The coolest car money can buy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zTyfulQJuo
"Beyond the Mini, the Land Rover Defender and even the Aston Martin Vanquish the Renault Avantime is the coolest car money can buy."
- Jeremy Clarkson, TopGear 2002 Season 1 (Episode 6)
The Cool Wall has nothing to do with how a car looks like or drives, but rather how "cool" the car is.
Jeremy Clarkson shows off his "Cool Wall." It's divided into four sections:
"Seriously Uncool," where the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Volkswagen Beetle reside;
"Uncool," where various Vauxhall/Opel and Ford cars reside;
"Cool," where the Range Rover and Citröen C3 reside; and
"Sub-Zero," Mini, Land Rover Defender, Aston Martin Vanquish and Renault Avantime.
Clarkson places the Renault Avantime on the very edge of the Sub-Zero section!
The Avantime was introduced for 2001. Supposedly combining the styling of a 2+2 coupe with the space of minivan, the Avantime concept was conceived by former Renault co-operative Matra, who dabbled in Formula 1 racing while building computers, bicycles, missles, and the Espace van. Matra intended the coupe-van-thing to cater to a younger generation of buyers who, as they saw it, grew up with the Espace and didn't want to grow too far apart from it.
Le Quement handled the styling and came up with a large-butted one-box shape with a pillarless daylight opening, a massive retractable glass roof, and huge doors. It was something that was truly unlike anything ever built before by an automaker, a huge two-door van that was guaranteed to leave onlookers with the most confused look on their faces. No one could figure out if they were looking at a car, a small land-fairing cruise liner, or something sculpted by Picasso turned into a parade float.
Though the design wasn’t without its engineering issues, Renault bested the better part of them with some interesting solutions. For example, the Avantime used a space frame made of strengthened aluminum to retain structural integrity in a side impact collision in spite of the fact there weren’t b-pillars. The huge doors used a clever double-hinged design to keep them manageable in tight parking situations. To keep weight down, the lower body panels were all composite.
Aside from the neat engineering details, the best part of the Avantime was it’s so called “grand air” mode in which all of the windows and the big sunroof were retracted for a very convertible-like experience. The feature was activated with the simple push of a button on the headliner. It was this particular experience that Avantime owners would come to treasure most in their cars.
Sales of the Avantime totaled up to just 8,557 cars in May 2003, at which point the plug was pulled due to Matra’s decision to leave the automotive market partially due to the money lost developing and building the Avantime.
The Avantime’s extraordinary styling and concept coupled with its very costly but clever engineering and exclusivity definitely make this one a good classic car investment (= vehicle that is predicted to rise and become “future classic“, i.e. low value now but high value future).
The coolest car money can buy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zTyfulQJuo
"Beyond the Mini, the Land Rover Defender and even the Aston Martin Vanquish the Renault Avantime is the coolest car money can buy."
- Jeremy Clarkson, TopGear 2002 Season 1 (Episode 6)
The Cool Wall has nothing to do with how a car looks like or drives, but rather how "cool" the car is.
Jeremy Clarkson shows off his "Cool Wall." It's divided into four sections:
"Seriously Uncool," where the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Volkswagen Beetle reside;
"Uncool," where various Vauxhall/Opel and Ford cars reside;
"Cool," where the Range Rover and Citröen C3 reside; and
"Sub-Zero," Mini, Land Rover Defender, Aston Martin Vanquish and Renault Avantime.
Clarkson places the Renault Avantime on the very edge of the Sub-Zero section!
The Avantime was introduced for 2001. Supposedly combining the styling of a 2+2 coupe with the space of minivan, the Avantime concept was conceived by former Renault co-operative Matra, who dabbled in Formula 1 racing while building computers, bicycles, missles, and the Espace van. Matra intended the coupe-van-thing to cater to a younger generation of buyers who, as they saw it, grew up with the Espace and didn't want to grow too far apart from it.
Le Quement handled the styling and came up with a large-butted one-box shape with a pillarless daylight opening, a massive retractable glass roof, and huge doors. It was something that was truly unlike anything ever built before by an automaker, a huge two-door van that was guaranteed to leave onlookers with the most confused look on their faces. No one could figure out if they were looking at a car, a small land-fairing cruise liner, or something sculpted by Picasso turned into a parade float.
Though the design wasn’t without its engineering issues, Renault bested the better part of them with some interesting solutions. For example, the Avantime used a space frame made of strengthened aluminum to retain structural integrity in a side impact collision in spite of the fact there weren’t b-pillars. The huge doors used a clever double-hinged design to keep them manageable in tight parking situations. To keep weight down, the lower body panels were all composite.
Aside from the neat engineering details, the best part of the Avantime was it’s so called “grand air” mode in which all of the windows and the big sunroof were retracted for a very convertible-like experience. The feature was activated with the simple push of a button on the headliner. It was this particular experience that Avantime owners would come to treasure most in their cars.
Sales of the Avantime totaled up to just 8,557 cars in May 2003, at which point the plug was pulled due to Matra’s decision to leave the automotive market partially due to the money lost developing and building the Avantime.
The Avantime’s extraordinary styling and concept coupled with its very costly but clever engineering and exclusivity definitely make this one a good classic car investment (= vehicle that is predicted to rise and become “future classic“, i.e. low value now but high value future).