Renault FT Steering Levers

We had cast a number of steering levers once we had managed to borrow an original pair from our friends at Fort Seclin. The usual quid pro quo was adhered to in making them a pair while we prepared a number for ourselves. The casting of the levers had been achieved early on in the project before we discovered the Berliet break from the pattern. Our focus on the spreadsheet listing all of the recorded features of each FT in the museums and collections we had visited and those we had been sent details of was now yielding results. Due to the invaluable assistance provided to us by Doran Kart of the National WW1 Museum in Missouri USA we were provided a break, which took us on a least expected diversion. This FT in the collection of the National WW1 Museum had a known history within the First World War and still retained key identifiers on its exterior. These identifiers in the form of the original registration number 66816 and what appears to be original camouflage paint gave us a good foundation to start from. This Renault exhibit retains many key internal features, which provided the basis for our investigation into what an early (66…. Registration) Renault produced FT. The steering levers were one of the identified features. Where else could we find other examples of early FTs to check these early hypotheses?. The problem of finding early FTs in Europe was rendered more difficult by the significant number of upgrades and parts changes through maintenance up to and beyond the 1930s. Repainting of the exterior has lost the key assembly number for ever in most survivors and what we are left with is a step by step analysis including casting numbers to provide pointers to the age and Renault lineage of the many FTs today. The untouched or unmodified / upgraded FTs are the most desirable. Brent Mullin’s example provided this very unrestored crucial layer to our understanding of what represented a wartime-assembled Renault FT. This together with the spreadsheet data provided us with a disappointing reality check. Our steering levers were wrong. These levers were never installed by Renault in 1918. The correct levers were an angle-ironed design . Our game of snakes and ladders was only just beginning – one step forward and three back.

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