When Renault Australia decided to launch its successful all-out attack on the 1970 Australian Rally Championship (ARC) it certainly had the right weapon for such an audacious assault.

The hottest version of the French manufacturer’s diminutive R8 four-door sedan had already proven to be a formidable competitor in Europe, so confidence was high that given the right preparation and funding it could topple the Holden Dealer Team and add the ARC to its growing pile of silverware.

Even in standard form, the four-speed manual R8 sedan had many of the ingredients required as the basis of a top rally car. Its rugged unitary body construction incorporated numerous advanced features including long travel independent suspension, rack and pinion steering and powerful four-wheel disc brakes.

With its inline four cylinder engine mounted behind the rear axle line, the R8 had excellent traction. It was also very compact with a wheelbase of 2273mm and overall length just under 4000mm. It was also very light at less than 1000 kgs.

The man who turned this humble sedan into a fire-breathing forest racer was Paris-based Amedee Gordini, who was to Renault what John Cooper was to BMC.

With a background in F1 and sports car racing as both a driver and constructor, the Italian-born Gordini possessed a rare genius for squeezing unimaginable performance from regular production engines. This ensured that the R8 that proudly carried his name would be something special.

Renault’s first R8 Gordini 1100 was released in 1964, featuring a piping hot 90bhp twin-carb version of the standard 1108cc engine. It was only available in ‘French Racing Blue’ with two distinctive white racing stripes over the boot, roof and bonnet.

For 1967 Renault released an even faster R8 Gordini 1300. Engine capacity was increased to 1255cc fed by twin 40mm DCOE Weber carbs, with power output jumping from 90 to 103 bhp at 6750rpm with genuine 100 mph-plus performance.

The 1300 engine change came with a five-speed gearbox, four headlights in place of the original two and lower, stiffer suspension with plenty of negative camber on the rear wheels to combat the tail-heavy car’s natural tendency to oversteer.

Twin fuel tanks were also fitted to ensure adequate range for the thirstier 1.3 litre engine. One tank was mounted in the rear and the other up front to distribute the fuel load more evenly front to rear. A small tap mounted on the floor allowed the driver to switch tanks.

However, even this wasn’t considered potent enough for Renault Australia’s 1970 ARC assault.

All three works cars were also fitted with factory rally kits shipped direct in boxes from Renault’s competition department in Europe, loaded with more Gordini-designed hardware bearing factory part numbers.

This included larger piston sleeves that took the 1255cc engine out to 1296cc, plus higher compression pistons, larger valves, wilder camshafts and special exhaust systems which raised power outputs from 103 bhp to 130 bhp. Renault’s ultimate pocket rocket was now ready for forest warfare.

 

1970 ARC: Vive la R8 Gordini!

“When Renault offered me a drive in 1969, we went out and won the Victorian Rally Championship and that got them fairly excited because they really didn’t think they were going to win anything,” recalled 1970 ARC winner Bob Watson when quizzed about Renault’s decision to go all-out for the national title.

“After that Victorian win they started thinking ‘well, we’ve got these little rocket-ships back in France. We’re also selling a few out here, so they’d be pretty good for an attack on the ARC’ and I think that’s how it happened.”

After many years competing in Holdens, Bob Watson (who worked for GM-H as a mechanical engineer at the time) had been left without a car to rally in 1969 following the formation of the new Holden Dealer Team under Harry Firth.

So for 1970 he signed up to drive for Renault in the ARC and also became the company’s rally competitions manager.

Renault backed three cars for its 1970 ARC blitz, teamed by Bob Watson/Jim McAuliffe, Mal MacPherson/Rob Sharpley and Bruce Collier/Peter Haas. The team cars were painted in the corporate yellow of primary sponsor Kays rent-a-car; a marketing deal that made sense given the many Renault sedans in Kays’ vehicle fleet.

The Kays Renault Rally Team’s major competition for the 1970 ARC title would be the Holden Dealer Team, with wily team boss Firth hedging his bets by running both the booming V8 Monaro GTS 350 and six cylinder LC Torana GTR.

Bruce Collier was contracted by Renault Australia to prepare the three ARC works cars at his Collier Automotive workshop in Sydney.

“Bruce was good friends with the state manager in NSW and had been competing in Renaults for a while,” Watson said. “He was recognised as being a bit of a Renault guru and I have to say he did an absolutely excellent job.

“He would give me a detailed report of everything that had been done to each car, all neatly hand-written. He also mapped out a plan of when various items should be replaced in the cars and Renault didn’t blink at it. You know, they said if you need a new gearbox every three events then you’ll have a new gearbox every three events.

“He did a lot of different things. We ended up running 13-inch wheels (15-inch steel standard) because the tyres were critical. Dunlop were supplying the tyres we used but they didn’t make them in 15-inch sizes so Bruce had to adapt the cars by shortening the steering arms and making some other fairly major alterations to run the 13s.

“He also knew about any weaknesses in the cars. There was a bit of double-panelling done to strengthen the bodywork. They had double-thickness inner guards at the front and things like that, so they weren’t particularly light cars but were very strong and reliable.”

Watson and navigator Jim McAuliffe spearheaded a brilliant ARC campaign for Renault, with four wins and a second place from the five championship rounds. Two were staged in Victoria with one each in NSW, South Australia and Queensland.

Renault not only defeated car industry giant GM-H in the manufacturers’ points but lead drivers Watson and McAuliffe also topped the best driver and navigator tallies. Renault team-mates McPherson/Sharpley and Collier/Haas also finished well up on the final ladder. It was a dominant performance.

“They were beautiful motors, just beautiful,” Watson recalled of his 1970 R8 Gordini. “They had 130 bhp from 1.3 litres and boy, could they rev. I used to take mine to 7500 rpm, but Collier was a bit more adventurous than me because he went to 9000! He never blew one up though. They were so tough.

“A critical thing with those cars was the diff ratio. We ran a 5.6:1 diff and with the five-speed gearbox you had a gear for everything. It didn’t go very fast, it would have been lucky to top 100 mph (160km/h), but with that (short) gearing it was really quick between 40 mph and 80 mph which was ideally suited to our tight forestry roads.

“With the five-speed gearbox and that low diff you were constantly changing gears. In fact you had your hand on the gear lever most of the time. Because of that, Bruce had a nice little trick of fitting an on-off switch for the windscreen wipers on the gear lever so you could easily clear the screen, which was a really good idea.

“The rear engine (location) was a huge advantage traction-wise. The R8 Gordinis had terrific traction. If you saw one of those things take off from a control point, they just squatted down at the rear and took off like they were being fired out of a cannon, they were so good.

“They also had four wheel disc brakes which I must say were excellent and lots of suspension travel too which were both big advantages. It was just a brilliant little car.”

Renault was keen to continue its ARC program the following year. After Watson and new navigator Andy Chapman easily won the opening round in 1971, the French manufacturer was confident of claiming back-to-back titles. However, unexpected mechanical failures in several rounds cost Watson and Renault the title, which was traced to faulty heat treatment in a batch of imported differential components.

 

Rallycross Fantastique!

When the exciting sport of rallycross came to Australia in 1970, Bob Watson and Renault naturally were keen to be involved with a lightweight R8 Gordini built specially for the task.

The rallycross format, which was invented in the UK, consisted of four cars racing against each other for several laps over a man-made course that was partly bitumen race track and partly dirt, with large jumps and water splashes added to provide some spectacular action.

With meetings held regularly at Melbourne’s Calder Park and Catalina Park in NSW, rallycross attracted live three-hour telecasts on commercial TV and sponsorship from Coca-Cola.

Watson enjoyed great success with the featherweight rallycross car, which was built and maintained by Renault Australia mechanic Enzo Dozzi.

“We just stripped the guts out of it,” Watson said. “I just told the boys to take everything off the car that it didn’t need to make it move and they ended up with quite a pile. We won the first rallycross meeting held at Calder and beat (Peter) Brock in his HDT Torana. We also won the first meeting held at Catalina.

“We ran the engine pretty stock that first year but the following year (1971) we got some hot bits from South Africa where they did a lot of racing in R8 Gordinis. That took the engine out to 1460cc and it was just a magnificent motor. It had so much torque and just pulled like you would not believe. It was an absolute bullet.”

Watson continued to star in rallycross in 1971, providing fierce competition for not only Brock’s supercharged HDT Torana but also a lightweight Lotus Cortina MkII entered by the Ford works team (which Allan Moffat guest drove at Calder), powerful V8 Monaros, hot Minis and a host of other wild creations.

Watson’s R8 Gordini, like his rivals’ cars, was an endless work-in-progress as the team made various unsuccessful attempts to fix the rallycross driver’s biggest problem – clear vision.

“In rallycross it was crucial to get into the lead off the start line because if you were second or further back you’d have so much mud and rocks and crap thrown at you from the cars in front that you literally couldn’t see where you were going,” he explained.

“We tried all sorts of things like a second windscreen made of Perspex with a slot cut into the middle of it that would cop all the crap but still let you see through (see photo). Well that was the theory anyway because like a lot of other ideas we tried, it just didn’t work.

“Things got even worse when Harry looked hard at the regs and found there was nothing to stop him running dual rear wheels on Brocky’s Torana for extra traction.

“The back straight at Calder was made up of crushed rubble and in one event Brock picked up half a house brick between his two rear wheels and flung it at me. It went right through the windscreen, luckily on the passenger side. Honestly, it was like being in World War III if you were in the second car!”

Due to a combination of commercial factors, Renault Australia disbanded its rally and rallycross program in 1973. Its emphatic 1970 ARC win, though, would be an enduring legacy for the French manufacturer which had the audacity to take on a giant like GM-H in Australia – and win.