Perhaps a light comes on when you hear the name Harry Velthuis. That may be true, because he has already appeared in AutoWeek in the past. With his red Renault 4 GTL, named Guppie, he took a shot at being the most economical driver in our country in terms of kilometer cost. The ‘little fish’ lasted a long time. Videos are circulating on YouTube in which Harry reaches 500,000 kilometers while driving. His love for the 4 went so far that he once proclaimed that he wanted to be buried in it. Renault 4 GTL with 528,000 kilometers During our visit, Harry (71) was fortunately still alive, but Guppie unfortunately passed away in 2014 with a mileage of almost 528,000. The friendly Renault found its final resting place in the garden behind the house just above Emmen. “At one point it simply collapsed through its rear axle: rust. There was no saving it anymore,” our host explains resignedly. Fortunately, we didn’t come for nothing: just about everything in and around the house breathes Renault and an Estafette and a few Viertjes have been collected in the yard, together with wife Tonny’s Twingo, the Clio RS and a raised truck just imported from Spain. 4F6 Fasa from daughter Sabine and the Mégane Estate GT-Line from daughter Rianne. And with all due respect to the Clio and the Mégane; they are just a bit too modern for AutoWeek Classics, the magazine for which we visited it. Four with a trailer tent The enthusiasm of the ladies is no less, because we soon receive all kinds of Renault anecdotes from their youth in our mailbox. Always written with a smile afterwards, sometimes less so at the moment. Rianne still remembers holidays with the 4: “In our youth, the 4 was already a less common sight in the street scene, let alone with a large trailer behind it. Once when we wanted to drive home from a campsite, the car stopped working. My sister and I then had to push it over a hill, hoping the engine would start downhill. Embarrassed, we ran around the campsite pushing the Four, one of those moments when I wished my parents had a regular, modern car. I also always brought a large toolbox with me, so that if there was a breakdown along the way, my father could possibly fix the problem himself.” Youth camping with Estafette Sabine: “When we were old enough to go on holiday ourselves, our parents took us in the Estafette to the infamous youth camping in Renesse. Nice, because this way we could sleep a few hours ‘in advance’ along the way to compensate for the expected sleep deficiency that week. It was less pleasant when we drove to the campsite in that very old van from 1971 to unload our things. Believe me, as an adolescent you would rather come to the campsite in something else!” Harry’s Renault history itself also had a false start. “After I got my driver’s license in 1975, I was looking for an affordable cart: 2CV, Mini, Beetle… My chemistry teacher let me buy his Renault 4 for 200 guilders, which is more than €90.” After just two weeks the starter motor broke down, but Harry soon found a better 4. “What’s called: that 72’s drove really tight! At that time I worked as a chemical analyst at the University Hospital in Groningen and lived in rooms there. Every weekend I stayed with my parents in Wijhe, between Zwolle and Deventer, and then went out with the 4 of us. Once I went to Valkenburg for a weekend with Tonny – still my girlfriend at the time. On the way I totally lost it: in a gentle bend I went straight because of the slippery road… We had nothing, transferred our stuff and got into our friends’ Beetle to continue the journey to South Limburg. I then bought two more Viertjes, which I converted into one good copy.” Despite this misfortune, Harry’s love for Renault and the 4 in particular remained intact. “That was purely because of me. It wasn’t inspired by home or anything. On the contrary, my parents always drove Peugeot.” Simple technology of the Vier What is the charm of the Renault 4? Harry: “It’s simple technology. With the exception of welding, I was able to teach myself everything to keep them on the road. I’ve had about fifteen. They are also reliable. And then that space, right? I helped many Groningen residents move during my student days, a refrigerator easily fits in there.” Tonny adds: “They are economical and it is always a matter of starting and running. Well, in winter you have to scratch the windows on the outside and inside, but oh well …” Yet it was not only Fours who served. “We also had a 6 once, but it no longer passed the MOT in 1985. And Tonny had an F6 Combi. He found his Waterloo against a tree when she had to avoid a deer.” Relay saved from demolition And then the Relay. “In 1998, Renault existed 100 years, which was extensively celebrated in North Brabant and in which all Dutch Renault clubs participated. There we met the Friends of the Relay Club and the seed was planted among a number of R4 riders to purchase such a van in the future. We also liked a classic camper, so we started looking. We found one near Enschede. It belonged to someone who moved across the border and his Relay was going to be scrapped. Not nice! We bought it and renovated it and have had a lot of fun with it since, including several trips to Germany and France, where we also visited Monaco. Our Tuffie could look forward to more interest there than all those expensive cars.” Well, with such Renault-minded parents, a love for the brand is instilled in you as a child. Take Harry and Tonny’s home: from nameplate to clock and from display cabinets to jigsaw puzzles, it is all Renault. “The display cases contain approximately 850 different Renault 4 and Estafette miniatures. I still visit the Namac fair in Houten every year,” says Harry. Rejected Four “There are meadows behind my parents’ house,” Sabine continues. “We learned to drive there and – especially – cross-country with an MOT-failed 4. My sister and I once drove our mother’s 4 into the barbed wire; our own cross-4 didn’t work. I couldn’t wait to get my driver’s license. I received lessons in a Volkswagen Passat. During my first braking action, the instructor almost flew through the windshield: there was no power brakes in the 4, so I was used to pressing the brake pedal firmly… Fortunately, I passed quickly and my father gave me a Renault 4 GTL. It cost 600 guilders, didn’t look like much, but I cleaned it and my father fixed it up. How happy I was with it! I called it Viertje Ienieminie and regularly drove to my sister, who was doing an internship in Stavelot, Belgium. Downhill and with the wind I reached 160 km/h! That had to be the case, because then uphill it quickly became much slower.” Looking at the 5 GT Turbo, it became a 5 GTX. Later, the R4 GTL became a bit of a disappointment. Sabine and her father therefore looked at a 5 GT Turbo, but in their opinion it was too bad. “It then became a 5 GTX. It didn’t last long, but hey, it only cost €650. Then came a 5 GTE, but it never ran well. I sold both cars at the same time in favor of a Mégane Coupé on LPG.” Sabine now had a friend who lived in Nieuwleusen, and with such a mileage, gas is an economical choice. Later the itch came back and when a mutual friend wanted to sell his blue Clio RS due to family expansion, Sabine struck. “I have driven it to over 350,000 kilometers. That friend regretted his sale and bought a silver-gray Clio RS, until he wanted to trade it in again. We agreed again and that is our current car. The odometer has now passed 260,000 kilometers, but because of the fun it offers, this Clio is here to stay.” A four-wheeler has now been added. “That’s the Spanish 4F6. We were sometimes looking at adding a 4, but because Jos has a five-year-old son and we have two dogs, that becomes tight. We were tipped off about this Fasa with a raised roof. We bought it sight unseen. Quite a bit still needs to be done before it can go to the RDW and have its MOT, but that’s what we have my father for. Because of his origins and red color we call him El Toro, or The Bull. By the way, Ieniemienie still exists, it is now my father’s workhorse.” From 4CV to Vel Satis We are quite impressed by Sabine’s Renault past, but partner Jos Nieuwenweg also knew something about it. “Trafic, three 4s, two 4CVs, Master, Vel Satis,” he says smoothly when we ask if he also had a link with the French brand. One was a real workhorse, another was purchased for restoration and a third served as a passenger car. Father-in-law Harry thought and still thinks it was wonderful, and in that respect Rianne turned out well. “After I was regularly allowed to drive in Sabine’s red 4 – she was able to cycle to work – I was ready for a little more comfort. I found it in a white 5 SL Tonic. Michiel also knew Renault, he drove a company Kangoo at the time, but an Audi A3 was also not to be sneezed at. That’s why I sold the Fiver, with a heavy heart, that is. Michiel knows that feeling too, because he still regrets getting rid of his Clio I 1.8-16V.” Michiel still calls it the nicest Renault he has ever owned. The Audi meant that Harry did not speak to his son-in-law for a week and after the A3 was quickly totaled at Schiphol, the couple switched to Renault again. “This time a very loud and super low Clio II RS. Expansion of the family forced us into a Mégane and now into a Mégane Estate. Not classic, but with two children perfect for a lot of seating and driving comfort and of course luggage space,” says Rianne. Michiel: “I remember that on the night I met Rianne in a pub in Emmen, we went to my house with a bunch of people. At one point the conversation turned to cars, with Rianne’s sister Sabine talking about the Renault 4. No one immediately noticed anything, so she simply started drawing the car on the ground.” Fallen from a tree We know few families where the love for a particular car brand runs so much in the blood. So all’s well that ends well, right? Yes, regarding the third generation. When Harry drives the Relay to the photo location, four-year-old Sophie shouts happily: “The bus is coming, the bus is coming!” So that’s fine. Harry himself will celebrate half a century of driving a Renault 4 in 2025, so that is also reason for a party. But he and Tonny are of course also half a century older and after Harry fell out of a tree while sawing branches and Tonny has a new hip, long-distance travel with the 53-year-old camper is gradually becoming more difficult: the joints no longer function as smoothly. . However, getting rid of it is not an option: “It has so many wonderful memories,” says Harry. “What stands now remains,” Tonny succinctly summarizes her passion for the brand with the wybertje. What brand ambassadors!
Source: www.autoweek.nl
