I've managed to get my hands on a car I never thought I'd be able to find.
After nearly 25 years of hunting one down, I've managed to find a tidy Renault 30 TX. 68k miles, been off the road since the late 80's / early
90's. Needs recommisioning, a new back box, trim and bumpers putting back on and a few little bits and bobs here and there. Need to flush the fuel tank, etc.
I is a happy bunny.
For those of you who're not sure what a R30 is, this is identical to the one I've just bought (spec wise), except mine has headlamp wash / wipe.
What's the story with the wantage? Some early driving memories? Have fun fixing it up anyway dude, glad you're happy, even if I don't really understand hehe :-)
I guess it'd be like (assuming I was well) someone saying to me "Here, have this R5 Turbo and some garage space, and you can fully recon it inside and out, and strip the engine, and rebuild it with uprated, stronger parts for improved reliability (and to maybe let me sneak 150bhp hehe ;-) - also there is a proper mechanic (not a main dealer 'trained' parts swapper) there to teach you all you need to know"
Heh, my dads last car was a Renault 30 TS. As I was 13 when he died I didn't get to drive it. My brother inherited my dads Renault 20 TL and the 30 went to the great scrapyard in the sky (even though it was only 8 years old..). This has somewhat irritated me ever since, but as the 30 was rare even then (I've not seen one in the flesh since about 85) I never thought I'd find another. I posted on a forum about wanting a 30TX and the chap with this one sent me an email telling me about this one so today I went and disinterred it from it's hiding place for the last 18 years...
Mother had a selection of Morris Minorae / travellers and then somehow landed herself with a Pug 304 rag top, which she sold after about 3 months for an estate, as the rag top was not suitable for us two little nippers.
Have you seen how rare the 304 conv is now?! Would love to have one...
You must be quite out of your mind: the R20/R30 were the worst cars Renault ever build. Was the R20 bad, Renault improved on that with the R30 TS (V6 on carbs) and 30 TX (injection).
My parents had one of the last and while being heralded bty Renault Belgium as the familiy/company who bought the most new Renaults - around
200 in a span of some 20 years- the R30 is the reason why they finally got disgusted with the French make and never bought a Renault again.
So you seem to have bought an R30TX.
Congrats: heavy (in weight) engine V6, called the PRV-engine as it was made in cooperation between Peugeot-Renault-Volvo. Because it was so bad (and the R30, P604,... sold close to nothing) they were the cheapest crate engine availiable at the time. A certain Colin Chapman was the man who "sold" that engine 2.664cc, 166 HP to Delorean. Hadn't Chapman died, he would have been brought to Justice for his part in the Delorean-scam.
The R30-range was unreliable and rusted like there was no tomorrow. It's a car from the pre-electronic age with all the toys of the electronic age( automatic windows, central locking, EFI, etc). You can count that they all will go wrong.
Our "R30TX" then: bought as usual brand new, full ops. Price around
750.000 Belgian Francs (12.500 UKP) which at the time (1983) was an awfull lot of cash for a car.
During the 4 years we had it maintenance and breakdowns resulted in
150.000 Fr per year of cost, 2 (!) new engines under warranty but labor had to paid, 3 times new clutch and 2 complete exhaustlines (parts which costed then around 25000 fr).
Fuel comsumption: 14 to 20 liters/ 100 km and for some reason the ecu had to be reprogrammed every 4000 km. Renault twice took the car back, never found the solution.
After 4 years my father was fed up with the car but Renault lauched the R25, gave one for a free test (2 weeks) while they checked again the R30.
The R25 was every the R30 wasn't: fast, good handeling, sleek, electronic gismo's that (in an new car) actually worked (voice computer, electronic dash). So my father goes to the dealer to buy one and trade his R30 in...
Residual value of his -80 kkm, just 4 years old, with maintenance file and invoice as thick as a telephone book- R30, newprice 750.000 fr?
25.000 fr IF he bought a new R25. My dad thought they were joking but it proved not to be. When it came to the fact that 25.000 fr (400 UKP) is what is was worth as trade-in, my father became quite calm. He left the dealer and entered the first other dealer he came by: bought an Opel.
Renault Belgium never sold a car again to him and all Renault company cars were replaced by other makes. Renault realised after a few months that my dad's company didn't buy Renaults anymore. They made him an offer: he was to receive a *free* R25 V6 if his sales picked up as before.
Proved a stupid move: my father felt as they admitted they had abused his confidence and tried to bride him. The Renault sales person was almost thrown out.
So you have bought a R30... well, I suppose you can still sell the gearbox to the Esprit-owners who nicknamed the Renault R30-box the glass box. Colin Chapman was always in cheap parts and sold them in expensif machinery. As genius as he was, that too proved his downfall. Good luck with a 25 year old R30!
Tom, I know about Renault 30s. I know they're not the best cars in the world, but I also know that I quite probably won't find another one without a stupid amount of searching.
There aren't many R30s left in the UK. I want to have a go in one. This one has appeared virtually on my doorstep for less than the price of a tank of fuel, so I've bought it.
If it's a disaster, I'm not going to be pissed off about it, no matter what. A long, rambling post about how shit R30s are isn't going to make me think "I've wanted one of these for 25 years, but TDM says they're shit so I'll walk away from probably the last one I'll find".
No matter how bad it is, how quickly it rusts, how much it understeers, how unreliable it is and how dodgy the electrics are doesn't matter - it's not diesel.
Tom De Moor gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
There's a big difference between a bad new car (unreliable) and a bad "classic" (boring). This far down the line, anything has the potential to be a completely unreliable moneypit. But at least the 30 isn't boring. Not like, say, R6/9/11...
"Tim.." gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
There's still a few about - gorgeous looking little things. Have you seen how rare the 304 coupe is, though? They've all been broken for bits for the convertibles...
The 'On Tow' sign isn't encouraging hehe :-) Does it not run yet then? What kinda harm does 20 years standing do? Were the tyres completely fudged? Pads siezed to the discs till you forced it to move...? Or did they remain that way for half the tow home hehe ;-)?
Are you going for a full resto? Re-wiring and the lot? Cos I imagine all that's shot to shit? Problem we had when we got the Acclaim, that was 16 or
17 years old at the time, A reg, 1983, same age as me when I started driving it hehe! But when we got it of my mums bosses mum, we suspect it actualy was on the original tyres, and as amazing as it sounds, battery... It had been used to go the shops, then every Sunday a run out the cemetary to put flowers on her hubby's grave, but she wasn't up to the driving anymore and thankfully noticed herself before it got silly and she was a danger, unlike some old people. But one time, I can't remember why, but we hadn't had it very long and mum and I were following dad, him in the Acclaim, and we noticed it was 'limping' - one of the tyres was egg shaped! Our mechanic said he'd never seen the brand before, and then we noticed, all the tyres had become VERY cracked up since we'd started using it more, and over a few long distances runs. So it was 4 knew tyres - all 4 were egged when they got off, one split on the way off...
And it started struggling a bit in cold, so to make sure we didn't get stuck anywhere, we had a new battery. The battery in there, whilst the correct volts or whatever, was TINY! Like half the size of a normal battery today, and then we were at our local mechanic again, the one just 100m or so from the house, and he showed us the battery tray, which was again, half the size of a modern battery hehe. But he managed to put a bigger tray in for us, with a little spannering and we got a proper battery in there. From then on it was very eager to start heh. Despite the fact it was twice the size, it never hurt the alternator or anything in the 5 or 6 years we had it.
Then there was new front brake pads, which broke a nipple or something on the cylindar when the caliper thingy was pushed back - unfortunately somehow this was un-noticeable for like, 40 miles, till I was approaching a roundabout on a dual carriageway heading to Hull, and I was doing 80... That was a brown pants moment for someone who had only been driving a few weeks... Still, some pedal pumping and luck and we got round, and got to a garage, who were very nice and fixed it while we waited, and our local mechanic said the price was fair, but he insisted on taking the labour charge from the bill with the pad change on(which included a few other things too, it was a whole service I think), because normally he'd have fixed it and given free labour on the broken bit on the cylindar.
Yup, cars that have been standing or even, under used, can be a laugh :-)
5th gear was incredibly stiff, and then my brother, who was 20 at the time, gave it a good thrashing as he used it mainly. Mum said it felt like driving a really cold car, just all the time for the first few months hehe. Still, by the time it got to me at 17, it was well loosened up and all the iffy bits (brakes aside) were sorted, and it was totally faster than my mates 1.2 Nova, or our other mates brand new 1.2 16v Corsa hehe! Honda's finest 1.3 Twin Carb for the win! That, and zero crash protection or weight.
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