Louis Renault was born in Paris on February 15, 1877, the fourth of six children born into the bourgeois family of Alfred and Louise-Berthe Magnien who owned a small drapery firm on the Place des Victoires. Renault had a typical bourgeois upbringing with the attitudes and prejudices that would stay with him his entire life including a distrust, even fear of the working classes. Young Renault did not care much for school and found solace in things mechanical to the disappointment of his father who wanted his sons to become successful businessmen. His passion for mechanics brought him into contact with the newly appearing automobile, spending any free time he had at the workshops of Léon Serpollet. He attended Lycée Condorcet and at the age of 19, was working as technical draftsman at Delauney-Belleville. Renault even applied for work at Panhard et Levassor but as the story goes was turned down by Levassor himself, telling the disappointed young man that “No amateurs were wanted”.
A chagrined Renault decided to build his own car in a small workshop he arranged at the back of the family property in Boulogne-Billancourt. at the age of 21, he created his first small motorcar and on Christmas 1898, Renault drove up the steep rue Lepic on Montmartre in Paris with his Voiturette, equipped with a revolutionary direct-drive transmission which was quite a feat for its time. That same evening he took 12 firm orders for the vehicle. The car mounted a De Dion-Bouton 1 cylinder 273 cc, air-cooled engine producing 1.75 hp. Drive was through the rear axle with 3-speed gearbox + reverse, Brakes on rear wheels and on the propeller shaft. Dimensions: length 186 cm, width 110 cm, un-laden weight 200 kg. The car could reach a top speed of 32 km/h. A patent for the direct-drive system was applied for in 1899 and upheld in 1905. It’s estimated that royalties from the patent were not less that $200,000 per annum.
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A chagrined Renault decided to build his own car in a small workshop he arranged at the back of the family property in Boulogne-Billancourt. at the age of 21, he created his first small motorcar and on Christmas 1898, Renault drove up the steep rue Lepic on Montmartre in Paris with his Voiturette, equipped with a revolutionary direct-drive transmission which was quite a feat for its time. That same evening he took 12 firm orders for the vehicle. The car mounted a De Dion-Bouton 1 cylinder 273 cc, air-cooled engine producing 1.75 hp. Drive was through the rear axle with 3-speed gearbox + reverse, Brakes on rear wheels and on the propeller shaft. Dimensions: length 186 cm, width 110 cm, un-laden weight 200 kg. The car could reach a top speed of 32 km/h. A patent for the direct-drive system was applied for in 1899 and upheld in 1905. It’s estimated that royalties from the patent were not less that $200,000 per annum.
