The Renault 30 and Renault 20 are two executive cars produced by the French automaker Renault between 1975 and 1984. The most upmarket and expensive Renaults of their time, the two cars were effectively identical; the 30 was the larger engined and more expensive of the two. The two cars were easily distinguished between each other from their differing headlight configuration - the Renault 20 had two single rectangular headlights whereas the Renault 30 had quadruple round headlights. Over 622,000 R20s and R30s were produced in Sandouville, Le Havre, France.
[] Introduction
Launched in March 1975, the Renault 30 TS was the first Renault with an engine larger than four cylinders since before World War II. It was one of the first cars (the other two being the Peugeot 604 and Volvo 264) to use the then newly-introduced 2664cc PRV V6 engine, which was developed jointly between Peugeot, Renault and Volvo; the PRV produced 131 hp and could power the R30 to a top speed of 185 km/h. The vehicle's hatchback styling was highly derivative of the extremely successful Renault 16.
The more afforable Renault 20, which was presented at the Paris Salon in November 1975 (exactly eight months after the Renault 30 TS), used the same hatchback bodystyling as the 30 but with two rectangular headlights instead of the 30's quadruple round lights. Under the bonnet, the 20 had the smaller four-cylinder 1647cc engine (from the Renault 16 TX) rated at 90bhp. Other technical differences between the 20 and 30 were that 20 used drum brakes at the rear wheels, 13 inch wheel rims, and smaller 60 liter fuel tank. The 20 came in three different trim variations: L, TL and GTL. The two cars were effectively two different specifications of the same car despite their separate numeric classification. The Renault 20 and 30 were ahead of their time in terms of safety, featuring front and rear crumple zones as well as side impact protection. Not only that, the cars were highly regarded for their comfort, handling, and low levels of engine and road noise.
On the downside, reliability issues, such as niggling mechanical faults (which sometimes proved expensive to fix), plagued both cars throughout their lifetimes. Shortly after their introduction, it soon became quite clear that R20 had an engine too small and underpowered to cope with the overall size and weight of the car and that the R30 was quite expensive to buy. In response to this, the R20TS was introduced, an used a new four-cylinder 1995cc overhead camshaft engine rated at 109bhp (which was shared with the Citroen CX and later the Peugeot 505). The new 2-liter engine was univsersally regared as a big improvement. The following year saw the introduction of the R30TX (a more luxurious fuel-injected version of the R30TS), then the R20 Diesel and so on.
In 1981, the 2.2-liter fuel-injected R20TX was added to the range, followed by the R30 Turbo-Diesel. Production of the 20 and 30 ceased on 16 October 1983 to make way for the Renault 25.
[] 20/30 specifications
Capacity 1647–2664 cc
Power 64–142 hp
Max. speed 146–188 km/h
Acceleration 0–62.5 mp/h: 20.6–10.0 seconds
[] Production figures
R1270: 20/30 Turbo-D 27,601
R1271: 20 L/TL/GTL 187,001
R1272: 20 TS 201,401
R1273 No figures
R1275: 30 TS 68,401
R1276: 20 TD/GTD 84,801
R1277: 20 LS/TS 100,401
R1278: 30 TX 40,401
R1279: 20 TX 33,801
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