Renault UK selling Trophy 001 and other Heritage Fleet cars

[hoolio]

Lol, I had wondered how long it would be before hole picking started. To be honest I saw this at one of the Renault World Series at Silverstone(?) a lot of years ago and I didn’t think it was all that even back then. Having said that, as above, condition is not going to be the main driver during the sale of this one.
I always got the impression they were interested in my 5 as well, glad that never happened now.

 

[GPH]

Err no you don't buy an ex Press car if you want a mint one. It may be 1 owner but it's 100's of drivers with sweaty arses sat in the seat ragging it to death!
As others have said you buy it for its history and being 001.
Press cars often have a respray on the front bumper once or twice in their first year on the fleet then get get sold after a year so these RS cars will have had a few resprays or touch ups or even body repairs
The last time I saw the liquid yellow V6 was about 4 years ago. it had very flat paint on the front so has not been sprayed properly.
Some of the cars in that Collection are mint though like the old Alpine as it had a full restoration when RUK bought it.
The cleanest cars will be the low mileage low owners old R5, Clio 1.4 and R4 etc not the RS models which have been thrashed.
They are doing viewings of the Collection on Friday in Warwickshire so I am going to have a look.
I will report back on the Trophy.

 

[will2705]

.

 

[dablk]

I can see one of the specialists dealers buying it. Giving it a full respray/tidy and then sticking it up with another £5k + on top. There it will sit till a don’t care about the cost collector comes along.

 

[GPH]

So having viewed the car today I would say it is an honest example that has taken the abuse well and is in much better original condition than the LY V6.
It has a few small stone chips etc but has not had any poor resprays etc that I can see (unlike the V6 which has 3 shades of yellow across the bumper, wings and sills and warped window rubber seals where they have been taken out - presumably to blend the paint into the door!)
The interior also seems good.
So with a little money spent on it, it could be a great example and being low mileage and #001 a great addition to any Collection.

 

[NickReilly063]

Great update - hopefully someone can now buy with confidence and it makes strong money.

Did you look at the Megane R26R - 001 with the red wheels - any reports on it.

regards Nick

 

[GPH]

The Megane #001 with the red wheels looked very good and definitely is the better of the two. I would be happy to buy that and the Clio Trophy to have a matching pair of #001.
Now just to search down the back of a large sofa but when again will you have the chance to buy 2 #001 cars!

 

[photo_ed]

@GPH Thanks for the updates, did you manage to look at the Alpine A110 at all?

 

[GPH]

Oh yes that is minty fresh. The A110 had a full restoration by RUK when they bought it 4 years ago and it is absolutely ridiculous that they are selling a car that could have been used for decades to come at Press and customer events.
I understand selling the RS cars as the brand is dead but selling the Alpine makes no sense.

 

[photo_ed]

Oh yes that is minty fresh. The A110 had a full restoration by RUK when they bought it 4 years ago and it is absolutely ridiculous that they are selling a car that could have been used for decades to come at Press and customer events.
I understand selling the RS cars as the brand is dead but selling the Alpine makes no sense.

Cheers! It does look an absolute cracker of a little car!

 

[GPH]

The low owner low mileage non original Press cars were all lovely.
The R4 in red I can see why it is over £10k on the auction as a mint late model.
I sat in the little R5. Lovely soft squishy seats like Renaults of the 70s and 80s had.
The 3 old Clios were also lovely .
oh and to add to my wish list, having done probably 20% of the 5,000 miles on the Spider including driving it back from Paris with Richard Hammond and then trips in the UK, that has great memories for me

 

[GPH]

In fact it was for somewhat selfish reasons of mine that the "Heritage Fleet" got started by me when I was the PR Manager at Renault UK because I wanted to be able to carry on driving the Clio Trophy and V6 after they went off sale!
The Spider from the 90s I kept because it was so unique but normally all Press cars got sold off after they outlived their usefulness as a current model.
However I loved the Clio Trophy, having been involved in its creation, and the Clio V6 and knew there would not be anything like them again so wanted to keep an example back to use at future RS launches to emphasise the brilliant heritage of Renault Sport. So these were the first cars to keep.

We kept 2 V6s, the yellow one and #001 a blue one. The blue was given the full id interior at a much later date and sold by RUK About 3 years ago.
Then Frank Williams decided to sell off some of their museum cars and he had been gifted the first LHD #001 car and offered it to us. Paris HQ said we could keep it and register it if it was treated very carefully and the miles kept down on it or they would have it for the historic collection in Paris. They certainly would not have agreed to it being sold by RUK for sure and I have written to RUK TO tell them of the agreement if they have sold it but it was not at the Barn today.

So we decided to register it ( much to the disgust of a Williams owner who wrote to say it should be in a museum) but we figured it would be nice for it to be exercised occasionally and get some publicity and the journalists always knew to treat it very carefully.

I bought the C10 WLM reg plate to go on it - and bought C10 TPY for myself and have it on retention for when I finally get my 182 Trophy

So after these I left in 2007 and Jeremy continued the collection with the Megane R26.R and Trophy R and the A110 for the launch of the new one.

So today was a little trip down memory lane for me

 

[Titan]

What a nice bit of history there GPH.

When you think of these huge manufacturers building heritage fleets and buying cars to put in them,I never thought it would be down to a small group of people to manage it.
I guess you have to have that extra level of enthusiasm for a manufacturers back catalogue which you clearly had and still ckearly have.

Whoever buys these cars I hope they will be cherished and used as they were built to be used.

I would love to buy some of them myself,especially the Trophy and the Meganes.
I'll have to hope my 6 numbers come up first though

 

[Jas]

Thanks for the background @GPH as well as an honest appraisal. Always great to hear some insights of having a fleet around like this.

I genuinely look forward to reading your insights into the birth of the trophy. I recall you planning to share this with us at some point (eagerly waiting)
Having experienced the challenges faced with internal politics within an OEM first hand, I can imagine the clio trophy, V6 and R26R were no different .

 

[sj2112]

Please come in tonight lotto

#1 trophy and #1 r26r would be purchased

 

[hoolio]

Please come in tonight lotto

#1 trophy and #1 r26r would be purchased ☺

Well I won! Although I somehow think that £30 is not quite going to cover it


GPH, I’ll echo Jas. It’s good to hear a little of the backstory to these cars, it is a real shame that the collection is to now be split.

 

[photo_ed]

Into the last stretch now on the auction, wondering whether the Trophy will broach the £30k barrier.

 

[NickReilly063]

Over 30k now Ed having just gone up Nearly 5k in two minutes

 

[GPH]

bang. 30k hit . Im guessing ending at £35k

 

[GPH]

plus of course buyers fee of 6% so that's another £2k at least