TEAM ADVENTURE
Danny Hopkins rescues a vision of the future that is firmly in the past
WORDS DANNY HOPKINS PHOTOGRAPHY DANNYHOPKINS, JO HULL
I’m a sucker for a car in need. I have dragged a rich variety of waifs and strays back to the PC workshop, all in the name of revival. A car in need is catnip and, luckily, this magazine allows such folly, indeed, it encourages it. When challenged over my habit the excuse, ‘content creation’, shields me from any further interrogation. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.
So, when Stephen Barlow emailed me with the offer of a Renault Avantime, I was preprogrammed to respond in the affirmative. Only one problem with that, I already had a Renault Avantime – same spec, same colour, everything. Now here’s where the God of Cars played his card.
First test run is a success.
I received the email on Monday, said yes on the Monday evening and then spent a sleepless night wondering how I could justify to my family and friends owning two Renault Avantime manual 2.0l Dynamiques in Iliad Blue at the same time.
Then on Tuesday morning, having mentioned my conundrum to a friend, I was contacted by Jon Murden, bossman at the National Motor Museum asking if my Avantime was available and would I be interested in seeing it on display at Beaulieu. The deal was done in seconds – the God of Cars had blessed me with good fortune. Now you can experience my old Avi at the museum’s ‘We had one of those’ exhibit. Yes, I know very few people (just over 300 in the UK) had one of ‘those’ but as you approach the exhibit it looks like a generic people carrier. Once at the Avi though it all goes weird… but you get to play with its massive double hinged doors – worth the entrance fee alone if you ask me.
So. I was now a believer in automotive divinity, and my ‘yes’ could be acted upon without needing to resort to feeble excuses for a bizarre addiction. My new Avantime was situated in France, deep France, past Limoges on the edge of the Dordogne. Once again, thoughts turned to exactly how I could justify to the team the days off I would need to collect it. Trying to make it sound like work, not holiday, was pointless, especially because Stephen, and his wife Stephanie, owned a beautiful gîte, in which they were threatening to put me up for a few days while we sorted some of the new Avi’s possible issues.
At the gîte, Renault meets Citröen.
Holiday mission
So, I gave up trying to justify it as work and headed off on what, for me, was the perfect holiday – to my favourite part of my favourite country, doing my favourite thing with one of my favourite cars. I love a European rail journey, so the entire escapade would involve both my favourite and second favourite modes of transport.
Eurostar first, departing St Pancras Station, (favourite building) on the first train to Paris. Crossing the French capitol to Gare D’Austerlitz for the Limoges train was easy. Then the spacious ‘wagons’ of the French national carrier took me south – on time and on the money, it cost about half the price of an equivalent journey in Britain.
On the road, enthusiasts greeting.
‘Stephen kept the Avantime simply because he liked looking at it!’
A final change at Limoges put me on the local to La Coquille and my first meeting with Stephen and Steph. We got stuck into car talk straight away focusing wholly on the Avantime. Officially here in France, the car’s status was ‘removed from circulation’ their version of SORN. It was still on their system, and once re-registered, Stephen would inform the French authorities of the export therefore enabling it to be registered with the DVLA. The DVLA hadn’t reassigned the original number plate, which was lucky because Steve and Steph still had the UK plates in the loft.
At this point it is worth mentioning that this Avantime was originally a UK car. Stephen had bought it back in the UK at Anglia Car Auctions, and exported it to France. He stopped using it about three years back as circumstances dictated that he needed a 100 per cent reliable motor. ‘The Avantime had a habit of dropping into limp mode because of a drive by wire fault,’ he told me – Avantime owners will be nodding at this point. The throttle pedal and throttle body were both replaced, but the fault persisted. Steve subsequently learned that the throttle adaptions needed to be reset on the Renault Clip diagnostic system, which he didn’t have.
Mechanic Steve and his big diagnostic probe.
Steve looked at me as he spoke with the eyes of someone who has been down a very deep technical rabbit hole. I asked why he had held onto it for so long? ‘Simply because I just like looking at it,’ he responded. ‘Fair,’ I thought. Back at the gîte and into the barn I came face to face with the car and a man with a hi tech bit of Renault diagnostic kit. Before being re-registered with a Carte Grise (UK V5 equivalent) it would first require a Contrôle Technique (MOT) and proof of insurance. The registration process could then be completed online and would not be a hold up. But to get the MOT the Avi would need to be in perfect condition. ‘I have an iCarsoft diagnostic machine for Renault that can read the state of play with most systems, but can’t reset the drive by wire,’ said Steve, ‘the drive by wire is showing a difference between the pedal tracks and resting position. However, my kit is not capable of re-setting the throttle adaptions. Meet Steve.’
A man with technical kit shook my hand. This was ‘other Steve’, mobile mechanic, Steve Brooks, an English ex-pat who had the full diagnostics on his Snap-on equipment. As expected, the throttle positions were at fault. Mechanic Steve cleared all codes and reset the throttle. We had the car running for around 30 minutes and then drove it up and down a private lane. Mechanic Steve checked the live data, which looked fine and for new fault codes, all was clear. Job done.
Stephen’s final fix, centre cubby
And relax
Time for a glass of wine and a mooch around the fabulous gîte that Stephen and Stephanie run. Plenty of space, in the middle of some amazing driving country, and geared to welcome British classic car fans. As classic petrolheads and Francophiles, this was their perfect business. It’s also why they both read PC. And it’s also why their barns house some juicy classics: 911, XJ6, Smart Roadster, Lotus Esprit and MR2. I felt right at home.
Next day was MOT day. In the UK, we are permitted to drive to an MOT appointment even if our MOT has expired, but this is not the case in France. The good news was that the local Contrôle Technique centre was at the end of the road. Stephen and I conducted pre-test checks and then it was CT time. As the tester tested, I looked through the paperwork. There was a lot of service history (a sign of previous frustrations). This Avi had had many replacement parts including gearbox, clutch, brakes, driveshafts, the list was long. Hopefully this lot would pay off as the man with the clipboard did his thing. Stephen then explained to me some of the gentle frustrations of owning unusual motors in the delightful Dordogne. The Avantime had been to the local Renault dealer. ‘Despite telling them what needed doing, their response was to not to diagnose anything and charge me €100 for four spark plugs. They recently closed down on account of being hopeless!’ There were two other Renault dealers within 20 minutes. ‘One of them didn’t want to get involved with a RHD Avantime, while the other hasn’t responded to my calls.’
Oradour, lest we forget.
‘A shakedown run through beautiful countryside on fantastic roads’
The Carte Gris was issued without advisories and, back at the barn Stephen handed me the original RHD headlamps and a box of parts. Stephanie put in a shift at this point re-registering the Avi online and, within a couple of (very relaxing) days, the car was officially road legal again. Time to explore the locality then, the Avantime’s shakedown runs taking photographer Jo and myself to a variety of tourist destinations through beautiful countryside on fantastic roads.
First a local run to Busiere to see if there were any issues with the 80,000 mile car. None found. Then we headed off to the beautiful riverside town of Brantôme, on empty, ribbon-like roads devoid of potholes. I can’t emphasise enough the difference between the UK and France when it comes to road conditions. It’s all down to maintenance. Main routes are the responsibility of the state, while local roads are fixed by local councils. Lighter traffic, a rigorous maintenance regime, a centralised management of resources and yes, slightly higher taxes, make for better roads. It’s that simple – but what a difference.
The Matra museum, well worth a visit.
The day after our proving run a pilgrimage of sorts to Oradour. This was the French village devastated by the SS, whose inhabitants were murdered in cold blood… 642 men women and children in one afternoon, as an act revenge. The village has been preserved in aspic, as it was found by the allies, to remind us of the evils of fascism. It was the perfect place to visit on the day we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the victory of decency over barbarism – VE Day – lest we forget. Sombre, but beautifully and respectfully done, this was the high point of the trip for me. Everyone should visit.
Home time
The next day we were back on the road, but this time it was the big trip. Time to return to the UK. The domestic MOT had been booked, beam deflectors were ready for sticking onto the French headlights (once we crossed the channel) and the V55 form had been filled out and sent with all the right paperwork. Then we said farewell to our amazing hosts and headed off again, north, past Limoges and onto Romorantin-Lanthenay, headquarters of Matra and home to the factory where this Avantime and three generations of Espace were made.
Well it used to be the home of the factory. After Renault took the manufacture of the Espace in-house and away from Matra, the Romorantin factory had all its eggs in one basket – the dice were thrown. The launch of the Avantime was meant to be a new dawn, Renault’s flagship to keep the factory busy with a projected output of 20,000 units a year. However, sales were way below expectations and, following the discontinuation of the Avantime, on February 27, 2003, Matra Automobiles announced the closure of its Romorantin vehicle factory.
Le Mans masterpiece, colour-coded.
A paltry 8557 Avantimes were built between 2001 to 2003, a figure that makes it one of the worst-selling cars of all time. Patrick Le Quement’s outside the box design, which sought to be a multitude of things, part MPV, part Coupé, part Convertible, part shooting brake, fell between all those stools. It’s a heroic failure and visiting the restored former factory gatehouse site and the marvellous Matra Museum, the original factory, was a fantastic experience, partly because we got such a warm welcome in the car that closed the factory. The museum is truly worth a visit by the way. It tells the rich and diverse story of how Matra was heroically eccentric to the end.
Off onto the Route Nationale again, this time via Blois to Le Mans for a trip around the circuit. You can still traverse most of the 24 hour Tarmac and, having watched the Steve McQueen movie the previous evening, Jo and I were keen to take this Matra (it is a Matra really despite the badge) around the track where the Matra MS670 beat all comers in 1972. There’s no feeling like taking a trip down the Mulsanne straight, despite being stuck behind a camper van.
Setting sun on a new best friend.
Circuit done we hit the autoroutes again and, with the Avantime spooled up, headed north-east past Rouen to Abbeville for an overnight before joining Le Shuttle in the morning. The Avantime is a beautiful touring machine. Dynamically it’s not the most intuitive B-road weapon, but when on an open fast road, or motorway it is like flying first class four feet off the ground. Of course you can’t deploy its ‘party trick’ at those speeds – the ability to drop all its glass and open the roof with the pressing of one button – but no matter, the glass space itself gives you a magnificent platform from which to look at the world around you.
Before overnighting at the Aerodrome du Abbeville, I enjoyed the perfect sunset with a car that has behaved impeccably all the way here. There have been plenty of thumbs-up for this mercurial beast from other drivers. The French seem to value it in the spirit of Vive Le Difference, but tomorrow it would return to the UK and a new life on my drive – the world’s most eccentric MPV. I wondered what the neighbours would make of it.
Boarding Le Shuttle. Driving onto a train always raises a smile.
I always get a huge sense of excitement when I’m travelling on Le Shuttle… for the uninitiated it is the train that takes you and your car under the channel in a barely believable 35 minutes. I was even more buzzed than usual with an Avantime under me. Both the tunnel and the Avi were bold, brave design choices and enjoy engineering solutions that answer specific questions… although the Avi’s double hinged doors (the largest and heaviest on any production car) are on a different scale to a 31 year-old, 31-mile long, tunnel under the seabed.
Still, once aboard I could relax in the knowledge that we had pretty much made it. Rescue almost complete. Dozing-off, in comfort, beneath the fishes, I marvelled at the age we live in, and revelled in the fact that eccentric dreams can still be enjoyed – the tunnel, this car and my mission prove it.
USEFUL CONTACTS
Matra Museum, museematra.com
Bonnes Routes, Gîte bonnesroutes.fr
Le Shuttle, leshuttle.com