From Luca de Meo:: Oh yes, it’s that sort of French car. See, the Renault 4 helped mobilize the French masses in the 1960s, and it was a huge deal. Not only was the Renault 4’s upright form immensely practical, it was also the first hatchback to really catch on. In fact, it was so popular that production lasted from 1961 until 1994. And you thought the C3 Corvette stuck around forever. Renault’s been in a bit of a heritage mood recently, with the Renault 5 EV concept and its high-performance sibling making waves. Since a reborn Renault 5 EV will make its way into production, why not save costs by making a crossover sibling that looks like the tall and narrow Renault 4?
As it sits right now, the 4EVER Trophy is purely a concept car. For instance, its wheels look exceedingly weird, but there’s a good reason for that other than being French: This B-segment electric crossover concept has a central tire inflation system just like a Humvee. In addition, it packs a beefy roof-mounted spare tire, waffle boards and a shovel for off-road extraction, and incredibly chunky cladding and side steps.
Despite all of this macho stuff, the essence of the Renault 4 carries through. A square silhouette augmented by a backswept C-pillar, the disjointed Picasso-esque melting of rear door glass over quarter glass, a single frame-grille encompassing friendly round headlamps like later models have, it’s all here. Just enough devilishly classic touches to foster familiarity without being so heavy-handed as an eleventh-generation Ford Thunderbird. Job well done, I reckon.
What’s more, the 4EVER Trophy doesn’t fall into normalcy for a second. Fuchsia tail lamps are very weird, and they tie in nicely with the fuchsia accents all across the 4EVER Trophy’s body. Even the coil springs are fuchsia, such a strange and delightful touch. The front door handles are flush while the rear door handles are seemingly nonexistent. The fender flares float away from the body. This thing is strange in the best possible way.
Best of all, Renault says that the 4EVER Trophy will spawn a production version in a few years. While this seems a bit outlandish at first glance, it’s not entirely out of the question. Strip away the off-road stuff, the sill covers, and the fuchsia, and the overall silhouette of the 4EVER Trophy could very well go on sale. Of course, that means chucking most of the concept in the bin, so I’m interested in seeing how Renault pulls this off come 2025. All photos courtesy of Renault Also renders are not real cars so stop reporting specs/prices etc. as if they’re anything more than what a kid would make up about an imaginary alien space-ship. Not. Renderings should be used only to communicate design, you can’t just start telling people your collection of pixels has stuff you can’t be bothered to actually build. The og 4L also was availble in 4X4 from Sinpair, my dad had one (the only one in sweden at the time iirc) when i was a kid but he never got to fix it up and sadly sold it in the late 80’s. It would have been a really cool car now to own. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinpar I think the only thing I’m on board with is the colours. I like the contrast of the fuchsia accents on top of an austere shade of grey, and there’s lots of combinations that would work great with just that shade of grey. Keeping the colour options somewhat limited and having a wider range of accents to choose from would be cool and make sense in a modern, unashamedly cheap-looking Renault 4. Anyway, I think I like it. It’s got a welcome amount of weird and looks kinda cheerful and friendly. Actually, the overall shape looks like they succeed in figuring out what Volvo tried to do with the XC40, only Volvo didn’t quite get the proportions to gel. And +1 for fuschia accents. More cars need more fuschia. Just check old footages from that time and you’d be surprised ( and amazed ) by the number of car types that ran the first Paris-Dakars. https://www.4ltrophy.com/ https://www.escapelivre.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/TeamRenault_4L_60th_200.jpg
