We went to meet Patrick Le Quément, Director of Design Industriel Renault, to find out how the Vel Satis, the company’s turnaround model, came into being, and what its innovative matrix consists of. “The Renault limousine”, says Le Quément, “was killed off by the war. After that the cars we made were different. There was the 16, then the 20 and later the 25, which was well received, but hardly ambitious in positioning terms”.
The Vel Satis is genuinely original. “We took the Initiale concept car as our starting point”, he goes on, “and came up with a smaller model that lacked the magic of the original’s roominess and visibility. What I wanted was a car designed from the inside out. We got to the end of the first stage and we all said: that’s not it. So we made it taller, pushed the front seats apart and the rear seats closer to the centre to create a sort of ring shape. And that was our Vel Satis, with seats set on a slope for optimum visibility”.
What made him abandon the classic booted saloon? Le Quément smiles. “There’s a sentence of André Gide’s I’m fond of. He said: “you don’t discover new continents by clinging to coastlines”. When you’re in search of adventure, there are no safe harbours; you’re out on your own. And I went through some bad times”. Le Quément fought back. “My team was always behind me, but there were times when I felt absolutely alone, when people just didn’t understand that car. Luckily I had the support of Louis Schweitzer who believed in New French design. Now, they all say they’re really convinced”.
And now the Vel Satis is a production model: “it has a totally different feel. From close up what you see is a limousine that’s both protective and intelligent. It’s an intellectual car, attractive and very exclusive”.
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 128
