If you thought Renault was just that brand that makes cheeky hatchbacks and the occasional quirky crossover, think again. Hidden behind the factory gates at Flins-sur-Seine lies one of the greatest automotive treasure chests in Europe — and, come December, Renault is about to crack it open.

This isn’t just a car auction. It’s a love letter to 125 years of French engineering madness, human triumph, and a fair bit of turbo lag.

The Vault Opens

Renault is gathering every shard of its mechanical soul — 600 historic vehicles, priceless artworks, and archives — into one grand exhibition space near Paris, due to open in 2027. Think of it as the Louvre, but for petrolheads. And to make room, the brand is doing something utterly un-French: it’s letting go.

On 7 December 2025, at the freshly transformed Flins-sur-Seine site, Renault and its long-time auction partner Artcurial Motorcars will host a once-in-a-lifetime sale. Roughly 100 cars and 100 artefacts from the company’s 800-strong collection are going under the hammer — and here’s the kicker: 90 percent will be sold without reserve. That’s right. No safety net, no pretence, just pure, unfiltered passion for sale.

Pierre Novikoff of Artcurial puts it best: “Collectors are being given the chance to become curators of Renault’s history.” Translation: get your wallet ready; this is heritage up for grabs.

From Louis Renault’s Spanner to Prost’s Turbo

The line-up reads like a timeline of Renault’s DNA. At one end, there’s a 1901 Type D, still running, smelling faintly of oil and heroism. There’s even a replica of the 1898 Type A — the car that started it all — built in 1998 to celebrate the centenary, available both as a classic ICE and as a forward-thinking electric reinterpretation.

Then the auction kicks into overboost. Renault’s motorsport legacy takes centre stage with a fleet of fire-breathing Formula 1 machines from the Turbo Years (1981-1985). We’re talking RS01s, RE27Bs, RE60s — yellow rockets that once howled down Silverstone and Spa with names like Arnoux, Jabouille, and Prost stitched on their cockpits.

This was the era when Renault, against all common sense, shoved a turbocharger onto an F1 car and rewrote the rulebook. In 1979, Jabouille’s win at Dijon wasn’t just a victory — it was the sound of the future spooling up. Some of these cars come with their original technical notebooks from Viry-Châtillon — the sacred scrolls of the turbo age.

Le Mans Legends and Rally Royalty

Endurance fans will drool over the Alpine A442, chassis 0 — the original that thundered through Imola, the Nürburgring, and Le Mans in the mid-’70s. Its yellow-and-black livery still whispers of 24-hour heroics and champagne at dawn.

And then there’s the dirt-slinging end of the spectrum: rally icons like the Maxi Turbo 5 prototype B0 and the Renault 5 GT Turbo Bandama. The latter still wears actual Bandama red earth in its wheel arches — honest battle scars from a time when drivers had moustaches, nerves of steel, and very little suspension travel.

Everyman Icons

Not everything here screams down Mulsanne Straight or climbs Alpine passes at full chat. Renault’s people’s cars get their time in the spotlight too: the 4CV, Floride “Disney”, and Clio Williams all line up, polished but proud of their working-class roots. The R5 Police even adds a touch of French flair to the gendarmerie’s glory days. Some are fully restored; others wear their patina like a well-loved leather jacket.

The Artefacts of Imagination

And because Renault has always been more than a carmaker — equal parts dreamer, designer, and occasional lunatic — the auction also includes the weird and wonderful.
Wind-tunnel mock-ups of R4s, Twingos, and concepts that never were.
A crate-fresh Renault Elf V6 Turbo EF15 — the very engine that powered Ayrton Senna’s Lotus at Detroit and Adelaide in 1986.
Even a “Reinastella” flying saucer built with EuroDisney, because why the hell not?

A Museum in Motion

This auction isn’t a clear-out — it’s a declaration. Renault isn’t dusting off the past; it’s rebooting it. The Flins-sur-Seine centre will soon serve as a living museum, celebrating 125 years of progress, personality, and persistence.

For collectors, December 7th will be more than an opportunity to buy a car — it’ll be a chance to own a slice of French industrial poetry. For the rest of us, it’s a reminder that Renault, for all its quirks and experiments, has always been one thing above all: bold.

Because in a world of electric anonymity, a 1980s turbo F1 car still screams louder than any algorithm ever will.

Source: Renault