uh…taller tire! Jacked up the rear. Went too fast on an on-ramp and the R8 was no fun. It fell right over. On it’s side. Busted out some of the windows. I think it broke his pride too. Au Revoir R8.
Very cool! Certainly better than the confusing HVAC controls on my Vanagon, which spawned an aftermarket business for labels that explain what they do.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/580510ced2b85715b2d430bd/1477070130676-VIIATB4XPTTBJRH41KOF/climate-control-decal-1.jpg?format=750w
Did it give out heat? I’ve driven a number of T2s and using the colour red on the heater controls would be misrepresentation.
It’s water cooled, so yes! When the blower is working, that is…
Had a 1990 Jetta Gli. On a Long road trip from Eastern most IA to Colorado… somewhere in the middle of Nebraska I heard this God awful mechanical screech that was bad enough I pulled off the road immediately and shut the car off thinking something catastrophic had happened under the hood as the noise seemed to come from there.
Turned out to be the interior blower fan! If I had the fan on the lowest setting (which was most commonly used), it howled like a stuck pig, using the fan on the other settings there was no (unusual) sounds.
I took this as my “warning” the bearings in the blower motor were on their way out and I replaced the blower motor after completing the trip. That job turned out to actually be relatively OK as far as maintenance jobs on a VW… so minimal swearing and only a few scrapes and minimal body contortions needed.
OK, that’s delightful.
I kind of became obsessed with the R8 when watching Monkeys Go Home! just once as a kid.
Also don’t forget the AWESOME Gordini version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eZKGU3LTZU
That Gordini version is the stuff that dreams are made of. A friend and I are thinking about buying one of those 1 Euro Italian houses to redo, he (a contractor builder) because his wife is of Italian descent, and me because I want a place to park what I can’t have here on the doorstep of Europe.
The French probably win for building the most cars that can be described as “delightful” throughout history, with probably Kei cars being next up.
That wicker basket is a creel used to store caught fish while continuing to fish. Its shape is designed to have useful storage while being light and unobtrusive to casting and catching. Very much in keeping with the fishing gear motif in the photo.
I haven’t fished much in 40+ years, but as soon as that part of the image scrolled into view, my reaction was “hey, that looks like the creel I had as a kid!”
Wonderful. Logic.
Since my Porsche 356’s heat handle is down on the floor in front of the gear lever, I can never look at it while driving, and I have to remember the german “auf und zu” directions, like on a gas bottle or old water tap, which makes absolute as much sense the wrong way around as the right way: So “auf” is opening the wire/flap system up, so the heat is ON. But “auf” also kind of means off, like when you screw a lid of a bottle… Furthermore it is only moveable when the car isn’t in gear…
They could take this a lot further. A little umbrella to control the wipers; it rotates on the canopy-shaped part, and the handle points to the settings. A flashlight-shaped lever to control the lights. A giant arrow that you grip like a baseball bat and swing around to steer…
I’m afraid to ask how the choke would be represented.