Renault Returns To Its Record-Breaking Habits With the Filante Record 2025

Chasing land speed records might seem futile and pointless to most, but there’s a genuine upside to mankind’s thrive for ever more, ever better, ever faster. Of course, it can come at a cost, either financial or physical, but at some point down the line, we can benefit from the innovations and developments needed to break new ground. Without this hunger, a lot of things we now take for granted would not be available to us. Take rear-view mirrors, seat belts, and paddle-shift gearboxes as an example, which all came directly from racing. Land-speed record vehicles like the Thrust SSC also gave us valuable insights into unchartered territory. It might come as a surprise, but Renault has left an indefinite mark on the history of land speed records and looks to return to former glory with the Filante Record 2025.

Land Speed Records come in all sorts of categories. Two-wheel versus four-wheel, wheel-driven versus propulsion-driven, combustion engines versus jet or electric engines, male or female drivers, limitations on number of cylinders or engine capacity, standing km/mile versus flying km/mile, and so on. The most significant one is the all-out Land Speed Record, held by Andy Green, a former Royal Air Force fighter pilot. He still holds the record for the fastest speed recorded on land, set in the Thrust SSC (Super Sonic Car). On October 15th 1997, the Thrust SSC team did something unthinkable before then, which was to break the sound barrier, in a car. Green, the pilot of the car, reached the incredible speed of 1,227.986 kph (or 763.035 mph) which is Mach 1.016 (or 1.016 times the speed of sound). To this day, it is still the only car to have broken the speed of sound. The clip below is the record-breaking run, and includes the sonic boom that came off the car!

Since the dawn of cars and motorcycles, people have been chasing after records pretty much non-stop. Sir Malcolm Campbell, one of the biggest names in speed records held 13 of them in the 1920s and 1930s in cars and boats. His son, Donald Campbell continued the tradition and held the all-out land speed record for a number of years with his Bluebird CN7, with which he achieved 648.73kph in 1964. This was also the last wheel-driven land speed record in history, as all the others after it relied on turbojet or rocket engines. Other icons in land speed record chasing include Henry Ford (yes, the founder of the Ford Motor Company), Henry Segrave, Craig Breedlove, Louis Rigolly, and John Cobb, to name but a few. The competition for “Who’s Fastest?!” has mostly been a back-and-forth battle between the Americans, the Brits, and the French, which brings us to Renault!

Renault & Records

A wide number of car manufacturers have been involved in land speed records chasing. Perhaps the most famous ones are the streamlined Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union cars from the 1930s, but they were far from the only ones. Sunbeam, Opel, Ford, Fiat, Délage, and of course; Renault. The French carmaker built the 40 CV des Records in the mid-1920s, a single-seater vehicle (see above & below) with a very rudimentary approach to aerodynamics. It had a very narrow fully enclosed body with a fin-like tail section and exposed wheels. Power came from a 9.1-litre straight-six engine, which put out 140 to 150bhp. With it, the 40 CV des Records set multiple speed records and could hit 200kph.

The Nervasport des Records was another one of Renault’s record-breaking cars and was built in 1934. This showed significant advancements over the 40 CV des Records from almost a decade earlier, including a smoother, more streamlined body, inboard headlights, smaller wheels to reduce drag and a 4.8-litre straight-8 engine. With 108bhp on tap and a weight of 1,600kg, the Nervasport des Records reached speeds of 190kph and held 13 speed records. During a non-stop 48-hour record attempt at the French circuit of Montlhéry, the Nervasport managed an average speed of 167,445 kph and covered a distance of 8.037 kilometres, breaking 9 international speed records and 3 world records in the process! The car you see here is a replica of the original, built by Renault to commemorate the Nervasport’s legacy.

The final chapter in Renault’s record-breaking history before we move to the Filante Record 2025, is the legendary Étoile Filante from 1956. It was Renault’s first and only attempt at a turbine-powered land speed record car, and an attempt to see if turbine power was suitable for production cars. The lightweight tubular chassis was covered by a highly streamlined polyester body. The most notable features are the small open cockpit, the side-exit exhausts for the engine and the upswept tail fins to give the car more stability. A Turbomeca Turmo turbine engine producing 270bhp was mounted just behind the driver, with the drive going to the rear wheels only. The Étoile Filante maxed out at 330kph and set several speed records, including the highest speed in a flying kilometre (306,902 kph) and a flying mile (307,707 kph).

The Filante Record 2025

The car to bring Renault back to record-breaking glory is called the Filante Record 2025, named after the Étoile Filante and design-wise somewhat inspired by the 40 CV des Records from the 1920s. But in all honesty, it would look right at home in a big-budget Science-Fiction movie or something. But before we get into the design of the Filante Record 2025 and all the technical nitty-gritty, it’s fitting to explain Renault’s intentions with it. All the while I have been talking about land speed records and while this is aimed at setting records, it focuses mostly on energy efficiency and range instead of absolute flat-out Clarkson-esque ‘Speeeeeed!!’.

So what’s the big excitement then? Well, it’s very much a vehicular test-bed for innovation and technology that might find its way to Renault’s road-going portfolio of cars. And I always applaud manufacturers that go the extra mile in car development, especially when it comes down to such a cool-looking machine as this one! Yes, it’s battery-powered and no, Renault isn’t aiming for the electric land speed record (currently held by the Buckeye Bullit with 549,211 kph over one kilometre) but there’s merit to the brand’s efforts nonetheless. Whether we like it or not, EVs are a part of today’s automotive industry and simply put; here to stay. And thus it makes perfect sense to strive and get as much out of every kilowatt of energy used in the process, right?

Anyway, the Filante Record 2025 is a laboratory on wheels, basically, with a length of 5.12m, a height of 1.19m and a width of 1.71m. The car is designed to be as light as possible considering what it needs to achieve its goals and tips the scales at 1,000kg. Extensive use of carbon fibre Scalmalloy and other advanced lightweight materials contributes to the car’s low weight, without compromising structural rigidity. The exterior is optimized to be as aero-efficient as it can be, which is the reason for the remarkable length versus width ratio. A longer car is aerodynamically more stable than a shorter one, to make it simple.

Tucked away underneath elongated fairings are special friction-reducing wheels by Michelin. The front end shows a sharply penned centre “fuselage”, with large round headlights mimicking the ones on the 40 CV des Records. Around the back, the fin-like tail section of that historic machine also makes a spiritual appearance. When viewed from the side, you can definitely see the car’s lineage to the earliest of Renault’s record-breaking vehicles. The cockpit is covered by a glass canopy that narrowly pops up over the front section of the bodywork. The seat is a combination of carbon fibre blades and stretched canvas, and all the controls are positioned within easy reach of the driver. The steering, acceleration and braking control are integrated into the steering yoke, which is fully steer-by-wire. In fact, there is zero mechanical connection between the driver and the car, as everything is wire-controlled.

Renault remains a bit hush-hush on the performance of the car, other than mentioning it has an 87 kWh battery, similar in capacity to the Scenic E-Tech. No power output, no acceleration times, no top speeds, no range goals, no efficiency targets, nothing… The only detail they claim is that the battery pack weighs 600kgs, so it’s more than half of the weight of the entire car. It’s also not stated what specific efficiency or range records Renault is chasing. Time will tell though, if they achieve their goals or not. Until then, we can just admire this crazy-looking machine and hope some of the design details make their way to Renault’s road cars in the near future!

For more information, please visit Renault.com.

Editorial Note: The information used for, and images portrayed in this article are sourced from and used with permission of Renault.com unless stated otherwise.