Yesterday, I mentioned that Dacia had made a pick-up version of its old Renault 12 based 1300/1310 series. When the Logan was introduced in the 2000s as the first car in the new range of modern budget Dacias, a pick-up variant featured once more. This model never came to the UK but I snapped this one in the South of France in 2013 while I was on the press launch of the then-new Peugeot 208.
More old Dacia today with this 1310 estate/station wagon captured at last year’s Festival of the Unexceptional. Like yesterday’s Dacia saloon, this was based on the equivalent Renault 12 body but the Romanians did their own thing with pick-up and coupé versions that had no Renault equivalent. More Dacia tomorrow.
Today, a third Philippe Charbonneaux design, the Renault 8, seen here in sporty Gordini form at #Retromobile Paris (2014). As I mentioned before, Renault continued to develop its rear-engined car line alongside its modern FWD hatchbacks like the R4, R6 and R16. The R8 replaced the curvy Dauphine in 1962, and was still being made well into the 1970s. Also produced in Romania as the #Dacia 1100, the start of a whole different story.