Renault 6Q Explained

The Renault 6Q, also called the Renault Bengali 6, is an air-cooled inverted in-line six-cylinder, aircraft piston engine, producing about 220hp continuous power. It was designed and built in France and produced for more than ten years after its homologation in 1936, with large numbers built during World War II.

Design and development

The six-cylinder Renault 6Q and the four-cylinder Renault 4P, both from the early 1930s, shared the same bore, stroke and pistons.

The 6Q was built in both unsupercharged and supercharged forms. The centrifugal supercharger was added at the back of the engine, driven off the crankshaft via step-up gearing. It added 13abbr=onNaNabbr=on to the weight and 242abbr=onNaNabbr=on to the length but boosted the performance at altitude to a continuous power of 237hp at 2,500 rpm and 2200-1NaN-1. Two pre-war models were optimised to different altitudes, the 02/03 right- and left-handed pair to 2000-1NaN-1, with 7.61:1 gearing and the 04/05 pair to 4000-1NaN-1, with 12.274 gearing.

Operational history

The 6Q was homologated in 1936; 1700 were built before the war and 1660 during it. Post-war, production was resumed. The majority of pre-war 6Qs were used in Caudron C.440 Goélands, during the war in Goélands and post-war in Nord's Messerschmitt Bf 108 derived Nord Pingouin, in the Nord Noralpha and Ramier Bf 108 developments.

Variants

Even sub-type numbers rotate clockwise, odd numbers anti-clockwise as seen from engine.

Renault 6Q-00/01: Unsupercharged LH/RH rotation
  • Renault 6Q-02/03: 220hp Supercharged to 2000m (7,000feet) LH/RH rotation
  • Renault 6Q-04/05: 240hp Supercharged to 4000m (13,000feet) LH/RH rotation
  • Renault 6Q-06/07: 233hp LH/RH rotation
  • Renault 6Q-08/09: 240hp LH/RH rotation
  • Renault 6Q-10/11: 230hp LH/RH rotation
  • Renault 6Q-18/19: LH/RH rotation
  • Renault 6Q-20/21: 300hp LH/RH rotation
  • Applications

    Engines on display