LIGNES/auto loves design, which is not incompatible with the attachment one can have for the… Renault 14. No, not “the pear” but “the 7CV of happiness”, with the little pony that accompanied the family on the first promotional photos in 1976. The Renault 14, whose styling was frozen in 1971 and marketed… five years later in 1976, received the grand prize for industrial aesthetics.
LIGNES/auto returns today to this model with documents whose quality is very poor (dust and patina alter the memory as well as the photos…) but which reveal four unpublished silhouettes of the R14 coupé.
For the time being, we only know of the R14 coupé by Robert Broyer, (above) who designed the lines of the saloon, but also of the Renault 12 and the innovative dashboard of the R5. This original coupé was very close to being produced in Guy Ligier’s workshops to replace the production of the Citroën SM in the same place.
We also knew the three-door version which took the silhouette of the 5-door. It was also called the “Renault 11”, which is interesting when you consider that the R14’s replacements will be called the R9 in the trunk version and the R11 in the hatchback silhouette.
Robert Broyer, in addition to the three and five-door versions and the ‘Ligier’ coupé, also designed an R14 with a longer wheelbase (above), three side windows, and a sliding bench seat, thus offering greater habitability than anything else in the segment at the time, and even greater than that of the R30, which was born one year before the R14 sedan.
Although the R14 was only ever given a single silhouette, more studies were carried out on a coupé version than one might imagine, as our unpublished documents prove. This first mock-up below shows a coupe with the same front end and wheelbase as the saloon. The side of the car has a dynamic centre pillar (reminiscent of the AMC Pacer but without the bubble that will be used on the future Fuego and R25) and a side window with a cover up to the tailgate.
Another view of this model, below, shows simpler wheels but the same side panel design. At the front, the front grille has been replaced by four circular headlights and a central grille, all of which is very reminiscent of the Citroën Visa GTi. This Renault model dates from 1974, well before the arrival of the first generation Visa.
This model, marked “3”, is again in the spirit of AMC, but this time, that of the Gremlin. The designer has added a circular embossing on the side panel which is reminiscent of the one – glazed – of the R5 Le Car Van from Heuliez. The same principle: Renault kept the wheelbase, the front end and the entire rear end (tailgate, lights and bumper).
This proposal (below) remains the most interesting in more than one respect, as it adopts many changes compared to the saloon. The tailgate is specific and its glass surface is significantly increased.
The lights of the saloon are replaced by three square blocks that are more generous in size. Finally, the side of the body is original with its side window split in two, of which a larger element evokes the spirit of what would be retained for the design of the Renault 18 estate. This model dates from 1974, two years before the presentation of the saloon and… nine years before the less original R11.
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