This is the 1956 Renault Étoile Filante (shooting star), Groupe Renault’s effort to create a gas turbine-powered car that would chase after land speed records. The earliest traces of this project begin in the year 1954 when a French manufacturer of gas turbine turboshaft engines for helicopters called Turboméca (now known as Safran Helicopter Engines) decided to attempt to apply their technology to an automobile, and the head of Turboméca, Joseph Szydlowski, reached out to Renault in order to accomplish this. Pierre Lefaucheux, who was at the time serving as the head of Renault, agreed to the idea and in the years 1954 and 1955, wind tunnel tests would begin taking place. By the year 1956, the car was ready for road testing, and Jean Hébert, an engineer-driver for the Renault company, alongside a small team set out to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in order to push the limits. On the day September 5th of 1956, the Étoile Filante managed to set a world speed record for a gas-turbine engined car with a top speed of about 192mph, a record that is reportedly still unbeaten to this day. The standing records include traveling up to 306.902 kph over 1 kilometre, and 307.707 kph over 1 mile, however 4 total records were broken that day. The car shown here was built using a single-seater with tubular structure with polyester bodywork finished in blue with red and yellow stripes/accents. The Étoile Filante was primarily designed by former design director for Renault, Fernand Picard alongside Albert Lory. In the early 1960s, the gas-turbine era came to an end, leaving this project to also be forgotten about for some time, however in the year 1990, Renault set out to fully restore the car. The car eventually returned to the Salt Flats in 2016, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the 1956 records with professional racing driver Nicolas Prost behind the wheel.
How many made? 2 are believed to have been built
Engine: Turbomeca Turmo gas turbine; 270 bhp (201 kW); 28,000 rpm
Debut: June 22, 1956 at the Montlhéry circuit
Top Speed: 308.9 km/h, a record set on September 5th of 1956.
0-60mph: n/a
Photo Credit: @classictorque
Research: @rarecarsonly