About Tough to Crack puzzle #145: Renault 4CV Prototype

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It's always amazing to see the amount of knowledge which is around regarding oddball cars that probably none or very few of the competitors have ever seen. Add to that the power of the web and we all have unlimited resources of knowledge at hand. That is to say... if you know where to look. Nine competitors knew what we were talking about in Tough to Crack Puzzle nr. 145. The prototype which eventually led to the French Volkswagen, the rear engined four door (!) Renault 4CV. The competitors came up with a load of facts about the birth of the prototype and more and most of it correct. Good answers came from Bernard Weiskopf, Jaap ter Linden, Jean Vigneau, Stuart Penketh, Timo Laitinen and jury members John Elema, Fried Stol and Alan Spencer.  

Amidst all this fine material there was however one answer that struck us most. It was Jean Vigneau who sketched the transition from the extremely nasty looking prototype to the friendly smiling 4CV in its post-war production form.
"Prototype Renault 4cv ready on december 1942, inspired by Dr Porsche's Volkswagen. Louis Renault found it so ugly that they started a second prototype, also with 2 doors. In october 1944, Pierre Lefaucheux, a tall man who could not get in at the back and new head of the requisitioned Renault factory, had it changed for 4 doors and that was the 4cv."

We decided Jean to be the winner. Congratulations!  

(photo courtesy The Horwitz Collection)

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