Renault clears out the garage, one hundred historic icons head to auction
Renault is preparing to open a large new exhibition hall in 2027. Before the red carpet is unrolled, the brand is taking a step that feels more like a determined garage clean out. One hundred historic vehicles and an equal number of technical oddities will go under the hammer in December through Artcurial. Collectors are unlikely to complain.
Renault and Artcurial Motorcars will host the auction on 7 December at the Flins sur Seine factory. The sale spans the company’s one hundred and twenty five year history. Renault stresses that about six hundred vehicles will remain in its custody.
The catalogue runs through a full century of engineering highlights and beautifully questionable experiments. It begins with a 1901 Type D and ends with a Clio Williams, with a 1933 bus and a patriotic R5 police version slipped in between. Every lot is described as exceptional.
The sharpest flashes come from Renault’s motorsport past. Turbo era Formula One cars are offered with their original technical notebooks. The turbo years from 1981 to 1985 count as one of Renault’s most romantically risky periods. Now the backbone of that era is being dispersed piece by piece.
Rally and endurance machines such as the Alpine A442 and a GT Turbo still dusted with red Bandama gravel add their own weight to the sale. These are cars that carried real history rather than a polished legend. They feel like the most authentic relics in the collection.
The selection of objects is no less eccentric. There are wind tunnel models, engines that once powered Formula cars, replicas of driver overalls and, unexpectedly, a few railway carriage models and a futuristic Reinastella flying saucer created with Disney. It resembles Renault’s collective subconscious in a box, messy, varied and occasionally bewildering.
In the end the auction is a pointed reminder that heritage projects are no longer sentimental tributes. They are calculated exercises. If something will sell, it goes. Renault is no exception. Collectors will be ready, because chances like this, straight from the factory and straight from the past, rarely appear. Renault seems quite prepared to shake the cupboards until they empty.
