Renault Espace I

The first-generation Renault Espace, project code J11, was launched by Renault in July 1984 and is counted among the first contemporary minivans or MPVs. The concept began in the 1970s with the British designer Fergus Pollock at Chrysler UK and was developed by Matra for Simca, but after PSA took over Chrysler UK and Simca in 1978 it judged the design too expensive and risky, so Matra, who called it the P23, took it to Renault. Renault adopted it as project J11, kept a longitudinal engine layout and insisted on an entirely flat floor behind the front seats. The body was fibreglass on a warm-galvanised steel monocoque spaceframe, built on the same line as the Talbot Matra Murena. Turbodiesel versions arrived in October 1984, and a 1988 revamp replaced most remaining Talbot and Simca content and added the four-wheel-drive Quadra.