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The French didn’t pioneer affordable transportation for the masses, but they did elevate the format into an art form.
First to arrive was the elegantly practical Citroën 2CV, followed by its homegrown rival, the hardy Renault 4.
Citroën’s groundbreaking ‘Deux Chevaux’ was a perfect recipe of utility, frugality, simplicity and ride comfort when it first appeared in 1948; 13 years later the little Renault – affectionately dubbed the Quatrelle – took that winning formula and repackaged it into a machine that became a bestseller.
Despite its success, the young pretender continued to have a serious rival in the 2CV and, in particular, the rare, Belgian-market AZAM 6 that first appeared in January 1965.
The quiet picture of a cream-coloured R4 sitting still in the dappled sunlight is interrupted by a furious thrum of an air-cooled twin breaking through the horizon.
The AZAM 6 owner is running late, having accidentally missed our meeting point by some miles, and in his effort to make our photoshoot on time we’re given a first-hand display of the 2CV’s unique attributes: namely, an ability to clear unlikely cross-country dashes with the sort of haste and gravity-defying angles you would never associate with such a simple, modestly powerful machine.
Disappointingly, Jason Thorpe doesn’t have a rattling crate of Orangina sitting on the back seat, nor the basket of eggs forever linked with period marketing campaigns, but the AZAM 6 is clearly a direct descendent of the earliest 2CVs, which were created shortly after WW2 almost exclusively for the impoverished farmers and smallholders of rural France.
Those earliest examples, with their corrugated bonnets and hammock seats, set the tone for a model that changed little as the years rolled by, even as orders waned and the world moved on.
But in the immediate post-war years the 2CV was a smash hit thanks to its basic platform chassis, long-travel suspension that reportedly allowed it to drive unperturbed over a freshly ploughed field – even more important when the road network in France was so poor – and an easy to maintain and reliable, if somewhat asthmatic, air-cooled 375cc two-cylinder engine.
Cheap-and-cheerful transportation for the masses was just what the doctor ordered as Europe recovered from the schism of total war, but as time wore on and the economy began to recover, people started wanting more from their cars than the 2CV could give.
Built with the architectural flair of a prefab garden shed, these cars were basic in the extreme as well as being mind-numbingly slow.
Even after the engine was increased in size to 425cc, the little Citroën was struggling to pull itself out of bed, let alone up to the heights of 60mph.
To make matters worse, Citroën’s rival Renault had been working on its own response to the ‘Tin Snail’.
Its car met all the requirements for practical, economy-focused motoring that had made the 2CV such a success, but added to the mix a sense of luxury and modernity.
The Renault 4 hit showrooms in October 1961, taking aim squarely at the rural market enjoyed by the 2CV.
Like the Citroën, the R4 featured a separate body and chassis, front-wheel drive and fully independent suspension, with a huge cargo area ideal for light work around the farm.
Crucially, though, it was powered by a 747cc water-cooled four-cylinder engine, which not only made it quieter and more refined than the agricultural Citroën, but allowed it to reach speeds more suited to the emerging autoroutes.
The world went mad for it, and by 1963 sales had outstripped those of the flagging 2CV.
Citroën might have been down, but it wasn’t quite out. It punched back in 1963 with the AZAM, an upmarket version with Ami 6 hubcaps and new brightwork for the windscreen and window surrounds, plus half-moon doorhandles, and chrome-plated headlamp accents and wiper arms.
Most striking were the bold hoops fitted to the front and rear bumpers.
“It featured better interior trim and a plastic capillary steering wheel,” says Thorpe. “And 1963 was also the year the 18bhp, 425cc engine was introduced, again to counter the threat from the Renault.”
The AZAM went some way to bridge the gap to the posher Ami, but it was the Belgian AZAM 6 that made the best account of itself, being based on the Ami 6 floorpan and benefiting from that car’s more powerful 602cc engine.
“These were launched in 1965,” says Thorpe, motioning to his well-patinated yet honest example.
“There was a strong collaboration between Citroën Benelux and Citroën Switzerland: the cars were built in Belgium exclusively for the Swiss market, but they were very popular in Holland.
“Some 697 went to Germany, and others to the rest of northern Europe. You even find them in Sweden and Norway.
“They stopped building them in late 1967 because the Forest plant in Belgium was turned over to Dyane and van production.”
Describing any 2CV as a luxury model is a stretch and, despite the pretty stainless-steel and chrome accents, anyone outside the Deux Chevaux community – and even a few within it – will struggle to spot an AZAM 6 from more than a dozen paces.
Bumper hoops and badging aside, the biggest difference comes when you get behind the wheel, where the extra power from the 26bhp engine makes the car a touch more usable.
It’s still far from a fireball off the line, and the remote gearchange, controlled by moving the dashboard lever back and forth, and rotating it left and right in its steel tube, still requires the patience of a saint to avoid graunching gears.
But get it up to speed and it hustles along quite nicely. It’s here that the supple yet slightly terrifying suspension travel comes into its own, allowing the committed owner to barrel through corners at apparently illogical speeds.
The Belgians had previous experience when it came to improving the 2CV, being the first to offer different colours, separate front seats and windscreen washers.
The AZAM 6 added a third side window and constant-velocity driveshafts, and was the first 2CV to break the 100kph mark.
Both of these cars embody the spirit of their respective models.
The 2CV remains largely original: careworn and threadbare; unrestored and unmodified; and used very much as its maker intended.
The Renault 4 fully embraces the fresh outlook of its original design, and represents an evolution of the concept.
Unlike the preservation Citroën, this Quatrelle has been reconfigured to create the perfect example.
“About 12 years ago a good friend of mine, Malcolm, decided to build his ultimate R4,” explains Stuart Delahoy, a serial collector of Renault 4s and the recent new owner of his uprated dream machine.
“He started with a basic right-hand-drive UK car, before completely stripping it. The issue is the platform chassis: they’re a bit like a Beetle, the rear suspension area corrodes.
“The only way to repair it properly is to take the body off the chassis. That’s what killed most of them back in the day when they were maybe 10 or 12 years old.”
“Around the same time,” he continues, “I discovered a Renault 5 Gordini locally, which used essentially the same family of engine that the later Renault 4s have.
“We both shared the same vision of what we would ultimately like out of the car, which was a machine that looked absolutely standard with no wide wheels, no lowering, and original bench seats and interior.
“So from the outside it would look exactly like a factory 850, which is harder to engineer than you might imagine.”
The home mechanic set about removing the original 845cc Ventoux engine and transmission, before replacing them with the 1397cc Renault ‘Sierra’-derived motor and five-speed manual gearbox, both of which had been meticulously rebuilt.
The car was then modified to accept disc brakes, which necessitated sourcing steel wheels from an R6, because the original wheels didn’t clear the new calipers.
“Malcolm did a beautiful job of the car but didn’t really use it,” says Delahoy.
“We got chatting and he said he was thinking about selling a few cars, and I said, ‘Well if you ever sell that, you know who to sell it to!’ A few months later it was mine.”
Without lifting the bonnet you would be hard pressed to know that there was anything non-standard about Delahoy’s Renault 4, which betrays the quality of the rebuild.
It’s finished to an impressively high standard, from the depth of the paintwork to the interior details, such as the coloured plastic steering wheel.
Inside, it feels eerily reminiscent of the 2CV, though the pioneering rear hatch gives a sense of space missing from the Citroën.
Yet it’s the similarities that make it clear that both cars were marketed to the same audience, not least the equally quirky dash-mounted gearchanges.
Delahoy laments the clutch feel and says it’s one of many things on his to-do list, but the pedal has a smooth action that’s a delight to use compared with its rival.
Anyone who’s driven an R4 before, however, will be surprised first by the revs required to get it moving, and then the eagerness with which the needle flicks around the auxiliary tachometer.
“It’s a standard engine, but it’s in quite a high state of tune so it ’s quite cammy,” says Delahoy. “It likes a few revs – it can bog down if you haven’t got them up.”
The modded Renault is sprightly rather than fast, but the engine’s eagerness to perform transforms the car from a period novelty into usable transport: neither hills nor modern traffic spark a cold panic.
Delahoy, also the owner of an early, totally original 850, is well placed to compare.
“If I had the two next to each other, absolutely no contest, I’d take my 850,” he says, catching us off guard.
“But for certain journeys it’s a challenge: such as driving to France. The Newhaven-to-Dieppe ferry chucks you out on to the autoroute at eight in the morning, and it is just carnage because you are trying to do 50mph with Audis and BMWs hacking all over the place.
It really feels as if you are in danger. In contrast, this will do 75mph all day, everyday, so it’s a much more usable car.”
Comparing a completely preserved 2CV with are built and warmed-over Renault 4 was never going to be a fair comparison in performance terms – but then it never really was in period, either.
The Citroën arguably has more charm, the model surviving on a sense of national nostalgia for longer than anyone would have predicted.
Its Régie rival is only slightly less endearing, and in all other respects marks a huge improvement over the Chevron-badged car.
That it managed to do so while also being cheap enough to attract the same low-income demographic that had held such fondness for the 2CV is a minor miracle.
The Renault 4 edges the 2CV in most areas, but it speaks volumes about the enduring appeal of both designs that they continued to roll off production lines until the early ’90s – not only in France, but across the world, from Chile and Yugoslavia to Algeria and Morocco.
More than 13 million buyers can’t be wrong.
Images: Luc Lacey
Factfiles
Citroën AZAM 6
- Sold/number built 1965-’67/5,114,966 (all 2CVs)
- Construction steel platform chassis with separate steel body
- Engine all-alloy, ohv 602cc flat-twin, single Solex carburettor
- Max power 26bhp @ 4750rpm
- Max torque 30lb ft @ 3000rpm
- Transmission four-speed manual, FWD
- Suspension: front leading arms, friction dampers rear trailing arms, telescopic dampers; horizontal interlinked coils f/r
- Steering rack and pinion
- Brakes drums
- Length 12ft 7in (3830mm)
- Width 4ft 10in (1480mm)
- Height 5ft 3in (1600mm)
- Wheelbase 7ft 10½in (2400mm)
- Weight 1290lb (585kg)
- Mpg 40
- 0-60mph 30 secs
- Top speed 65mph
- Price new £536 (1962)
- Price now £10-20,000*
Renault 4L
- Sold/number built 1961-’92/8,135,434 (all R4s)
- Construction steel platform chassis with separate steel body
- Engine iron-block, alloy-head, ohv 845cc ‘four’, single Solex carburettor
- Max power 30bhp @ 4700rpm
- Max torque 43lb ft @ 2300rpm
- Transmission four-speed manual, FWD
- Suspension independent, at front by upper wishbones, lower transverse arms rear staggered trailing arms; torsion bars, telescopic dampers f/r
- Steering rack and pinion
- Brakes drums
- Length 12ft (3658mm)
- Width 4ft 10in (1480mm)
- Height 5ft (1524mm)
- Wheelbase 7ft 10¼in (2394mm, left)/8ft ¼in (2445mm, right)
- Weight 1410lb (640kg)
- Mpg 40
- 0-60mph 38 secs
- Top speed 68mph
- Price new £616 (1962)
- Price now £5-10,000*
*Prices correct at date of original publication
Keyword: Cheaper by the million: Citroën AZAM 6 vs Renault 4L