Last week, Anders presented us with what many would see as an example of the archetypal small Italian convertible sports car, dreaming of better, sunnier days when we’ll all be able to drive around for fun again. After all, what could be more redolent of summer than a red Alfa Romeo Spider with top down, even if it has been defaced by unnecessary spoilers?
So even though we had a convertible as our Prime Find last week, the idea is a cheery one, and god knows we need cheering up at times like these, so I thought I would continue the soft-top theme for this week’s Prime Find, which, while French, has more in common with the Alfa than just being a convertible.
While even such glamorous convertibles as the Alfa and the Mercedes Pagoda SL also have their origins in saloon-based platforms – the Alfa from the Giulia 105 and the Pagoda is built around a shortened Fintail platform – our car this week is based on very ordinary underpinnings indeed, and like most convertibles with tin-top origins, it looks so much better than the car it shares its mechanical elements with – take a look at the Peugeot 404 and 504 cabriolets, indeed any saloon-based Peugeot drop-top, or some of Pininfarina’s exceptionally pretty FIAT convertibles, for example.
Buying a cabrio is rarely, if ever, about performance – you can only drive so fast with the wind blowing around your ears, even with modern wind deflectors – but more about feeling the sun on your back, cruising with your partner in the passenger seat, taking in the views and for some, the pose value of being seen to have the good taste (or not) to drive an elegant drop-top.
It’s also an almost universal truth that such cars just look better with the roof down, since – especially on classics – the soft-top often compromises the overall design; after all, the car has been created to look good as an open-topped car, not as one with a roof. Even a car as elegant as a Pagoda SL doesn’t look as good with soft-top – or even hard-top – in place as it does with its roof down. That mainstay of the classic car scene, the MGB, is a properly handsome car with the roof down, as is any TR. There are exceptions – no-one could surely claim that a VW Beetle with its hood piled up at the back looks better than the standard tin-top, and even an exotic like a Jensen Interceptor fails this test. Harder to drive too – try seeing anything directly behind you.
So to our Prime Find for this week…as previously stated it is French, it is absolutely not a sports car, but it is very chic, and despite being French its suit was not tailored in Paris, but in Turin, by Pietro Frua at Ghia, and I think it’s dated beautifully, helped by the fact that it’s lack of radiator grille is also a look sported by modern electric (cough) cars; it’s clean, subtle and very cool.
Originally launched back in 1958 the Caravelle wasn’t always known by that name – it was initially known as the Floride, as the idea for the car came out of a US Renault dealer’s convention that took place in Florida, but to avoid offending sensibilities in the other 49 US states, it was marketed there as the Caravelle, the name it also assumed in other markets shortly thereafter.
At launch, the Caravelle (we’ll stick with calling it that) was based on the rounded little Renault Dauphine and while it shared the floorpan and four-cylinder 845cc rear-mounted engine of the saloon, it looked absolutely nothing like it, and was all the better for that. The only obvious styling link was the air intake on either side, something which disappeared with later versions. The 37bhp produced was delivered to the rear wheels via a three-speed box, though a 40bhp option was made available, as was a four-speed box for the coupé version (the Caravelle was available as a convertible with soft-top, optional removeable hard-top, or as a coupé). In any case, lightning in a bottle it was not…
1962 saw the Caravelle given a power boost, with the Renault 8’s 956cc unit, endowing it with an extra 11bhp, a four-speed box now came as standard, and a series of suspension and cooling upgrades as well as disc brakes on all four wheels improved the car all round. This was also when the Floride name was replaced in all markets by Caravelle.
Two years later, power was increased again with the introduction of the new 1108cc engine from the Renault 8, and with power now up to 55bhp, the Caravelle finally had more acceptable performance to go with it’s good looks. Autocar managed to get the Caravelle to a top speed of 143km/h (89mph) and the 0-60 sprint was completed in a still leisurely 17.8 seconds, but this now made it more competitive with rivals such as the Triumph Spitfire 4. The Coventry car however was considerably cheaper in the UK, coming in at just under £666 compared to the Renault’s £1,039. Another, perhaps more obvious rival, was VW’s Karmann Ghia, a car which has long had cult status – it shares the humble underpinnings (in this case, from the Beetle) and rear-engine layout of the Caravelle, with an Italian body, also created at Ghia.
However, despite these regular improvements, the Caravelle was never a great commercial success, and over a decade-long production run that ended in 1968, only 117,000 of all three body styles were built. By comparison, VW produced over 445,000 Karmann Ghia’s between 1955 and 1974.
So we come to “our” car, a late-ish model from 1965 which comes with the 1108cc engine. It’s on sale with a dealer on the Hampshire coast – very appropriate – and is in a lovely shade of powder blue with black interior and sitting on whitewall tyres; it looks very fetching glinting in the sun. The advert says it’s been restored, but doesn’t say how long ago, and the indicated 61,000 miles is not warranted. This example comes with a removeable hard top but no soft top, so you’ll need to be confident of the weather if you go out for a topless drive, so to speak.
Interestingly, this is a RHD car, which makes it exceptionally rare in the UK. 37 Caravelles of all types remain on the road here, with another 16 SORN – it’s not clear how many are RHD or convertibles, though.
As per our general practice, we have borrowed some photos from the dealer website – you can see the full advert here, where there are several more.
With an asking price of £10,450, while not perfect, this looks to be a thoroughly charming car for high days and holidays, and you’re unlikely to come across many even at some of the bigger shows (when they return…which they will!). As always, we recommend arranging in inspection before you part with your hard-earned cash.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk