Renault Étoile Filante

The Renault Étoile Filante, meaning Shooting Star, was Renault's only attempt at both creating a gas turbine-powered car and setting a land speed record for such cars. In 1954 the French aeronautical turbine manufacturer Turbomeca proposed that Renault build a gas turbine car to show the technology's benefits, and Renault developed and wind-tunnel tested the car between 1954 and 1955. In 1956 Jean Hébert and a Renault team took it to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where it reached an average speed of 191.0 mph (307.4 km/h). In the mid-1990s Renault restored it and fired it up under its own power for the first time since 1956, and it is conserved in Renault's Historical Cars Collection, while a private collection of Renault sports cars in Mexico has a second Étoile Filante. In 2016, on the 60th anniversary of the record run, the car was fitted with an electric motor and returned to Bonneville with Nicolas Prost at the wheel, without competing for a record.