The Renault ''Étoile Filante'' (''Shooting Star'') was

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

's only attempt at both creating a

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

-powered car and setting a

land speed record The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...

for such cars.

History

In 1954, the French aeronautical

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

manufacturer, Turbomeca, proposed that Renault make a gas turbine car to exalt the technology's benefits and try to break the speed record for gas turbine vehicles. Renault developed and tested the car in a

wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...

between 1954 and 1955. In 1956, Jean Hébert and a Renault Team went off to the Bonneville Salt Flats in

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

for speed tests. The car reached an average speed of . In the mid-1990s, Renault restored the car and made it operational again. The car was completely dismantled at the 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 power for the first time since 1956. It is now conserved as a part of Renault's Historical Cars Collection. A private collection of Renault sports cars in Mexico has a second Étoile Filante.

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 Alain Marie Pascal Prost (; born 24 February 1955) is a French former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Professor", Prost won four Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles and� ...

, at the wheel. It did not compete for a record. Instead, a new record of was set in a

Renault Dauphine The Renault Dauphine () is a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive four-door economy car, economy sedan (car), sedan with three-box styling, manufactured and marketed by Renault from 1956 to 1967 across a single generation. Along with such cars as the C ...

, again with Nicolas Prost at the wheel.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Renault Etoile Filante Etoile Filante 1950s cars Etoile Filante Gas turbine land speed record cars

History

Return to Bonneville

See also

References