I’ve used this Dacia-background before but not until my Teutonic Teusday post about the Troutman & Barnes Porsche 911 some of you mentioned it in the replies. And I promised to get back on this. So here it is, on French Friday. And yes: I know Dacia is Romanian but you all know this one’s roots are French. Because it’s nothing more than a license-built Renault 12. So here you go:
Or even better: at first, in 1969, this Romanian People’s car wasn’t all that old-fashioned. And were simply CKD-kits obtained directly from Renault. Who introduced their modern Renault 12 in that same year! Named the ‘Dacia 1300’ it was offered with a, you could have guessed it, 1300cc engine. Putting out 55hp. And the 1300 was, at it’s launch, a truly modern car compared to the Wartbugs, Ladas and Skodas it had to compete with locally.
But as the Renault 12, built as a 4-door saloon and a stationwagon, lasted in France for only 11 years, the Romanians kept on producing it. Modernizing it (fuel injection!). And creating lots of extra body styles. Like a pickup. A liftback. A 4-door “crew cab” pickup (!!!). And this ‘1410 Sport’, with it’s coupé-body. And with such a name I can’t resist taking it to the track for some panning-shots...
But somehow, after over 35 years of producing (almost 2 million units produced!) these it still doesn’t feel that “sporty” to me. Even the rare 1600cc didn’t have more than 72hp. With it’s topspeed of almost 100mph it’s probably nothing to be ashamed about but the best-selling 1410 barely reached 88 mph... So I better don’t take it out for trackdays too much.
One awesome, but cheap, feature of the ‘1410 Sport’ was the fact that its rear window was actually a front windshield fitted at the rear of the cockpit, for cost reduction reasons. I’m sure there’s more cheapness around this car (the fact it was produced for over 35 years is one of ‘m of course) but as it is not that an interesting car I better not go into details any further.
And as the R12 ended up even in the US (where it wasn’t as well received as it was in Europe), this little Dacia wasn’t just available in the eastern block. All of western Europe was invaded by Dacia’s 1310 although it never was a success as far as I’m aware.
The model on display is a ‘Magazine Models’, just like the Melkus RS 1000 I posted last week on Teutonic Tuesday. So again a cheap 1/43. I love that orange and it’s not that bad actually. It sure seems to be Warchau-pact material.
One thing you’ve got to give Renault, today’s owner of the Dacia brand, credit for. As all of the Automotive world thought the rebirth of Dacia was meant to be a failure (‘Who would want such a cheap-skate, outdated car?’) Renault kept their focus and proved everyone wrong. Dacia is actually quite successful nowadays, still based on proven last-gen Renault technology.
Next few weeks no French Friday or Teutonic Tuesday from me. I’m sort of off-line as I’ll be enjoying some time-of. Let’s just see how long I can stand without LaLD. Maybe I’ll throw in a Spaghetti Saturday because, well, I’m in Italy anyway...
Au revoir, jouir de votre vacance bien aussi. If any.
Oh yeah: in case you wonder what such a crew-cab Dacia looks like...
