Louis Renault Course of Life

The fortune plays with its favourites in very rude way. For example – Louis Renault’s history where were mixed up victory and defeat, admiration and ostracism, talent and grip. The career of brilliant business, design and martial victories brought Renault to the scaffold. To industrialist’s strange death on the 24th of October 1944 was preceded by accusations of dealing with occupants.

The beginning of Louis Renault’s career was typically romantic. Hating school he was fascinated by engineering and mechanics and was spending many hours in workshop. The first practical success was modified on his own automobile with which Renault somehow managed to take street “motor racing” (his car could reach the speed of 40 km/h) victory driving up the slope of Lepic street in Montmartre. It was in 1898, he was about twenty one.

Louis’ enthusiasm turned out so serious that his brothers inspired by him to the heart helped him to establish family company. Renault became the first among French motor factory owners who was trying to change chain-drive with driveshaft and launched mass car production. Renault started on an aggressive export activity right early at the beginning of the century. In tsarist Russia people used to speak that everyone was driving Renault except the tsar (however, he was keeping one specimen in his garage too).

The First World War I added a militant bright to the name of Renault. In September 1914 German army punched through French defense and directed straight to unprotected Paris. Only miracle could save the capital and that happened. Next morning a front appeared along the Marne River line – six hundred Parisian Renault taxi brought several regiments using the dark of night.

Renault Type AG-1 turned into decisive factor in the war and hence deserved its place in National Museum.

During the war the Renault became the general purveyor of Russian front. At the same time Louis Renault met a perpetual rival. The author of “50 years in the ranks”, Russian military agent Alexei Ignatiev recalled that Louis Renault and Andre Citroen always used to take sit opposite each to other during industrialists meeting.

Renault was among the first manufacturers who launched tanks production. One of them – small caterpillar cuttlefish that was captured from interventionists and repaired by Red Army men, took part in Red Square parade in 1919. And in 1925 Louis Renault also provided Soviet Russia with first taxi batch of 120 vehicles.

After brothers’ death, Renault became an personal company owner, so he bought some adjacent factories and changed it into a large-scale industrial complex.

However, Renault went down in the history mainly for its mass automobiles, the company was also producing traditionally bright and expensive auto: XB limousine, Primaquatre, Juvaquatre, Monastella. And these exclusive models, and mass-produced Renault NN model, and even small tanks stood ...