Torrento Automotive Design Thread

slashdotretro · 17 January 2022 22:16

1979-1981 Léonaux 14 GT4 16V; The mildly successful albeit questionably styled hatchback that doubled as a forgotten Group B legend. Powered with a slightly unreliable 1.8L N/A I4 producing just under 100HP and 140Nm of Torque, paired with a FWD 4 speed automatic.

Partial popups, split rear window and all the tiny vents you could want make a statement when it comes to styling, interpreted as individual, avant-garde and horrendously ugly. No matter the looks when you’ve achieved a best of 4th in the Hetvesia Rally, despite breaking down every 23 seconds.

1989-1992 Léonaux 24 TDi; The more sensible successor to the 14, going from a constantly broken down Group B car to a no-nonsense executive saloon without sacrificing that Gallic flair when it comes to style. With a purring 3.0L V6 Turbo Diesel producing 194HP and 200Nm of Torque, paired with a much better FWD 5 speed automatic.

Léonaux’s madness when it comes to styling has now been greatly toned down, being much more conservatively styled to appeal to stone-faced businessmen. The only remnants of that Gallic flair being the large piece of glass on the rear and the 24’s aerodynamic shape that appears to have fallen through a time portal from the future.

(Léonaux Automotive is a subsidiary of Torrento Automotive, based in Versailles, France.)

Leone · 17 January 2022 22:30

The 1984 12 GT4. The first turbodiesel rally car. Probably. Weird design, interesting engine choice, and a planned primitive AWD system before that got canned in favour of a open diff RWD setup. Oh, also, see those scoops on the C pillar? Yeah, those are functional, despite the car having it’s engine in the front. As well, there’s a plate under the engine bay to stop rocks from flying up and grenading the engine, and Léonaux decided it would be a good idea to put a hood scoop in that plate. On the bottom of the car. Scoop on the bottom of the car. Why? Either way, incredibly cool and somewhat innovative francebox from the '80s.

stm316 · 18 January 2022 03:06

How? Are they to boost cabin pressure at altitude/speed??

Leone · 18 January 2022 20:01

There’s a pair of very small radiators in the pillars, the main reason the scoops exist is to look cool but I refuse to have fake vents on my cars lmao

stm316 · 18 January 2022 20:47

Me: Why is there coolant on the back floor?
Service tech: Ummm… yeah… about that.

Leone · 18 January 2022 20:59

The engineers didn’t really think about that one, now did they?

slashdotretro · 18 January 2022 21:53

And that children, is why instead of buying a leaky Torrento or, heaven forbid, a Léonaux. You instead cross the street and test drive an Akamatsu instead.

Leone · 18 January 2022 22:01

You say that, yet Akamatsu models are incredibly unreliable on the engine side of things, which is probably a bigger issue than a tiny bit of coolant leaking from the one-in-a-million chance of a C-pillar coolant leak in a 12 GT4

I don’t know about you but I’d rather have to patch a small leak and be done with the problem than have to replace an Akamatsu turbocharger when it blows up for the 8th month in a row, only to have it blow up again a month later

slashdotretro · 19 January 2022 15:14

Of course, why shouldn’t you have a turbo with the volatility of an IED?

Leone · 14 August 2022 00:57

I live bitch

How long has it been? Two, three years?
[checks calendar]
7 months? Fucking hell. Anyways, I’ve come to make a half-assed attempt at reviving this ghost town of a thread with my stupid antics and boring cars that collectively had about 3 thoughts put into the design across the whole line-up. A lot has changed since January, like, for example, I’m on 4.27 now, I decided to be a woman, and a bunch of other shit that doesn’t matter in the slightest. I still don’t want to put in even a tiny bit of effort into formatting to try and make my posts look a bit less like disgusting textwalls.

Moving right along from wasting your time with a completely worthless paragraph, I made this thing!

1966 Providence I 317Ci. Pretend the “I” has cool serifs and shit so you can tell it’s supposed to be a Roman numeral for 1. It’s slow, fat, and sounds vaguely like it’s being strangled to death by it’s incredibly lacklustre intake.

Woah! It’s slightly less miserable now! The 393Ci. is marginally faster, with a bit more power, a bit more engine, and significantly more air intakes. It’s also very angry. All the time.

It’s blue now. The 393Ci. 8-Pak is like the 393, but it has 8 carburettors. Because fuck you. It has stripes on the hood, more graphics on the side, and mags.

RAISE HELL! The unoriginally named Hellraiser is much like the other Providence variants, but it has a 550 cubic inch V8 making an ungodly amount of power. It is classified as earthquake-generating equipment in 36 of 50 states. I said it, so it must be true. It also has steelies because the engineering department was scared that the engine might have so much torque that the mags may or may not shatter under hard acceleration. It sounds scary, it goes fast, and it shreds tyres.

I have a sneaking suspicion that despite having intentions of reviving this place I might forget about it for more than half a year again. I’ve re-read this shit like 8 times to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Oh well, whatever, it’s not like it matters anyways. Hope you enjoyed the cars, I hate typing and spellchecking my own writing, bye.

Leone · 27 August 2022 00:53

hi I’m back

The Providence even has a Trans Am homologation version as of this afternoon, and the livery is either violently political or black and yellow

Leone · 11 September 2022 23:25

more bullshit

Providence I on the left, Providence II on the right, and Providence III in the back
I’ve decided that interiors are a complete and utter waste of time so that’s why my new cars don’t have them