HomeCar CultureLifestyleRenault returns to Bonneville with Etoile Filante and Dauphine

Renault returns to Bonneville with Etoile Filante and Dauphine

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The way it was 50 years ago when Renault brought the turbine-powered 'Shooting Star' to Bonneville | Renault Classic photos
The way it was 50 years ago when Renault brought the turbine-powered ‘Shooting Star’ to Bonneville | Renault Classic photos

In September 1956, the streamlined Renault Etoile Filante set four world speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats, two of which still stand.

Earlier this month, the Etoile Filante (Shooting Star in French) was back on the alkaline surface in Utah, and along with it the French automaker sent a Renault Dauphine, a car celebrating the 60th anniversary of its first sale in the American automotive marketplace.

The car returns, and brings along a friend to set yet another record
The car returns, and brings along a friend to set yet another record

A half-century ago, the French streamliner reached 308.9 kph (192 mph) in a project to show how the Renault engineering team was applying aircraft technologies to automotive design after World War II.

When war ended, Joseph Szidlowski, head of Turboméca, which produced turbine engines, started producing smaller versions for smaller applications, including the Alouette helicopter. To promote his engines, he approached Renault about using his turbines to power cars. Renault chief Pierre Lefaucheux assigned three engineers — Fernand Picard, Albert Lory and Jean Hebert to create an experimental vehicle, Etoile Filante.

With its turbine engine producing 270 horsepower in a tubular frame vehicle wearing an aerodynamic polyester body, the car broke records in its class at Bonneville, hitting 308.9 kph (192 mph) in the kilometer and 308.85 kph over a distance of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles). The later record still stands.

Despite the records, Renault opted not to pursue turbines to propel its vehicles.

“Even so,” Renault said in its news release about the car’s reunion with Bonneville, “the Étoile Filante stands as an epoch-marking machine, in a class of its own.

Nicholas Prost drove a Dauphine to another speed record
Nicholas Prost drove a Dauphine to another speed record

Joining in the reunion was a Renault Dauphine prepared by Renault Classic and driven by Nicolas Prost to a class speed record of 76.541 mph. The record was for a Classic Gas coupe produced between 1928 and 1981 with an engine displacement between 754cc and 1,015cc.

Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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