Renault Design is the bastion of the future. This is where the models that will be launched in the coming years are created. But not everything that comes out of the designers' pen finds its way to the showroom. Some concepts don't make it beyond the computer screen or the presentation stage. This is the fate that befell a number of sporty stationwagons in the middle of the last decade.
Text: Tony Vos - Photos: copyright Renault Design
Always on the lookout for new segments, Renault has shown itself to be very strong conceptually over the past 125 years. And so it was that the Special Programmes department was created in 2014. A department designed to stimulate interest within the Renault Group by creating new variants of regular models.
"This resulted in two to three years of exciting cars built as fully functional models without the intermediate step of a clay model," recalls Laurens van den Acker (Chief Design Officer). "We also made extensive use of the latest Virtual Reality (VR) technology.
Photos: The Renault Talisman Shooting Break (left) features a completely different roofline, as well as special and colourful details.
In the Special Programmes, designers were given the opportunity to create with fewer constraints and to approach new cars more intuitively, free from rational and numerical constraints. An approach that Axel Breun, as managing director, had to manage. Axel: "I was in charge of concept models at Renault from 2009 to 2014. All of them produced models that looked a little further into the future. Special programmes brought the team back to the drawing board by designing cars that were variants of cars that were already in development or had just been launched, so that they could be developed into a production model much more quickly. But we were also explicitly looking for emotion, as with the Renault Talisman Shooting Break.
A more streamlined version of the Talisman Estate was clearly based on German lines. Axel: "I have seen the RS models appear as Avant at Audi and BMW also made an M5 Touring. And what about the BMW CLS Shooting Break, sporty, elegant cars with more drama than a standard estate, but retaining space and substance. The idea was not only to move upmarket with the Shooting Break, but also to use the Renault Sport label more widely. Renault Sport was only present in the B and C segments with hatchbacks.
Photo: For comparison a Renault Talisman Estate.
The idea was to quickly create a prototype, a 1:1 model of the car that could be shown to the Executive Committee for review. The car had to touch people's hearts and give them a 'I want this in my garage' reaction. On the engine side, there were plenty of tuning options to bring performance up to the level expected of Renault Sport. Laurens: "There was absolutely no focus on numbers at that stage. It had to be, as the French say, a 'coup de coeur'. Axel and his team did a great job. The Talisman Shooting Break Renault Sport was created in a few months and presented at the end of 2015".
At first glance, the sporty silver-grey Talisman is distinguished by its special wheels with orange details and a front bumper in the familiar Renault Sport start/finish flag theme. The shape of the F1 wing is emphasised by a lining also in orange. The radiator grille, which has no chrome bars but is black, is chrome-plated only at the top and bottom. The lip at the bottom also has R.S. inscribed on it.
From the side you can clearly see that the roofline is much more pronounced towards the rear and the rear window is set at a more oblique angle. The roof rails are also missing, giving the car a more coupé-like appearance. The wing mirrors are all black, but the chrome frames of the side windows remain.
The rear requires some study, but apart from the lights and the logo, everything is different from the estate. The rear window has a different shape and the tailgate is lower. Not only because the roof is lower, but also because the number plate is on the completely redesigned rear bumper and not on the tailgate. The result is a much higher sill. At the corners, lines run forward from the narrow reflectors. There is no Talisman badge, only the RS logo at the rear. Finally, the rear bumper has a diffuser and more visible exhaust outlets on both sides.
Renault Design took a lot of photos of this special car. But there is only one image of the exterior. Axel: "The interior was not developed, it was taken from a normal estate and in terms of technology, the ideas were not applied to this one model either. However, at the same time we were working on a Renault Sport version of the normal Talisman Estate. This was easier to build and was completed as a prototype a little earlier than the Shooting Break. In terms of front end and wheels, this (black) car matched the Shooting Break. The rear bumper also showed the exhaust vents, diffuser and lines, but the tailgate opened to the normal level.
Unfortunately, we are talking in the past tense when it comes to both cars. Renault Design does not have the space to keep all the models it is working on indefinitely. Laurens: "We keep all the digital data, so we can reproduce a particular car if necessary. But when a model has reached the end of its lifecycle, it makes no sense to keep non-production variants".
Photo: The Talisman Estate, in an extra sporty Renault Sport version.
Photo: Axel Breun next to the Talisman R.S. Break.
Photos: A Renault Sport version of the Mégane IV estate also existed only at Renault Design, but the body and technical basis were familiar.
Nevertheless, in the middle of the last decade, serious consideration was given to substantially expanding the Renault Sport range to include several estate variants. This is why Axel Breun also talks about the Renault Mégane Estate R.S., which was created by his department during the same period. Compared to the Talisman Shooting Break, it was a relatively easy job. The body of the Mégane Estate remained unchanged. The front end and the extended wings were taken from the five-door RS. The orange accents were taken from the Talisman RS, as were the wheel designs. The result was an extremely successful and attractive-looking car that could have been driven straight into the showroom.
Why not extend this principle to the Clio Estate? Axel Breun shows pictures of this too. However, these are computer-generated images that make it clear that this is merely a digital version of the Renault Clio Estate Renault Sport. Of course, the front end of Renault's sportiest compact has been adopted and the rear modified. As with all Renault Sport models, the bumper has extremely pronounced exhaust outlets and an integrated diffuser, in this case in dark grey. The Clio is clearly visible on black alloy wheels with the same design as the Talisman and Mégane shown here, but smaller and without orange accents.
Photos: A Renault Sport version of the Clio Estate also seemed a logical extension of the model range in the middle of the previous decade.
But no matter how beautiful the special edition models were, after a spontaneous round of applause from the executive committee, the button counters were waiting in the wings. There was also the fact that the normal versions of the aforementioned models were already available. This automatically meant that these sporty versions could only go into production after the facelift. The rear of the Mégane Estate R.S. also clearly shows the post-facelift rear lights.
And that was the main reason why the Special Programmes department was disbanded some two and a half to three years after it was set up. Laurens: "The conclusion became clear that if Renault really wanted to put these kinds of out-of-the-box models into production, development had to be involved much earlier in the process. In addition, designers get frustrated when their creations are greeted with great enthusiasm on the one hand, but on the other hand there is little to show for it. In the specific case of the Talisman Shooting Break, one factor was that Renault already had a sufficient range of estate cars with the Clio, Mégane and Talisman Estate and there was no need to add a fourth.
Fortunately, the photos still exist.