Renault 6Q


The Renault 6Q, also called the Renault Bengali 6, is an air-cooled six-cylinder, inverted piston engine, producing about 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 to the weight and to the length but boosted the performance at altitude to a continuous power of at 2,500 rpm and. Two pre-war models were optimised to different altitudes, the 02/03 right- and left-handed pair to, with 7.61:1 gearing and the 04/05 pair to, 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: Supercharged to LH/RH rotation
;Renault 6Q-04/05: Supercharged to LH/RH rotation
;Renault 6Q-06/07: LH/RH rotation
;Renault 6Q-08/09: LH/RH rotation
;Renault 6Q-10/11: LH/RH rotation
;Renault 6Q-18/19: LH/RH rotation
;Renault 6Q-20/21: LH/RH rotation

Applications