The little twin-cylinder Renault AX had its first public showing at the 1908 London Motor Show.

It was welcomed by the French magazine Omnia in the following terms: "It is very much to the taste of the public, who see it as a move towards the voiturette...

that car for poor people that can render so many services.

I hope that they won't weigh down this nice little chassis, built to carry neat two-seater bodywork, with huge coachwork capable of carrying five people!" But of course they did, for the twin-cylinder Renault chassis was quickly adapted as a taxicab, in which guise the model was well-known in Paris and London, its finest hour being the rushing of reinforcements to the front in September 1914 when the advancing German Army threatened Paris.

This achievement earned the Renault taxi the proud title "Taxi de la Marne", its immortality guaranteed by the preservation of one of those gallant Renault taxis in Les Invalides in Paris.

This car, however, is the archetypal two-seate...