The Renault Étoile Filante (Shooting Star) was Renault's only attempt at both creating a gas turbine-powered car and setting a land speed record for such cars.

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (November 2018)

Renault Étoile Filante
Overview
Manufacturer	Renault
Production	1954
Designer	Fernand Picard; Albert Lory
Body and chassis
Class	Land speed record car
Body style	No-door monoposto streamliner car
Powertrain
Engine	Turbomeca Turmo gas turbine; 270 bhp (201 kW); 28,000 rpm
Transmission	4-speed manual
Dimensions
Length	4,840 mm (190.6 in)
Width	1,815 mm (71.5 in)
Height	999 mm (39.3 in)
Curb weight	950 kg (2,094 lb)

In 1954 the French aeronautical turbine's manufacturer, Turbomeca, proposed that Renault make a gas turbine car, both to exalt the benefits of the technology and to try to break the speed record for gas turbine cars.

Renault created the car, and tested it in a wind tunnel between 1954 and 1955. In 1956, Jean Hébert and a Renault Team went off to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah for speed tests. The car reached an average speed of 191.0 mph (307.4 km/h),[1] achieving a world record for turbine-engine cars. These speed tests also helped promote sales from Renault's newest car in the United States, the Dauphine. The Étoile Filante later appeared at motor shows all over the world. In the early 1960s, however, the end of the gas-turbine era stopped Renault from making a second car, and its speed record was neglected.

In the mid 1990s, Renault decided to restore the car, with a view to getting it running again. Renault completely dismantled the car at its Billancourt factory in Paris, respraying the chassis and repairing the engine. In front of an expectant crowd, the car was fired up and moved under its own power for the first time since 1956. It's now conserved as a part of Renault's Historical Cars Collection.

Return to Bonneville

In 2016, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Étoile Filante's 1956 record run, the car was fitted with an electric motor and brought back to the Bonneville Salt Flats with Nicolas Prost, son of Alain Prost, at the wheel. It did not compete for a record. Instead, a new record of 76.5 mph (123.1 km/h) was set in a Renault Dauphine, again with Nicolas Prost at the wheel.[2]

See also

• Chrysler Turbine Car
• Fiat Turbina
• General Motors Firebird
• Rover-BRM
• Toyota GTV

References

• Media related to Renault Étoile filante at Wikimedia Commons

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