Renault VESTA 2

The VESTA II is the outcome of Renault's research into reducing the fuel consumption of cars during the 1980s. It followed the prototypes EVE, EVE+ and VESTA, and the name VESTA stands for Véhicule Econome de Systèmes et Technologies Avancées, with an allusion to the goddess Vesta. The research, led by the stylist and aerodynamicist Gaston Juchet, then director of styling, was Renault's answer to the challenge set by the Ministry of Industry in 1980 to build a car consuming less than 3 litres per 100 km. The data describe the ninth prototype, the PV9. Renault took extreme care over aerodynamics, reaching a drag coefficient of 0.186 in a truncated teardrop shape, with a hood at 57 degrees, a flat floor, ultra-thin 2 mm glazing, air suspension that lowers the car by 20 mm as speed rises, and a three-cylinder engine of only 716 cubic centimetres and 27 hp. On 23 June 1987 it set the world fuel consumption record on the Bordeaux to Paris motorway: 9.447 litres of premium petrol, or 1.94 litres per 100 km at an average of 100.9 km/h. Its top speed measured by journalists in October 1987 was 138.2 km/h, and it had no direct descendant in the Renault range.