Huuu’eee, this 1971-1974 Renault 17 TS is in tough shape. It’ll be a labor and/or labor of love to bring this one back. It can be found on Craigslist, or here on the CL archive, in Friendsville, Pennsylvania – I believe, since it’s on the Elmira-Corning, NY Craigslist but there is no phone number or state given. There is also no year given other than 1950 which it obviously isn’t. The seller is asking $1,000 for this R17 project. Our own Jeff L. tracked down this project car, thanks, Jeff!
To paraphrase the great sage of our time, Napoleon Dynamite: GOSH! This is one rough and rusty R17. The R17 TS was made for the 1971-1974 model years before they evolved into the Gordini. This is the seller’s entire description: “Renault 17 TL Car found in a shed. Contact me for more details.”
The tail light lenses look good and there are undoubtedly other parts that can be reused but I don’t see this car ever being restored, it’s just too rough. They are super cool looking cars when they’re in perfect condition, though. The hatchback looks like it’s in good condition and the area under the hatch looks decent, relatively, compared to the rest of the car.
I don’t even want to know if those are some sort of unhatched eggs on the floor behind the passenger seat. Or maybe they’re mothballs to keep out the pests? Landscaping rocks? Who knows, all I know is that everything inside this car gets stripped out by the next owner if there is one.
This is Renault’s 1.6L inline-four which would have had around 108 hp. I’m assuming that this engine isn’t in working condition but I could be wrong. I would not mind having a 17 TS or Gordini for the French car wing of the garage (which includes just one French car), but this one is too much of a project for me. Have any of you owned an R17?
Found a similar blue model in the woods….dealer emblem said Maxwell House.
Time to do a rally car tribute!!!
Crusher car.
A fool and his francs are soon parted.
Lol- I’ve read the other comments. Well this one is definitely rough. I’d say it is a 74 model based on the headrests on the seats, the bumpers and the non- Gordini carbureted engine. I had bought a brand new 1976 R-17 Gordini which in 1976 came with a Bosch Electronic Fuel Injected Hemi Head Engine and a 5 speed also with the large sunroof/convertible like this one has. I had that car for many years and literally beat the daylights out of it. I am a life long car enthusiast who has owned and raced muscle cars (when street outlaws really drove street cars) Corvettes Trans Ams Camaros Mopars (Mopars ruled the streets by the way) etc…. I can honestly say that car was the best all around car I ever owned and would love to get my hands on another one. It wasn’t the fastest or the best handling or the quietest riding but it had a great balance of power, responsiveness and handling that made it a truly fun car to drive everyday. I remember being in New Hampshire Sking with it and going up literally miles long mountain hills in the snow and being the only car to make it to the top weaving past stuck cars all the way up. It was front wheel drive. (My American muscle cars which I also drove everyday couldn’t even go forward in 3 inches of snow on a flat surface without having to get the posi rear wheels to dig into the snow to the pavement. All of those features back in the mid seventies were way ahead of their time. It had a smooth high revving engine that started instantly everytime (thanks Bosch). No backfire through the carb or hesitation or flooding or pumping the gas to set the choke or failing accelerator pumps. No dieseling when you shut it off. All of BS that everybody seems to forget!! Oh well I have ranted enough. If anyone has a line on one that they know about please share. I would love to get my hands on one that is in a little better shape than this one. Thanks for listening
I love reading stuff like this
That’s great stuff, Ron – thanks for sharing a positive story about a French car! I could not agree more on loving fuel-injected vehicles.
Great post Ron, always great to hear from someone who has actual experience with the car in question, not just the “it’s junk” comments.
I know of a brown R-17, and a Figero, in the middle Tennessee area for sale. The Figero is a driver with automatic and sunroof. The R-17 is complete but not running. I also have a Matchbox still on its card of this sharp little French lady.
If you are near Boston, and need to have another R17 (California car, very straight and solid, not driven since put in dry storage 30 years ago), email me at rconnearney@yahoo.com.
Bob C
Even one of these in restorable condition isn’t worth restoring.
Aww come on Mr Spreeman , it is all a labor of love, we all have and do throw good money down the toilet every day have on many old cars, just fun, not worth it but not much more thrown away than an expensive set of Golf Clubs to some LOL Someone can save it and hope they do. I just never could figure how to shift those 4 on the columns LOL
What a shame. This thing should have been scrapped 20 years ago.
I know little about these other then my orange 17 TL Matchbox was unbeatable on my Hotwheels Thundershift 500 race track back in the’70’s. My friends banded it. For 300-400 bucks I might put it in the garage as “lawn art” just to relive the glory days. I’m close enough.
My first car was a hand-me-down R5 (Better known as LeCar). For no good reason at all, that car inspired a lifelong love of French mistakes.
shhhhhhh! just let it quietly return to the earth from where it was going before someone woke it up!
My parents (yes, the same ones who had the R16) had an R17 later on back in the late 70’d and while I only got to drive it once, I loved it! It almost sounded like 2 engines when revved. Never figured out quite how that could be, and have never heard another engine sound like that since. Good times!
I bought one of these in Florida many years ago with no rust for the princely sum of $200. Not aware of the extremely fragile electronics, tried to jump start it and promptly fried the irreplaceable computer. Never ran again. Didn’t learn my lesson and followed this fiasco with a Renault Fuego Turbo– VERY quirky car with the world’s most luxurious bucket seats. Still suffering from “french car delirium” I rescued a Renault GTA from the junkyard and drove the heck out of it for a couple years. That one set me back $150. Although based on the lowly Alliance, it was an entirely different car under the skin and honestly one of the best-handling and performing FWD cars I have ever owned. Now, if I could just find a 1937 Talbot-Lago for a similar deal…
This is a rare one; it is a TL which was the dependable carburated version. not many of these came to the states, most were the Bosch fuel injected TS versions which were renamed “Gordini.
does anyone have contact info for the seller?
Please tell me you save it