AutoCult Renault Type MH 6 Roues (1924) (France)

About the Original

Prestigious Desert Expeditions

It was the 1920s, when expeditions into unexplored areas, breakneck actions and daring journeys captivated the people. The press pounced on these heroes and reported extensively. Wealthy sponsors supported the adventures and the success brought lasting fame. Citroen’s French plant did the crossing of the desert in North Africa as a sales-promoting performance test. Competitor Renault did not remain this unanswered and developed within a short time a six-wheeled truck with double-tired wheels, christened on the type abbreviation 6 MH.

Renault’s first, two-day test drive took place in December 1923 in the desert sections from the Algerian Touggourt to the Tunisian El Qued-Tozeur, at the time when rival Citroen had already completed its first drive and under the brothers Rene and Georges Estienne with four half-track vehicles already set off for the second drive. Shortly thereafter, the battle for the “conquest of the desert” broke out.

The portrayals of the desert trips of that time have been captured in multiple documents and there is not a bad word to be found about the six-wheeled Renault. No accidents or other adversities that caused problems to the truck. However, it is clear from all portrayals that the Renault wheel cars were superior to the tracked vehicles of the rival Citroen in terms of speed and passing rough terrain. The success was probably based on the double-driven rear axle and the use of tires instead of chains, as Citroen practiced.

Whether Renault or Citroen gained the greater prestige with their desert drives was probably hardly measurable in the end, but for the car world both plants put two impressive vehicles on wheels/ chains.