my Dad was a mechanic at a Renault dealer in the mid 60s and the tip was to put a sand bag in the trunk if taking it on the hiway. Semis would blow you off the road otherwise.
Time to make a trip to Home Depot and buy some panel board , then stop at a fabric store for some Vegan leather, and get busy making up some door panel cards for the Renault.
There *used* to be some decent fabric stores in the area - but they closed in the last handful of years. I used to buy fabric in those places. Any more, you’ll need to go online to get decent fabric.
i was talking to a Chevy Corvair owner last month at a car show and he runs his front tires at like 26 to 27 psi to make the steering feel right at 55 mph. but mostly i think it needs a 4 wheel alignment and wheels balanced.
These cars were better looking and had 4 doors vs a Bug. Hindsight is 20/20 but had they used American Motors to sell and service them with parts support they would have faired better. They also needed more powerful engine to cruise at interstate speeds and ziebart rust proofing. Too bad the French never understood the North American market.
I'm travelling to the US (N. Carolina) hopefully sometime in October, if there are any Renault Dauphine parts you'd like me to buy (UK or Europe). I see there are some hood badges on Ebay and Dauphine trunk badges and front blinker lenses for sale. There is a front bumper on Ebay UK for around $39, but much too big for a suitcase. I can then forward post to you while I'm in the US, then please let me know.
The car probably needs a good 4 wheel alignment and all 4 wheels & tires balanced. The toe-in front and rear must be off to make it so skittish at highway speeds.
This! Tire store inflated my '60 beetle to 32, and it was very skittish until I lowered psi to I believe 24. Drove well, and tires didn't wear quick. 😊
You could use your GPS as a speedometer. I think this is my favorite car in your collection.. Can you get a sway bar for the front end? Im sure you can find the right fix.
I think stylistically the Dauphine was the best looking rear engined car Renault produced. The later square bodied R8 and R10 had a lot more luggage space and the redesigned engine was very robust and far superior to the Dauphine engine.. The cooling system was reworked - it was the first to capture overflow coolant and return it to the system when it cooled. By this time they had discovered an issue with the airflow at high speeds with the Dauphine. At low speeds the air entered at the rear doors and was pulled through by the fan and went out through the vents at the rear of the car. But as speed increased air flowing over the top of the car came down just ahead of these vents and the high pressure air hindered the hot engine air, causing the car to run warmer and warmer. On the R8-10 they turned the cooling air flow on it's head. They moved the radiator to the rear of the engine compartment to a steel partition that was about ten inches from the rear of the car. Above the cavity formed by the partition was an intake air grille facing up to catch the high pressure air flowing over the roof. The fan, on the engine side of the radiator, pulled air backwards through the radiator. There were two metal shields at the bottom of the engine compartment, one on each side. They had a slope to them to the rear which caused a low pressure area and this helped to draw out the hot air. A pretty ingenious way to do it. As to the steering issues - someone else has already mentioned the springs. Additionally they are very sensitive to tire pressures. I don't know if the inflation chart is still there or not but the front tires were supposed to have a much lower pressure than the rear. I looked online and found that the factory recommended pressures were 15 pounds front, 23 pounds rear. I can tell you from experience that going much higher than this will make the car really skittish. My dad's had a flat and he was in front of a tire dealer he did business with when he had Nash cars and the ones he had ate tires for breakfast. So he drove the Renault in and they patched the tube and as he was leaving they mentioned that they had put more air in the rest of his tires. He had a devil of a time keeping it on the road. He picked me up and described his problems and mentioned the repair. I was the one who kept the tire pressures up, so long as it wasn't flat he was happy. I told him to let me check them before we left. The front ones were almost double, the rear ones were too high. I lowered them to spec and he couldn't believe the difference. In those days Renault put Michelin tires on it's US cars, so if you are running bias ply tires you might have to add a pound or so. In those days Michelin tires always looked low compared to no gradual tires and folks would often tell us our tires were low.
Lowering the car by cutting the springs shorter is the reason why that car doesn't feel right on the road. It is a huge mistake to make, you altered the way the springs work. It is possible they also sit wrong in their cups. There are specially made lowering springs for a reason.😅
I’d heard that those old Renaults were a pretty popular and cheap form of transportation back in their day and they sold a bunch of them. That was before my time, though, and I can’t say I’ve seen more than a few still running since the 1980s. I guess people “used them up and tossed them out” by the time I came around and was old enough to appreciate seeing them around. Someday, I might just find a Renault Caravelle that I can afford, is in good enough condition, and have room to store inside? A bucket list car for me!
That OTAS is a very rare and desirable car. It's on my bucket list of small cars that I would love to own. One just sold on Bring-A-Trailer for a significant amount of money,
Abarth made a version of the OTAS that used the drivetrain from the 1300/124 which was based on the 850 Coupe. The engine was a bored out 124 sedan pushrod unit that started out as an 1197cc. The 850 engine runs “backwards “ ( ccw). Abarth made a helical gear pair to replace the 124’s chain drive cam. A special starter and a custom bellhousing and a custom engine mount cradle plus a 3.70 ring and pinion to replace the 4:88 of the 850cc transaxle.
Had a coupe of those. A 63 was really good. Drove great didnt overheat (much), just the oil leaks. The other one sucked in every way!. You should find a 4CV. Way better (IMHO!). Love, Dubs
12 hours ago i went to see a Honda N600 for sale for $1000. Problem was the guy had like 30 cars for sale. I really need a daily driver that is road worthy. One of the best cars he got he want $2000 for. Even if it cost twice as much i think i will save money in spending less on parts and stuff. Its a 1957 Fiat 1100B with what i think is original paint. I really need more space for my growing fleet of cars.
I saw your carburation problems but think I only caught a bit of your overheating problems and connecting the heater matrix. I don't know anything about them, but would it be belt and braces for the cooling issues or a waste of time? What do you know about waterless coolants? I understand they have a higher boiling point but a lower specific heat capacity.
Tire pressure is very critical. Try about 18lbs to 22lbs in the front. My dad had a 1959 Renault and it would be fine to the top end speed of 65. So lower the tire pressure.
Jack the Dauphene up front first spin each front tire looking at the tire from the side looking for side to side motion. Repeat the process looking from the front and looking for up and down motion. Either indicates out of balance condition. Repeat at the rear wheels. Note also vibration throughout the seat of the car or steering wheel.
I think the fool thing was not built to do over about 45 MPH. The fact that you can is realy because for what they were they were well built They were not fast and i think they had only 20 Hp. Have fun.
my Dad was a mechanic at a Renault dealer in the mid 60s and the tip was to put a sand bag in the trunk if taking it on the hiway. Semis would blow you off the road otherwise.
@@flyingarts6765 we put two sandbags in our corvair
Time to make a trip to Home Depot and buy some panel board , then stop at a fabric store for some Vegan leather, and get busy making up some door panel cards for the Renault.
There *used* to be some decent fabric stores in the area - but they closed in the last handful of years. I used to buy fabric in those places.
Any more, you’ll need to go online to get decent fabric.
I believe that the the front tires take a lower air pressure than the rear tires on these. That can affect steering on the freeway.
i was talking to a Chevy Corvair owner last month at a car show and he runs his front tires at like 26 to 27 psi to make the steering feel right at 55 mph. but mostly i think it needs a 4 wheel alignment and wheels balanced.
These cars were better looking and had 4 doors vs a Bug. Hindsight is 20/20 but had they used American Motors to sell and service them with parts support they would have faired better. They also needed more powerful engine to cruise at interstate speeds and ziebart rust proofing. Too bad the French never understood the North American market.
I'm travelling to the US (N. Carolina) hopefully sometime in October, if there are any Renault Dauphine parts you'd like me to buy (UK or Europe). I see there are some hood badges on Ebay and Dauphine trunk badges and front blinker lenses for sale. There is a front bumper on Ebay UK for around $39, but much too big for a suitcase. I can then forward post to you while I'm in the US, then please let me know.
The car probably needs a good 4 wheel alignment and all 4 wheels & tires balanced. The toe-in front and rear must be off to make it so skittish at highway speeds.
Just for the hell of it, try the factory recommend tire pressure in that Dauphene.
This! Tire store inflated my '60 beetle to 32, and it was very skittish until I lowered psi to I believe 24. Drove well, and tires didn't wear quick. 😊
You could use your GPS as a speedometer. I think this is my favorite car in your collection..
Can you get a sway bar for the front end? Im sure you can find the right fix.
I think stylistically the Dauphine was the best looking rear engined car Renault produced. The later square bodied R8 and R10 had a lot more luggage space and the redesigned engine was very robust and far superior to the Dauphine engine.. The cooling system was reworked - it was the first to capture overflow coolant and return it to the system when it cooled. By this time they had discovered an issue with the airflow at high speeds with the Dauphine. At low speeds the air entered at the rear doors and was pulled through by the fan and went out through the vents at the rear of the car. But as speed increased air flowing over the top of the car came down just ahead of these vents and the high pressure air hindered the hot engine air, causing the car to run warmer and warmer.
On the R8-10 they turned the cooling air flow on it's head. They moved the radiator to the rear of the engine compartment to a steel partition that was about ten inches from the rear of the car. Above the cavity formed by the partition was an intake air grille facing up to catch the high pressure air flowing over the roof. The fan, on the engine side of the radiator, pulled air backwards through the radiator. There were two metal shields at the bottom of the engine compartment, one on each side. They had a slope to them to the rear which caused a low pressure area and this helped to draw out the hot air. A pretty ingenious way to do it.
As to the steering issues - someone else has already mentioned the springs. Additionally they are very sensitive to tire pressures. I don't know if the inflation chart is still there or not but the front tires were supposed to have a much lower pressure than the rear. I looked online and found that the factory recommended pressures were 15 pounds front, 23 pounds rear. I can tell you from experience that going much higher than this will make the car really skittish. My dad's had a flat and he was in front of a tire dealer he did business with when he had Nash cars and the ones he had ate tires for breakfast. So he drove the Renault in and they patched the tube and as he was leaving they mentioned that they had put more air in the rest of his tires. He had a devil of a time keeping it on the road. He picked me up and described his problems and mentioned the repair. I was the one who kept the tire pressures up, so long as it wasn't flat he was happy. I told him to let me check them before we left. The front ones were almost double, the rear ones were too high. I lowered them to spec and he couldn't believe the difference.
In those days Renault put Michelin tires on it's US cars, so if you are running bias ply tires you might have to add a pound or so. In those days Michelin tires always looked low compared to no gradual tires and folks would often tell us our tires were low.
Lowering the car by cutting the springs shorter is the reason why that car doesn't feel right on the road. It is a huge mistake to make, you altered the way the springs work. It is possible they also sit wrong in their cups. There are specially made lowering springs for a reason.😅
We run cut springs (as per regulations) in circuit racing, it's not always an issue to run cuts 😅
Caster angle will be sharper from cutting the front springs, could account for the skittishness.
I’d heard that those old Renaults were a pretty popular and cheap form of transportation back in their day and they sold a bunch of them. That was before my time, though, and I can’t say I’ve seen more than a few still running since the 1980s. I guess people “used them up and tossed them out” by the time I came around and was old enough to appreciate seeing them around. Someday, I might just find a Renault Caravelle that I can afford, is in good enough condition, and have room to store inside? A bucket list car for me!
That OTAS is a very rare and desirable car. It's on my bucket list of small cars that I would love to own. One just sold on Bring-A-Trailer for a significant amount of money,
The Abarth versions go for much more. One of my favorites. Abarth 1300 Scorpione
With the light weight front, wouldn't the front end alignment be more critical? Maybe that is why the front feels so 'light' and 'twitchy'.
You lowered the front steepening the casterr angle and putting the toe out of whack which would account for the twitchy steering
Love it What year is your Renault Delphine Gordini?
1966
Love your Dauphine adventures !
It's always exciting driving an old French car!
Thanks for video, never heard of an OTAS before
Funny how gas prices go down just before election day.
$2.89 in Oklahoma
@@tombob671 what , for a dozen small eggs?
Abarth made a version of the OTAS that used the drivetrain from the 1300/124 which was based on the 850 Coupe. The engine was a bored out 124 sedan pushrod unit that started out as an 1197cc. The 850 engine runs “backwards “ ( ccw). Abarth made a helical gear pair to replace the 124’s chain drive cam. A special starter and a custom bellhousing and a custom engine mount cradle plus a 3.70 ring and pinion to replace the 4:88 of the 850cc transaxle.
Had a coupe of those. A 63 was really good. Drove great didnt overheat (much), just the oil leaks. The other one sucked in every way!. You should find a 4CV. Way better (IMHO!). Love, Dubs
The twitchiness is likely toe out on the front wheels. It might also benefit from some more caster angle, if that is adjustable, for self-centering.
12 hours ago i went to see a Honda N600 for sale for $1000. Problem was the guy had like 30 cars for sale. I really need a daily driver that is road worthy. One of the best cars he got he want $2000 for. Even if it cost twice as much i think i will save money in spending less on parts and stuff. Its a 1957 Fiat 1100B with what i think is original paint. I really need more space for my growing fleet of cars.
At 1:45, he passes within about a mile or so of where I live.
I saw your carburation problems but think I only caught a bit of your overheating problems and connecting the heater matrix. I don't know anything about them, but would it be belt and braces for the cooling issues or a waste of time? What do you know about waterless coolants? I understand they have a higher boiling point but a lower specific heat capacity.
The best car show today was in canby oregon
Tire pressure is very critical. Try about 18lbs to 22lbs in the front. My dad had a 1959 Renault and it would be fine to the top end speed of 65. So lower the tire pressure.
I never thought of that 🤔, I put 37 psi in front tires to make it steer easier, they are newish radials .
Jack the Dauphene up front first spin each front tire looking at the tire from the side looking for side to side motion. Repeat the process looking from the front and looking for up and down motion. Either indicates out of balance condition. Repeat at the rear wheels. Note also vibration throughout the seat of the car or steering wheel.
Maybe needs a bit more toe-in?
I think the fool thing was not built to do over about 45 MPH. The fact that you can is realy because for what they were they were well built
They were not fast and i think they had only 20 Hp. Have fun.