R4 fan boy

The post on the Renault R4 generated a surprising response from close quarters. Roger Putnam in the UK who has driven more than his fair share of fast cars through a long and distinguished motor industry career (Lotus,Jaguar and Ford) sent me the photo below with the explanation.

"I was amused by your article on the R 4.This photo was taken in 1967 just after I had written off my Elan. I bought a LHD car from Belgium as a runaround whilst between cars. I think I paid £25 for it plus £12 import tax. As you can see it was battered in 1968. It had front seats made from metal tubing strung with canvas. It ran well for about 10 months then there was a horrendous noise from the engine and it expired."

 Look at the state of the car.Production of R4s only started in 1961 so this one had a pretty rough life because it only took 7 years to get into this sorry state.

Roger seems to have an excellent photo filing system and is apparently immediately able to put his hands on photos related to most of the subjects I post on this blog.Time to write that book Roger.

I should also add that John Maries,also ex-UK motor industry,has such an arcane knowledge of UK motoring-and also photography- trivia ,and I mean real trivia, that he was able to date the photo from the colour and layout of the tax disc at the top of the windscreen.
As postscript the lady in the car is Trish and she is still Roger's wife despite having to drive around Norfolk in a battered Renault 4 all those years ago..