Louis Renault

Louis Renault was a French industrialist, one of the founders of Renault and a pioneer of the automobile industry, born in 1877. The fourth of six children of a Parisian family, he was fascinated by engineering from an early age. In 1898 he built his first car by modifying a used De Dion-Bouton cycle, fitting a universally jointed driveshaft and a three-speed gearbox with reverse, which he patented a year later. After winning a bet with the car on the slope of Rue Lepic in Montmartre he received thirteen orders and teamed up with his brothers Marcel and Fernand. His factories built the Renault FT tank in World War I. He died in 1944 awaiting trial.