page_title: Renault Dauphine
section_title: Technical
hierarchical_section_title: Renault Dauphine / Design / Technical
caption_attribution_description: English: Renault Dauphine Drive Layout
context_page_description: Renault Dauphine is a rear-engined economy car manufactured by Renault in a single body style – a three-box, 4-door sedan – as the successor to the Renault 4CV; more than two million were manufactured during its 1956–1967 production.
  Along with such cars as the Citroën 2CV, Volkswagen Beetle, Morris Minor, Mini and Fiat 500, the Dauphine pioneered the modern European economy car.
  Renault marketed numerous variants of the Dauphine, including a luxury version, the Renault Ondine, sporting versions, the Dauphine Gordini and the Ondine Gordini, the 1093 factory racing model, and the Caravelle/Floride, a Dauphine-based two-door coupé and two-door convertible.
context_section_description: The Dauphine used a version of the  4CV's water-cooled Ventoux engine with capacity increased from 760 cc to 845 cc, and power increased from 19–32 hp (14–24 kW). According to Road & Track, the Dauphine accelerated from 0–110 km/h (0–68 mph) in 32 seconds. Engine cooling was facilitated by air intakes behind each rear door and a vented rear fascia.
  Heavier and 12 in (300 mm) longer than its predecessor, the 4-door body featured  monocoque construction with "a pair of perimeter-shaped longitudinal box sections and substantial cross-bracing", but without the 4CV's rear-hinged suicide doors.
  Transmissions: Renault offered a three-speed manual transmission for the Dauphine, with synchronizers on 2nd and 3rd gear.   In October 1961 synchromesh was provided for the 1st gear.
  There was also the option of a semi-automatic transmission - in effect a manual-selection transmission coupled to dry clutch that engaged and disengaged by touching the gearshift – beginning in 1957 with an electromagnetically operated Ferlec clutch and no separate clutch pedal – similar to Volkswagen's Autostick. Beginning in 1963, the Dauphine could be had with three-speed transmission with electro-mechanical control, developed by Jaeger, which functioned as a fully automatic transmission. Renault's "automatic transmission" was controlled by five dash-mounted buttons: R N D 2 1.  A Renault advertisement at the time said "out went the stick, in went the pushbuttons – and in stayed the zip, the fun, the economy (35-40 miles a gallon isn't unusual). That's because the only difference between our shift and shiftless cars is this: an electronic control unit on our pushbutton model shifts the gears for you, automatically." 
  Suspension: Front suspension was conventional coil-spring/wishbone layout with an anti-roll bar and rack-and-pinion steering, on a detachable front cross member. Rear suspension was a high-pivot swing axle with concentric coil-spring/telescopic dampers sitting atop the swing tubes which Renault called trumpet casings. With the exception of the trunnion arms in the transaxle housing, there was no fore-aft 'location' of the rear suspension. The pressed engine/transaxle/suspension mounting member was detachable from the main body structure. 61 percent of the Dauphine's weight was carried by the rear wheels.
  The rear swing axle design, unless ameliorated by any of several options, can allow rear tires to undergo large camber changes during fast cornering, leading to oversteer – a dynamically unstable condition in which a vehicle can lose control and spin. Renault relied on a front anti-roll bar as well as tire pressure differential to eliminate oversteer characteristics – low front and high rear tire pressure — and induce understeer. The tire pressure differential strategy offered the disadvantage that owners and mechanics could inadvertently but easily re-introduce oversteer characteristics by over-inflating the front tires. In the United States, drivers (and General Motors) experienced virtually the same issues with the Chevrolet Corvair.   In 1960 Renault revised the suspension with the addition of extra rubber springs up front and auxiliary air spring units (mounted inboard of the conventional coils) at the rear – marketing the system as Aerostable – and giving the rear wheels a small degree of negative camber and increased cornering grip.
  Engine configuration: Speaking about the Dauphine's rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, Renault's Fernand Picard said in a paper he delivered in 1957 that the car was part of a rear-engine trend led by Volkswagen, Fiat and Renault whereby the rear drive/rear engine configuration had increased from 2.6 percent of continental western Europe's car production in 1946 to 26.6 percent in 1956. The United Kingdom auto industry, which had also managed largely to avoid the front-engine/front-wheel drive trend of the 1930s, was excluded from Picard's figures.
caption: Drive layout
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