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1964 Renault Caravelle
This is an adaptation of an article I originally wrote around 2008, about a particular car I spent a long time trying to track down.
Since moving down to this part of the world in late 2024, the car has been driven widely, and has appeared at shows and displays in Bexhill, Hastings, Rye and, most recently, the rather special Hooe Vintage and Classic car show. I thought members might enjoy her back story…
Thirty years in the waiting…..
As an engineering-student teenager in the mid-1970s, I used to buy a weekly ‘part-work’ magazine, called ‘On Four Wheels’, which was a well-illustrated A-Z of anything and everything to do with motoring.
One particular issue covered F for (Pietro) Frua, an Italian car designer involved with Volvo, Maserati and BMW amongst others.
Staring out of the double-page spread in this edition was the design he had provided for Renault in the late-1950s, to become the Caravelle.
Obviously designed for the North American buyer, I was smitten, and decided, there and then, I just had to own ‘one of those’.
Reality though, was something of a barrier; I was earning about two-grand and coping with inflation of 20-odd per cent; I had only just learned to drive, and my hard-earned eventually went on a 1965 Ford Cortina 1200, costing all of £35.
The French lovely would have to wait.
A few years on, I had gotten my first company car and a somewhat better salary, and so could afford, finally, to get my first classic. The Caravelle was back on the agenda, but by then I’d also been hankering after a 1960s VW Karmann Cabriolet as another cool convertible. Although I managed to track down one psychedelically-painted Caravelle, it was the VW I actually found to restore, and put on the road, in 1982. I still have that car, and it’s still a head-turner.
once again. On holiday in France, I’d spotted a mint-condition example down a Deauville side street, and it still seemed, to me at least, the epitome of classic ‘Sixties automotive art. I was even more determined to track one of these cars down!
I eventually found myself on the ‘phone with the chairman of the Renault Classic car club, essentially asking him ‘what would I pay for a concourse condition Caravelle?’, thinking I could now afford to do it that way, not really having the time to do a ground-up restoration as I did some years before with the VW.
After he told me that ‘there was probably no such thing in the UK’ I realised I would have to find as solid an original example as I could, then have that car restored to a decent condition.
As ever, with various new jobs, a new wife, a bigger mortgage and a growing family, we all know that finding a classic car inevitably gets pushed down the ‘to-do’ list.
Eventually, with some ‘gardening leave’ on the horizon some years later, I decided that this would have to be the opportunity to finally get this sorted. After some serious web searching, I found, on the Club website, a likely looking example; 1964 Caravelle, one family owned from new, looking a little tired, but completely original.
The ad, though, was some months old, and I couldn’t quite believe, when the owner returned from a long-haul trip, confirmed it was still for sale. I shot up to Cambridgeshire with cash-in-hand and did the deal within 24 hours. The car’s provenance was excellent, even down to the original bill of sale from a Renault dealer in Bournemouth. Such was the affection the car had within the family – it was originally owned by his Mother – the owner drove it down to Hampshire himself for ‘one last drive’ before it went away to start its restoration.
Having time off to do some of the basics myself – I even learned how to sand-blast in the process – I knew I had an extremely solid and original car on my hands, but it was still a year-long project to put her back on the road.
Superbly refinished in its original Kilimanjaro White by a local car restorer in Hampshire, I started to get some idea of what a head-turner this French car would be, just by driving a couple of miles home, when completing its pre-MOT work.
Two pretty awful summers since she was put back on the road in early 2007 meant she hadn’t gone as far as I’d hoped to date, but one special day does stand out.
I took her back to show her ex-owner, on her first proper long-distance drive. Upon its arrival back at his beautiful Cambridgeshire home, it clearly took him back 40-odd years in an instant. Restored to exactly what she must have looked like when new, in 1964, he was suddenly a 21-year-old medical student all over again, clearly recalling his late Mother.
It was genuinely quite touching to see first-hand just how something as simple as an old car can provoke such emotions, and how much of a part they can play in the fabric of our day-to-day lives.
I had hoped to eventually retire the Caravelle back to France, to our small farm in deepest Gers, where long, glorious summers are the norm. Sadly, Brexit eventually scuppered that idea…such a shame.
Instead, an occasional sunny East Sussex afternoon drive to a country pub or to a local show will have to do..... I can certainly cope with that after a 30-year wait!!
Lee Richardson
St Leonards on Sea
Club Member since 2024
Renault Caravelle 1964
