 | renault 551(fernand) il démare très mal |
 | Bombing of the Renault Motor Works, Paris, March 3/4 1942 Good Stirling Bomber footage The Renault factory, in the town of Boulogne-Billancourt just west of the centre of Paris, was making an estimated 18,000 lorries a year for the German forces. 235 aircraft - 89 Wellingtons, 48 Hampdens, 29 Stirlings, 26 Manchesters, 23 Whitleys, 20 Halifaxes - were dispatched in 3 waves, the crews of the leading wave being selected for their experience. The plan called for the massed use of flares and a very low bombing level so that crews could hit the factory without too many bombs falling in the surrounding town. There were no Flak defences. 223 aircraft bombed the target, reporting excellent results. Only 1 Wellington was lost. The main raid lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes. Many records were broken that night. The number of aircraft sent to this one target - 235 - was the greatest by the R.A.F. to a single target so far in the war; the previous record was 229 to Kiel on 7/8 April 1941. The concentration of bombers over the target - averaging 121 per hour - exceeded Bomber Command's previous best rate of 80 per hour; there were no collisions. A record tonnage of bombs was dropped, although the exact tonnage is in doubt, official records giving 412 and 470 tons. A significant tactical point was the mass use of flares and the selection of some experienced crews to open the raid, thus foreshadowing some of the 'pathfinding' methods to be used later in the war. Gee was not used, being not yet ready for operations. The raid was considered a great success and the destruction caused in the factory received much publicity. Unfortunately, French civilian casualties were heavy. There were many blocks of workers' apartments very close to the factory. During World War II when the Germans occupied France, Louis Renault was faced with a no win choice: 1) Cooperate with the Germans in order to prevent his factory and equipment from being deported to Germany. This would potentially cause him to be accused of collaboration with the enemy; or 2) Refuse to cooperate with the Germans and lose everything when his factory and equipment were sent to Germany. In order to save Renault he chose the former and co-managed the company with his German overseers. When Germany was defeated by the Allies, Louis Renault lost everything anyway. The French viewed him as aiding the enemy during the German occupation. This led to his arrest and incarceration. In spite of the French accusation, Louis was not a willing collaborator. He wanted to manufacture cars. When Germany ordered Renault to cease automobile production and only make trucks for the German war effort, he allowed sabotage and strikes to delay the German production orders. Work was accomplished only after those lengthy delays and then with high raw material losses. Louis played for time believing that eventually France, Germany, and Great Britain would agree on a peace treaty which would allow him to return to the business of making automobiles. During the German occupation, Louis ultimately became so demoralized over not being allowed to run his business as he wished that he ceased his long-time habit of patrolling his factories. Instead he locked himself in his office, reportedly doing nothing. In actuality he was defying the German prohibition on the development of a new automobile. With the assistance of Fernand Picard he secretly designed and built a prototype of the 4 CV, a cheap-to-produce and economical-to-run small car in anticipation of the post-war years. Louis believed that there would be a significant demand for an economical automobile during the recovery years when people had little money to purchase and operate larger cars. Louis Renault was right about the 4 CV, but did not live to see his small car produced. The R.A.F. bombed his factories leaving over 80% of them in ruins. With the Allied liberation of France, Louis was imprisoned in September of 1944 on charges of collaboration with the enemy and died there under mysterious circumstances on October 24, 1944. The French government took over his factories and appointed a lawyer, Pierre Lefaucheux, as the administrator. On January 16, 1945, the company was nationalized under the name Regi Nationale des Usines Renault (RNUR) incorporating all of the worldwide business assets of Renault. The French government represented that the company was free to act as a non-governmental entity even though it was now owned by the government. |
 | Slow down, dude (racing games and music) by Franco Tenelli My music and video clips from Grand Turismo and other popular video racing games mixed with original footage The beginning of race cars Racing began soon after the construction of the first successful petrol-fueled autos. In 1894, the first contest was organized by Paris magazine Le Perit Journal, a reliability test to determine best performance. But the race was changed to Paris to Rouen 1894. Competitors included factory vehicles from Karl Benz's Benz & Cie. and Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach's DMG. In 1895, one year later, the first real race was staged in France, from Paris to Bordeaux. First over the line was Émile Levassor but he was disqualified because his car was not a required four-seater. An international competition began with the Gordon Bennett Cup in auto racing. The first auto race in the United States took place in Evanston, Illinois on November 28, 1895 over a 87.48-km (54.36 mile) course, with Frank Duryea winning in 10 hours and 23 minutes, beating three petrol-fueled and two electric cars.[1] The first trophy awarded was the Vanderbilt Cup. City to city racing Fernand Gabriel driving a Mors in Paris-Madrid 1903With auto construction and racing dominated by France, the French automobile club ACF staged a number of major international races, usually from or to Paris, connecting with another major city in Europe or France. These very successful races ended in 1903 when Marcel Renault was involved in a fatal accident near Angouleme in the Paris-Madrid race. Eight fatalities caused the French government to stop the race in Bordeaux and ban open-road racing. 1910-1950 The 1930s saw the transformation from high-priced road cars into pure racers, with Delage, Auto Union, Mercedes-Benz, Delahaye, and Bugatti constructing streamlined vehicles with engines producing up to 450 kW (612 hp), aided by multiple-stage supercharging. From 1928-1930 and again in 1934-1936, the maximum weight permitted was 750 kg, a rule diametrically opposed to current racing regulations. Extensive use of aluminium alloys was required to achieve light weight, and in the case of the Mercedes, the paint was removed to satisfy the weight limitation, producing the famous Silver Arrows. See: Grand Prix motor racing Single-seater racing Main article: Open wheel racing A modern Formula One car: Michael Schumacher's Ferrari at the 2005 United States Grand Prix.Single-seater (open-wheel) racing is one of the most popular forms of motorsport, with cars designed specifically for high-speed racing. The wheels are not covered, and the cars often have aerofoil wings front and rear to produce downforce and enhance adhesion to the track. The best-known variety of single-seater racing, Formula One, involves an annual World Championship for drivers and constructors of around 18 races a year featuring major international car and engine manufacturers such as Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz (McLaren), BMW (Sauber), Toyota, Honda, and Renault in an ongoing battle of technology and driver skill and talent. The sport is one of the top five watched sporting events in the world, alongside the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, the Super Bowl and the UEFA European Football Championship. Formula One is, by any measure, the most expensive sport in the world, with some teams spending in excess of $400 million per year. Formula One is widely considered to be the pinnacle of motorsports, with the F1 Drivers' Championship being one of, and the oldest among, only three World Championships awarded each year by the FIA (the others being the World Touring Car Championship and the World Rally Championship). In North America, the cars used in the National Championship (currently Champcars and the Indy Racing League) have traditionally been similar though to a lower level of sophistication as F1 cars with more restrictions on technology aimed at helping to control costs. Other single-seater racing series are the A1 Grand Prix (unofficially often referred to as the "world cup of motorsport"), GP2 (formerly known as Formula 3000 and Formula Two), Formula Nippon, Formula Renault 3.5 (also known as the World Series by Renault, succession series of World Series by Nissan), Formula Three, Formula Palmer Audi and Formula Atlantic. There are other categories of single-seater racing, including kart racing, which employs a small, low-cost machine on small tracks. Many of the current top drivers began their careers in karts. Formula Ford represents a popular first open-wheel category for up-and-coming drivers stepping up from karts. Students at colleges and universities can also take part in single seater racing through the SAE Formula Student competition, which involves designing and building a single seater car in a multidisciplinary team, and racing it at the competition. This also develops other soft skills such as teamwork whilst promoting motorsport and engineering. |
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