Renault Dauphine.

$1900. NMNA - - located in Vermont.  Title is missing, race car?

That is glorious. Well, it could be. Undoing a number of dubious choices would be required. I still want it.

Wrap it around a Miata or Legend frame?

What's up with the v6 badge on the rear and the front seats that look like they are from the middle row of a 2004 expedition?

I really love the look of it though.

And daphine is much more fun to say once you realize how it is spelled.

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

What's up with the v6 badge on the rear and the front seats that look like they are from the middle row of a 2004 expedition?

I really love the look of it though.

And daphine is much more fun to say once you realize how it is spelled.

Armrest and seat belt receiver on outside of the passenger seat?  

Challenge car! Challenge car!

Snack trays?

Most people punch holes in a block and insert pistons, the French make a square box, then press fit four sleeves into the box.  Viola' Engine.

I may be a stupid berkeleyer, but I've always wanted one of these.  A good friend of mine drive one in high school and it was in cherry condition.  This guy got killed at one of our infamous backroad crossroads before his senior year.   Several years ago I came across one in an old textile mill dump in the middle of the woods.  There wasn't much left to it.  

Over the last year or so I've been developing what I suspect is an unhealthy hankering for a weird rear engine sedan of some sort.  This is not helping that situation.

Link wont open, soI will have to imagine one as I would create it.

If memory serves, they failed to survive in great numbers because the cam gears were made of Bakelite and between the cost of replacement and the fact that none were available once the cars were ten years old, they got scrapped when said gears inevitably wore out.

They weren't fast but they could be exciting to drive. With bias-ply tires, swing axles & the engine mounted behind the rear axle it was easy to make the rear pass the front on a curve. At 16 I rolled a 4CV its smaller older brother. I was an idiot but the car was treacherous.

My grandpa had one when my dad was growing up. I've always thought they were cool

My first car in 1974 was a '66 Dauphine.  Dad paid $35 for it and we rebuilt the engine in our shop.  It was quite easy, as it used "wet sleeves" like heavy duty diesels.  OEM tires were Michelin's 4.5x 15" but they were $40 each (in '74!) so we bought VW recaps for $11 each, installed!  

One nice thing was the low weight. I ran over my college room mate's girlfriend's foot and it didn't even bruise it.  After the rebuild and tuneup, it would idle great and run as well as a Dauphine should.  I even got it up to 65mph one time but it was scarier than a Corvair at speed.  I could turn the steering wheel full lock in either direction and the car would keep going straight.  It had a shifter about as thick as a #2 pencil, and a sticker on the dash warning not to change it to a bigger one, lest you break the transmission.

After the first oil embargo, someone bought ~200 of them and converted them to electric.  It didn't take long for them to go out of business, but the leftover car inventory kept getting passed along to a series of failed business ventures and I remember seeing some for sale in the mid 80's.