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PJ King's avatar

Shades of Bullitt! And even though the commercial was shot in SF it wouldn’t have been to introduce the 5 to the US market because it was sold here as Le Car by American Motors.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

The ad was for the U.S. market. The voiceover is in French in a very American accent with some English. The text is in English "8 Models". I'm not 100% sure what they're saying (I took four years of French in high school), but it's close,

"New a San Francisco. La Renault Cinque (unintelligible) nous bien avec au l'appelle "Le Car"....

From 'Frahnce', Le Renaut Cinque Presage et (unintelligible) huit."

With apologies to Madame Arsenault, my high school French teacher.

"New to San Francisco. The Renault 5. Together we are good with the name "Le Car"...

From France, The Renault 5 Presage. And one of eight."

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PJ King's avatar

Dutifully added to my vast trivia file. Here's one my friends and I rented for the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans before the car was sold in the US: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=164009971761463&set=a.162106168618510

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Jeff Winks's avatar

Probably not. I wonder how it got enough speed to get any air!

My wife and I watched Smokey and the Bandit a few weeks ago and marveled that the Trans Am always came out looking beautiful after a stunt.

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Adam 12's avatar

Ha

Yes.

Hollywood magic.

Do not attempt at home your results may vary.

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Adam 12's avatar

Define “Survive” Ronnie. Are all the constituent parts readily recognizable and did their molecular structure change. Probably not. Easily recyclable and reusable. Possibly most components of the vehicle. Usable for the intended purpose of transportation? Probably not.

Still for me they are beautiful in their own way and like a Mini, VW Bug or 2CV would be fun to play around with.

Also looks to have some camera angles played and would love to know how this 5 reached such heights. What sorcery is involved?

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PJ King's avatar

I’m still not convinced this is an official American Motors Le Car intro commercial. The headlights and Le Car graphics are wrong, plus there’s mention of five models when we only got the three-door hatch. I’ll do more research once I survive Hurricane Debbie.

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-Nate's avatar

Another fun commercial ! .

I'm sure this little car, like the Mustang in the original 'Gone In 60 Seconds', was ruined beyond repair .

For shiggles, sometime watch the landing of that poor car, the shock wave _visibly_ travels through the car .

What I remember of Le Car was : terrific fuel economy and fun to drive followed by incredible disenchantment and selling on or scrapping the car in one or two years .

I had a '63 Dauphine and loved it ~ I didn't keep it long enough to discover how well it'd handle my driving .

-Nate

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