11th Aug 2010, 00:07
My first new car was a 1966 R8, and I think it was a very good car. I put 200k miles on it and never had a serious problem.
The worst was a head gasket at 50k and a wheel bearing soon after; both easy to fix.
This car was the easiest car I've ever owned to work on. The 4w disc brakes were great.
One day I was caught in a blizzard. I put the car cover on, folded back the front seats that make into a bed, and my wife and I spent a very comfortable night sleeping soundly in that car.
My only regret was that I sold the car to buy a larger car. A mistake. I really miss that car.
18th Mar 2011, 13:45
My Renault R8 was a great car. It was 3 years old when I bought it, & I owned it for 7 years. When I sold it, it had done 108,000 miles.
Plus Points:
Very rugged, very comfortable, very economical. You could drive it over dirt tracks with ease. Most importantly, contrary to common fables of the time (1970's), the spares where no dearer than those for British cars & they were readily available. Once I went to Renault Wolverhampton & explained that work in the forth-coming weekend may reveal that I needed a crankshaft. They explained that they hadn't got one in stock, but could get any part from France within 48 hours at no extra cost. At the time, work colleagues couldn't get spares for their BMC cars & we were in Birmingham!!! In the end, it only needed a re-grind & new bearing shells (95k miles) all done by my late father and me over a weekend. And talk about easy to work on; no lifting the engine out; if necessary you could unbolt the engine & drive from the body, and just lift and roll the body forward out of the way!
Minus points:
Not trendy, therefore not a car for those who lack self confidence.
Associated jokes from those who didn't know the difference between an outdated car & a good car. (Same people who wouldn't have bought anything built by Skoda until it was taken over by VW!)
But worst minus point: The R8 isn't made anymore!
The Day It Left:
I bought my brother's R6, and the R8 stood in my garage for some 12 months.
I sold it to the owner of a R8S for spares.
We loaded on his trailer, & before he hooked up, I asked if he could take me for a ride in his 8S, which he did. Great!
26th Mar 2011, 14:05
I agree. I have owned many cars since, but none had the character of the R8, except a Citroen XM, which always spelled trouble!
The only minus point that I forgot to mention in my review was the rear swing axle suspension. Although great at normal speeds, & as I say over dirt tracks, it made life "hairy" on high speed bends in the wet. As the inner rear wheel lifted, it would swing from a "bottom out" to "bottom in" position, which would cause a sudden fluctuation between understeer & oversteer. I was caught out once, but survived!
If the car had 4 passengers, there was no problem because the wheel didn't lift.
The early Triumph Herald, Vitesse, 2000 and TR4A were fitted with a similar rear suspension and suffered the same problem, but the 2000 & TR were later revised.
8th Oct 2012, 12:28
No, it was an R8. I wish I had never bought it, but I did - and I was very happy to finally get rid of it.
2nd May 2014, 04:24
The R8 was a great car. I had two. The engine was smooth, and flat out in all gears it was still quiet. The 4 wheel disc brakes were awesome for the era. So comfortable for long journeys, and fun to sweep through any decent bend. It would oversteer only if you lifted off suddenly in a bend at speed, but one could drift it sideways controllably; I did often. So few left (20 or so?) and expensive (even if you can find one) to buy.
Drawbacks? All over the place on a windy day, and not much boot space.
The days of low speed thrills are gone, ahh!
I loved both of mine, wish I had them now.
Len.
25th Mar 2010, 16:47
I think you are talking about a different car.
The Renault R8 is a very good car. I had 2 of them - excellent daily-drivers, the better one had 125 top speed on the highway, and had very good performance up-hill on curvy highlands roads!
Cool car!