Video – Renault to auction 100 historic cars, including 20 F1 machines, in Heritage Sale
Renault is set to open the doors to one of the most significant brand auctions in recent memory, with 100 historic vehicles and 100 pieces of automobilia going under the hammer in December 2025. The event, titled The Renault Icons, will take place on 7 December at the marque’s storied Flins-sur-Seine factory, just outside Paris.
The sale is being run in partnership with Artcurial Motorcars, continuing a collaboration that began in 2022. But this year’s event stands apart: it marks the first time Renault has released such a substantial selection straight from its private heritage collection and almost all lots are hitting the public market for the very first time.
A new chapter for Renault heritage
The auction aligns with Renault’s refreshed heritage strategy announced in June 2025. Under the new approach, the brand is preserving 600 of its most emblematic models, ensuring at least one example of every Renault built since the company’s founding in 1898 remains safeguarded.
These vehicles will form the core of a new Renault collections museum, set to open at the Flins factory site in 2027. The facility is being transformed from a production plant into a heritage hub that will house and exhibit the most important pieces from the manufacturer’s past.
To make room for the new curated collection, Renault is trimming duplicates and it’s those duplicates, including prototypes, road cars, and race machinery, that are being offered to buyers.
Treasures from 125 years of innovation
The headline items are undoubtedly the 20 Formula 1 single-seaters, all of which have competed in the FIA World Championship. These cars span multiple eras of Renault’s F1 participation, providing collectors with a rare chance to secure factory-owned machines that helped define the team’s on-track legacy.
Beyond the open-wheelers, the auction will feature cars that shaped the Renault story: classics from the early 20th century, icons from the brand’s motorsport programmes, prototypes that previewed future models, and limited-production road cars.
Alongside the vehicles, Artcurial and Renault will offer 100 automobilia lots, including F1 engines, design models, clay styling bucks, wind-tunnel test pieces, and other factory artefacts never previously available to collectors.
The brands say the auction will “retrace 125 years of technical innovation, automotive design, and sporting success” — a statement that feels justified given the breadth of material on offer.
Flins: the perfect venue
It’s fitting that the auction will be held at Flins-sur-Seine, a site central to Renault’s industrial identity. The factory produced some of the company’s most recognisable models across the decades, including the Dauphine, Renault 5, four generations of Clio, and the electric ZOE. The plant’s transition from assembly line to cultural and historical centrepiece makes it a symbolic location to part with pieces of the past while setting the stage for Renault’s future heritage-preservation efforts.
A global draw for fans and collectors
With 200 lots directly from Renault’s vault, the December auction is expected to draw international attention. Many of the pieces carry significance beyond just the brand: Renault’s influence spans early motor culture, rallying, Formula 1 and mass-market mobility, making this collection rich with touchpoints across automotive history.
For Renault, the sale marks the beginning of a focused new era in how the company preserves, curates and shares its heritage. And for fans, it’s a rare chance to own a slice of one of Europe’s most storied automotive legacies.
The Renault Icons auction takes place 7 December 2025 at Flins-sur-Seine, ahead of the opening of the new Renault collections museum in 2027.
