Caption contest: Renault 6.

Just for fun, how would you caption this picture from a late 1960s Renault 6 brochure? Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page.

Ran When Parked's used car lot.

Welcome to Ran When Parked’s used car lot. Please, have a Seat:

We have some great deals on the finest selection of certified pre-owned vehicles anywhere. Take this w202 C180 station wagon, the perfect blend of luxury and cargo space. It comes with complete service records like any used Benz should. This car has been pampered all its life!

So you’re thinking, “Ran When Parked, I like the C180, I like it a lot, but I want something more luxurious”? Well, step up to a BMW X6. A car that stands out from the crowd and has an interior upholstered with the skin from an entire herd of cattle. Still under factory warranty but it has been slightly (and tastefully) modified by its last owner, including a custom paint job and a slightly lowered suspension:

The Peugeot 104 is perfect for crowded cities. It gets phenomenal gas mileage and can easily park anywhere. But it has two vocations: it can easily be transformed into a small rocket that’s perfect for auto crossing and hill climbs. That’s what we’re offering you today, a ZS 2 replica with period-correct accessories such as bucket seats and specific 13” rims. This car is ready to bring home the trophy.

If you follow the collector car market, you’ve noticed a growing segment called “youngtimers” or “young classic cars”. One of the cars leading this movement is the Volkswagen Golf I GTI and we have a stellar example for sale today. This car is 100% original, it’s never been restored and is a real eye catcher in red.

What’s there not to like about a 2001 Renault Twingo? Your heart will tell you to buy it for its huggable yet frog-like looks. Your brain will tell you to buy it because it’s the most stolen car in France so you benefit from great rebates on used parts. It’s a win-win situation!

This Simca 1100 VF2 is a new arrival on our lot. It’s the automotive equivalent of the mullet: business in the front, party in the back. Allow us elaborate. This car is powered by an austere 1118 cc four-cylinder borrowed from the Simca 1100. But, the back is cavernous and can carry just about anything you can throw at it; whether you’re going surfing or helping your brother in law renovate his house, this VF2 will take you there and back with all of your stuff. As a bonus, this car’s last owner used it to deliver bread in a village so it has very low miles, it’s absolutely like-new.

Finally, for those with a small budget we have two cars at very special prices, prices so low we can’t even print them. Choose a Citroen GS with its hydropneumatique suspension for its comfort or a Renault 12 station wagon for its practicality:

Come in today, we finance anyone! No credit, bad credit, credit card not in your name, these are all problems we can work around.

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Please note these cars are not ours or actually for sale.

Ran When Parked's used car lot.

At Ran When Parked's used car lot we're liquidating our stock of certified pre-owned vehicles!

Our first offering is a 1994 Renault Safrane. This is your chance to own the car that hauled around members of the French government when it was new. Loaded with power everything, alloy wheels and a 2.2 gas engine, it's ready to take you anywhere you want to go in style. Runs like a champ, extremely well-maintained!

If you want a smaller car, a 2002 Renault Megane would be perfect for you. 2002 was the last year of the mk1 Meganes so you can buy knowing you are getting the most refined mk1 Renault has ever built.* Clean Carfax, certified one-owned car. Big enough to fit a family but small enough to fit in even the tightest parking spots, this Megane is the best of both worlds:

The Renault Clio has been one of the best-selling cars on the French market since it was introduced. Own one today and find out for yourself how enjoyable to drive a Clio can be. This 2003 model has lots of new parts** and is powered by a 1.2 gas engine:

If you like discrete cars, we have just the car for you. It's hard to get more discrete than a 1995 Citroen ZX. It has a 1.9 diesel engine that if you're a Citroen enthusiast you know is bulletproof. If you're not a Citroen enthusiast get ready to become one after a short, engaging drive in a ZX. Low miles and still covered by the factory warranty:

This 1987 Renault 19 was designed almost exclusively with computers, and it shows. Where else can you find such an eye pleasing, ergonomical design at an affordable price? And because Renault seemingly used up all of the project's money on the computers to design it, they opted to power it with the 1.2 Cléon Fonte four-cylinder that was already a proven part of their lineup² :

Wild in its austerity and big in its smallness, this 1989 Volkswagen Polo is the perfect commuter car thanks to its low weight and 1.0 four-cylinder carbureted engine. This is a car you can be proud to call your own. Low miles, comes with our unbeatable one year/15 mile warranty:

2000 Fiat Palio Weekend. Based on the Fiat Uno, the Palio Weekend is the perfect family car down to its name - its station wagon body allows you to fit all of your stuff, all of your kids' stuff and all of the necessary tools to repair your water pump on the side of the road when it seizes 170 miles away from home. Speaking of, spare parts are readily available³ :

A 2001 Seat Arosa, based on the Volkswagen Lupo and drawn by the same man who designed the Bugatti Veyron. Need we say more? I think not, but we will add that this hot little hatch has 49 screaming horses under the hood:

For over a hundred years Mercedes-Benz has been the standard for quality motor cars. We are proud to offer you one of their finest designs, a 1970 w113 250SL. Imagine how advanced this car was in its day: it already had fuel injection, four disc brakes, and a removable hard top for rainy days. *² Professionally restored by the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Stuttgart, this car is ready for the next Monterey Concours:

Imagine the look on your wife's face when you surprise her for Christmas with a certified used car from Ran When Parked's used car lot! There's never been a better time to buy!

* The mk1 Megane was also horribly obsolete by 2002.
** Recently removed.
² Since it was introduced on the Renault 8 in 1962.
³ In most third world countries.
*² Needs to be.

Note: none of the cars above are ours or actually for sale.

What Lies Beneath: The controversial PRV engine (Part 3)

The PRV engine is indeed controversial. Many Volvo enthusiasts will insist it was terrible and reference the bullet-proof "red-block" four-cylinders, while many French car fans will claim it wasn't so bad, and after all, a PRV powered Peugeot reached 253 mph at LeMans. DeLorean owners have often lamented that the engine claimed the life of their DMC-12 in a devastating self-destructive blaze, while those who owned PRV powered Dodge Monacos or Eagle Premiers probably didn't care enough about their cars one way or another.

In spite of its many applications and long production run, the PRV engine was in many ways, a compromise. Originally, the Peugeot-Renault-Volvo alliance was to design a V8 for their more high-end cars. However, the great "Gas Wars" of the 1970s led to the first compromise - adoption of a V6 design instead. As a result of already having started work on a V8 design by that time, the 90º architecture of carried over to the V6 - a second compromise. Furthermore, another compromise was chosen to solve the uneven timing generated by arranging the 6 cylinders at 90º as opposed to the more logical 60º format of most V6s. This was the initial choice to use uneven ignition timing, or, "odd firing" rather than more complex split crankshaft journals.

Technologically these "compromises" led to a rather interestingly designed engine. Though the execution of the Franco-Swedish engineering that went into the lump wasn't always of the highest standards, we can only assume that they meant well. So, let us examine what lies beneath the hoods of so many European (and some American) vehicles produced between 1974 and 1998.

To start off, the somewhat confusing geometric issues surrounding the PRV's design should be explained. With any engine having an odd number of cylinders across a geometric plane, an inherent balance problem arises. (For the sake of discussion, let us assume that we're only talking about 4-cycle engines here.) For a single piston to complete one full cycle (intake, compression, power, and exhaust) the crankshaft which it connects to must rotate two full times making a total of 720º. Since the power stroke obviously puts the most torque or "power" on the crank and the other strokes actually use power, there is a significant imbalance generated in the rotation. With the addition of a second cylinder to the process, the imbalance is counteracted by another cycle during which the power strokes are opposite of each other.
For example, a two cylinder, such as say a horizontally-opposed BMW motorcycle engine has one power stroke for every rotation of the crankshaft and the cylinders are arranged across a single (horizontal) plane and therefore one cylinder helps balance the other, though there is still a "dead" spot where neither cylinder is under a power stroke. A horizontally-opposed four cylinder such as a VW Type 1, could be argued as the ideal format for a 4-cylinder since every cylinder is on the same plane as well as balanced with one at an opposite point in the cycle. So, for two cylinders, and subsequently, groups of 4, the geometry is based quite nicely on 90º  angles:

720º / 2 = 360º  (BMW engine)
720º / 4 = 180º  (VW engine)
720º / 8 =  90º   (most V8 engines)

The 90º V8, is therefore inherently smooth because every time a cylinder fires, the "pulsing" tendencies of a reciprocating engine are reduced. Not only is there a balance from side-to-side between the cylinder banks, but also from front-to-back due to a grouping of four cylinders along each geometric plane. (there are cross-plane crank and flat-plane crank V8 engines, but that, of course, is another story)  In the case of our PRV engine, we can see why the 90º angle was chosen when it was originally planned as a V8.
With any V6, the aforementioned balance issue arises due to there being three cylinders across each plane, but in the case of a 90º V6, a problem with timing arises as well. There are groupings of two cylinders separated by 90° of rotation, and groups separated by 150° of rotation, thus causing a firing imbalance. In a V6 engine, the ideal angle is 120º since the rotation of the crankshaft must be divided into thirds in order for two cylinders to share a crank journal. At this angle, the ignition timing is "symetrical" and the cylinders fire at 120º increments of crank rotation. Since such a wide angle is generally not practical for many applications, it's most common to find 60º V6s which, for the same reasons of timing and balance, is nearly as preferable.

Comparison of 60º vs. 90º V6 block and split-journal crank geometry

 

To adopt the six cylinder format to an existing 90º block design, the journals of the crank could be splayed or split by 30º, which can be difficult to engineer since it can weaken the crank and also requires rather complex and more expensive machining. Alternatively to split journals, an "odd" firing order can be adopted to ensure each cylinder fires at its optimal point, regardless of the position of its 'mate' cylinder. This is not necessarily the optimal solution in terms of smoothness, however it is cheaper. It would not be until a full decade after PRV production started that the second generation of the design appeared with split journals in 1984.

 Illustration showing splayed crank journals

At the time of its introduction, the PRV could be built with three different ignition systems. The most basic of which was a breaker-type ignition using a single distributor with two rotors and two coils for each cylinder bank due to the odd-firing pattern. Timing of the two cylinder banks had to be performed separately. Alternatively, a breakerless distributor system was developed, and finally a fully electronic system did away with the distributor completely.

Distributor showing position of plug wire attachment at cap which mimics crank splay

Fuel delivery wasn't any more simple on the PRV. Engines, such as those used on some Peugeots, used two different Solex carburetors attached to a single manifold. One carb was a single-barrel which supplied fuel under light loads and idle. A second dual-barrel then supplied the bulk of the mixture, having each barrel serve mostly one bank with a cross-flow channel between them. The single barrel acted as sort-of the "control" carb, and the double barrel was actuated via diaphragm. Many owners have opted to convert to Webers, or other less troublesome carbs.
Alternatively, and arguably better, Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection was more common, though some applications were equipped with Renix (Renault-Bendix) fuel injection. In any configuration, the PRV could never really be considered a model of fuel efficiency, and was often noted for its lust for fuel.

The PRV came in a variety of displacements ranging from 2.4 to 3.0 litres. Peugeot and Renault in particular were the most active parties in the partnership in terms of modifying the design over the years. Renault turbocharged it, and Peugeot developed 24-valve variants. The 24-valve versions in particular were known for cam and tappet wear unfortunately. A bit of success came in the form of the WM Peugeot P88 sports racer. It developed over 900hp (up to 950 hp) with dual overhead cams and turbocharging - taking the car to the 253 mph course speed record at LeMans that year.

As one can see, the French were much more interested in the PRV. Volvo, despite of their investment in the project, pulled out of the partnership all together by 1990. The last PRV engine was built in 1998 after more than 970,000 were produced in the 24 year run. With ever increasing restrictions on economy and emissions, as well as the fast-paced development currently going on in the automotive industry, it is unlikely that such powerplant will ever be made again

Specifications of the early PRV from a period technical paper written by the PRV engineers:

Cylinders	90° V6
Bore and Stroke	88 x 73 mm.
Displacement	2664 cm3
Cylinder Bore Spacing	108 mm.
Compression Ratio	8.65/l - Europe 8.2/1 - USA
Camshaft	One overhead camshaft per bank (One separate chain drives each of the camshafts)
Crankcase	Die-cast aluminum
Crankshaft	Graphite spheroidal cast-iron
Main Bearing Diameter	70 mm.
Crankpin Bearing Diameter	52.3 mm.
Connecting Rods	Forged
Lubrication	Geared pump
Capacity	6 dm3
Oil pump output @ RPM	14 dm3 @ 1000 RPM
Filter	Full flow
Cooling System	Liquid
Valve Timing	Left Bank / Right Bank
Intake opens BTDC	9° / 7°
Intake closes ABDC	45° / 43°
Exhaust opens  BRDC	45° / 43°
Exbaust closes ATDC	9° / 7°
Ignition
Firing order	1-6-3-5-2-4 1 2 3 4 5 6
Length (L)	466,5 mm. (Distance between first belt working plane and clutch disc friction areas - See Figure 18)
Height (H)	623 mm. (Distance between oil pan and upper air intake areas of carburetors - see Figure 19)
Width (W)	632 mm. (Total width measured at level of the exhaust manifolds - See Figure 19)
Weight	156 kg. (Total weight of carburetor European version - with air filter, flywheel, water pump, alternator, fluid drive type cooling fan, starter motor and oil, but without engine mounts and brackets)
Performance Data of Existing Versions:
Gross horsepower (DIN)	125-140 HP
Gross torque (DIN)	20-21.5 daN.

V6 block comparison illustration I.R. Rothwell 2010 - other illustrations and photos are modified from period technical illustrations.

The controversial PRV engine - part one.

This article is part one in a three-part series about the engine developed in collaboration by two French firms and a Swedish firm: the Peugeot-Renault-Volvo 90° V6.

Talks preceding the development of the PRV started in 1966 when Renault and Peugeot signed an accord to share mechanical knowledge, leading to the production of a series of four-cylinders. Volvo entered the talks in 1971. Initially, the engine was designed as a V8 which explains why the cylinders are at a 90° angle, an angle commonly found on V8 engines but less common on V6s. The developing parties chopped two cylinders off of it at the last minute in response to skyrocketing gas prices from the 1973 oil crisis. It was agreed that assembly would take place in the city of Douvrin in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France. By 1974 the engine and the assembly line were both ready and the first car powered by the PRV made its appearance, the Volvo 264.

The PRV engine was controversial. For example, the first generation of the engine was an odd-fire engine and critics claimed it turned "lopsided". They also pointed out its "unreasonable" thirst for gas, especially on models equipped with one or more carburetors. Nevertheless, this venerable powerplant has powered a large amount of cars in its 24-year production run; below is a look at some of the more recent ones.

Citroen XM:

The Citroen XM was the successor to the CX, which after 16 years of production was ready for a well-earned retirement. The XM differed from the CX in almost every aspect. Bertone penned a modern-for-the-time line for the flagship Citroen and it featured all sorts of luxury bells and whistles, including a 13^th window designed to shield passengers from wind if the hatch was open. It was available with an electronically-controlled version of Citroen’s classic hydropneumatique suspension called Hydractive which could sense road conditions and adjust accordingly.

It used a 2975cc version of the PRV which was good for 170hp. A 24-valve variant of this engine was available a few years after its launch and the power increased to 197hp, though the automotive press criticized its fuel economy, even for a relatively high-performance engine. On the other end of the line the XM was available with an anemic 1998cc four-cylinder and several diesel engines, including an 82hp normally aspirated 2138cc unit that took a lamentable 17.6 seconds to reach 100km/h (62mph).

The package was an immediate hit: the XM was named Car of the Year in 1990, with the Mercedes r129 SL coming in a distant second. It sold well despite an exponentially increased price compared to its predecessor.

The success came to a halt when problems started popping up. The XM’s biggest downfall was the plethora of electrical issues that immobilized the cars in the first years of production. This was in a time when car magazines still faced the task of explaining to skeptical readers exactly how a computer functioned in their cars and what it was doing there in the first place. Consequently, its owners didn’t fully understand how it worked and often times Citroen mechanics didn’t either which lead to shoddy repairs. This factor is amplified when the Hydractive suspension is taken into account: it, too, was prone to electrical failure. “Owning a 1991 XM was like the apocalypse”, reminisces one ex-owner, “you just didn’t know what to expect when you turned the key.”

Lancia Thema:

Introduced in 1984, the Thema marked Lancia’s return to the luxury sedan segment, a segment it had been absent from since the Flaminia’s demise in 1970. The Thema was designed by Italdesign and shared the Tipo 4 platform with the Fiat Croma, the Alfa Romeo 164 and the Saab 9000. The particularly well-finished Thema Station Wagon designed by Pininfarina was added to the Thema line in 1986.

The Thema is an oddball in the PRV’s history. How did a 2849cc Peugeot-Renault-Volvo engine find its way into a premium sedan from the Italian manufacturer that birthed the first production V6 engine? The answer lies in another one of the Thema’s engines, a Fiat-developed 2445cc turbo diesel. Story has it that Renault and Peugeot both used this engine in some of their cars and light vans and in exchange Fiat got to use the PRV for the Thema.

Aside from the diesel and the PRV Lancia equipped its flagship model with a complete palette of engines: it was available with several two-liter, four-cylinder engines that came in stock, 16 valves, or turbo flavors and the PRV was dropped in 1992 in favor of the Alfa 164’s excellent but oh so delicate 2959cc V6, a move made possible after Fiat acquired Alfa Romeo.

Odder still than the PRV-equipped Thema V6 is the Thema 8.32. Deciphering its name reveals that it uses a Ferrari 308-sourced 2927cc 32 valve V8. This rocket of a engine propelled the Thema from 0 to 100km/h in 7.2 seconds.

The 357,572^nd and last Thema rolled off the Turin assembly line in 1994, ending a quiet ten year career. The Kappa took over the flagship position in Lancia’s lineup but the public pouted it and total sales were less than half of the Thema’s.

Renault Safrane BiTurbo:

The first time a production car used a turbocharged PRV engine was in 1984 with the Renault 25 V6 Turbo. You may be thinking “but DeLorean made a small series of twin-turbocharged DMC-12s before the 25 Turbo came out!” That is true to an extent: these cars did exist but they were not factory-built cars, they were aftermarket kits by the manufacturer Island.

Staying in the turbocharged production car department the ultimate evolution of the PRV is the Safrane Biturbo which adds – you guessed it – two turbos to the powerplant, bumping the engine’s power output to 268hp. Introduced in 1993 and available from 1994 to 1996, a mere 806 examples were built of this super sedan designed to run alongside high-performance German sedans. Renault went far to attempt to create serious competition for Mercedes and BMW, to the point where the Safrane Biturbo wasn’t built in France like the base Safrane. Instead, Hartge of BMW fame supplied the engine (a tuned 2963cc PRV mated to a 5-speed manual) while Renault shipped Safrane bodies to Irmscher in Germany where the final product would be assembled.

Upon first glance only a few details give away what lurks under the hood: the Biturbo has model-specific 17” rims, a little spoiler, and a body kit for improved aerodynamics. The list of standard equipment is long and includes all-wheel-drive and a pneumatic suspension which enables the driver to choose from three different settings. The combination of these attributes gave the Biturbo a handling that no French car had been able to previously boast about.

The standard Safrane was launched in 1992 and despite an improvement in the materials used and how these materials were bolted together it was a car as mediocre as Renault can build. Its styling blended in with most cars and the PRV aside its engines were nothing that gave it an advantage over the competition – early base-model cars had a 2.0 eight-valve engine, for example. In 1996 the Safrane got a new, still-bland front fascia. Production ended in 2000 and it was replaced by the Vel Satis, a car that featured more bizarre angles than a college geometry exam and found less buyers in seven years than Ford sold ill-fated Edsels in 1958.

A following article will cover a few early PRV-powered car and another will cover the technical aspects of the PRV.

(Note: the Citroen XM was photographed by Ronan Glon for Ran When Parked. The rest of the photos were found online and we do not take credit for them.)

Cars in the Vaucluse.

Going back to the roots of Ran When Parked when we featured mostly run-down cars hidden behind a foot of grass or a wooden shack about to collapse, here are a couple of junkyard finds in the Vaucluse department of France.

A Citroen HY pickup:


An Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Unrelated to the first Giulietta or the upcoming 2010 Giulietta, this model sits on an Alfetta platform and was only sold in Europe from 1977 to 1985:

An early 1980s Saab 900 Turbo five-door:

Early 1980s Citroen GSA:

A late 1970s Alfa Romeo Alfetta and an early 1970s Renault 12 in the background:

A late 1970s Renault 20 TS with a four headlight setup borrowed from a Renault 30:

Early 1970s Simca 1100 with a practical hatchback design:

Mid 1970s bay window Volkswagen Type 2:

An early 1970s Autobianchi A112 with a Renault Estafette in the background:

An early 1980s Fiat Panda bridging the gap between a Renault 20 and a Renault 16 while a BMW 318i turns its back to the trio:

An early 1960s Citroen Ami 6:

A mid 1960s Fiat 850 Coupe:

A mid 1980s Matra-Simca Rancho with a mid 1980s Renault 12 in the background:

A late 1960s Renault 6:

A pair of Citroen CX sedans:

And an early 1970s Alfa Romeo GTV: