LOST RENAULT RACE CAR | America's First Postwar Renault Race Car Found in a Field!

Here's a great summary of the importance and history of this car, written by our friend Marvin McFalls for Hemmings:
"Renault specials are fairly rare, especially in the United States, and I had the honor of uncovering possibly the two most famous examples: the Louis Rosier Special as well as the second prototype built for Jean Rédélé. If these names sound familiar, Rosier was France’s only post-war racing Champion, winning the 24 Hours of LeMans as well as a number of Grand Prixes. Rédélé founded France’s sporting brand Alpine. Around the time I was writing about these cars, I met another enthusiast of unique cars, Geoff Hacker. Needless to say, the two of us became instant friends, and have remained in almost constant contact since.
A decade ago, nearly to the day, I received an e-mail from Geoff. He sent me some photos of a very tired fiberglass racer, sitting out in the desert. He asked me my thoughts on the vehicle, and after cursory glance of the photos, I came to the conclusion this car was much different than the previously mentioned specials. Unlike the Rosier and Rédélé which were built on stock Renault 4cv chassis with factory floor pans, this car was purpose-built for racing with a handcrafted chassis and floor, though using a significant amount of 4cv components.
So, over the next 10 years, from time to time, I would circle back to ask if Geoff had learned anything new on the car. The answer was always no, until recently. As it turned out Geoff had remained in contact with Paul Anderson who owned the Renault racer. Paul had sent the original photos of the car sadly laying on the ground in the desert. As it turns out, Paul had rescued it, and had been storing it ever since. Late last year, Geoff was able to acquire the car from him, and over the winter it made its way across the country from California to Florida.
Once in Florida, Geoff wanted to learn all he could about his latest acquisition. Upon inspection he was able to determine the front and rear clips were identical and made of fiberglass, while the doors and belly pan are aluminum. This was all done for the ease of swapping and replacing damaged ends during racing, with only one mold required to make a new front or rear section.
Next Geoff reached out to me, and once I had a complete set of current condition photos, I was able to begin finding out what was Renault and what was not. Next he contacted Joel Driskill, a noted California car researcher and photo archivist and good friend of Geoff’s. Joel searched numerous race car databases, and found records of a Renault based special that had raced in California at a number of sanctioned events. These included events at Bakersfield, Glendale, Palm Springs, Torrey Pines, and others between 1955 and 1958. Also of great importance, in these event records, was the car’s competition number, which in this case, was either ‘45’ or ‘145’ depending on the race. Through Joel’s work, he was able to confirm the identity of the car, the builder of the car and the owner. Dale Halliday built the custom one-off Renault race car in 1954 for Dr. Paul Winters and it first debuted at a Southern California raceway in January 1955 as the “Halliday Special.” The tired old Renault race car was starting to get pretty interesting.
With photos in hand, I began to forensically examine them to try to determine what was and what was not Renault. I quickly concluded that while the engine was from a Renault 4cv, both the intake and carburetor were not stock, as well as the water pump which appears to be driven by the generator. However, the most interesting point in regards to the power plant, is that it is not mounted longitudinally, but transverse. As Renault didn’t build their first transverse-mounted model for another generation, it has to come from either a Goliath, Gogoomobil, or a Lloyd. While I am not certain, my guess is that it comes from a Goliath."
Read the rest of the story on the Hemmings website at the link below
www.hemmings.c...
Special thanks to Joel Driskill at the ‪@thedriskillarchive‬
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