4,14
M LONG
A hand-built sports car from the Gironde, shown at the 1992 Paris Motor Show: a chassis of square aluminium tubes, a body that evokes the Ferrari 330 P4 of the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours, and a mid-mounted PRV V6 — 160 bhp as a 2.85 litre, 205 bhp as a 2.5 litre turbo. Sold assembled or as a kit, like the British specialists, it was built in 27 examples including the prototype, according to Carjager.
The C1 was sold « according to the PRV version chosen » (Carjager): three engines emerge from the sources. None publishes an engine code — the comparisons with our files below are made figure by figure, never by deduction. Autopasion18 also mentions « special » engines of 250 to 350 bhp, without describing them.
Jacques Coste started from a 1/43 model of the Ferrari 330 P4: he took its shapes, then reworked them with rules of proportion — the golden ratio, according to L'Automobile Ancienne. Chassis and suspension wishbones are his own, in square aluminium tubes designed to take the PRV V6, chosen because at the time very few engines combined availability, power and reliability. Four years of study came before the first prototype.
The car is 4.14 m long, 1.88 m wide — 7 cm more than the 330 P4 — and 1.13 m high. Weight varies with the source: 910 kg for the France Motor Museum, 1,020 kg for Auta5P and Belles Autos, « a little over a tonne » for L'Automobile Ancienne. The engines are detailed above; the Z7W and Z7U files document the two production PRVs whose figures the C1 shares.
Jacques Coste, a mathematics teacher turned wine merchant (L'Automobile Ancienne), works on his prototypes from 1988; the first is called « M 6 Turbo » (The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile). The marque appears at the 1992 Paris Motor Show; Coste Engineering SARL is founded on 28 January 1993, 58 rue Ingres in Pineuilh, Gironde, and the first kits are delivered in 1993.
Like the British specialists, Coste sold the C1 in two ways: factory-assembled, from 330,000 to 438,000 francs depending on the PRV version, or as a kit, from 148,000 francs (Carjager). L'Automobile Ancienne quotes 340,000 to 440,000 francs assembled and 150,000 francs as a kit at launch; Autopasion18 records 448,000 francs in 1997.
Carjager counts 27 examples including the prototype — 3 assembled at Coste, 23 sold as kits — of which only 17 were registered; L'Automobile Ancienne speaks of « a dozen » homologated examples. The France Motor Museum counts 27 Coste cars in all, every series included: 20 C1s, 6 C2s and one C2 « Kimberley ». We publish all three accounts as they stand, until a document settles it.
Around the V6, the C1 draws on French mass production: Renault 25 five-speed gearbox, Renault 25 V6 ventilated front discs, Citroën BX Sport rear brakes, Renault 11 steering (L'Automobile Ancienne). The Renault 25 file documents the gearbox and the V6 these parts come from.
The C2 follows — in 1996 according to The Beaulieu Encyclopedia, shown in August 1999 according to Autopasion18: a shape further from the Ferrari, and a 2.3 litre 16-valve Ford four-cylinder, 153 bhp. It therefore falls outside the PRV's scope. The company is dissolved on 12 November 2008 (trade register, via societe.com); Carjager says it was sold as early as 2001.
No Coste document is in the Library yet: this file relies on L'Automobile Ancienne — « Coste C1 – 1996 » · Carjager — « Coste C1 : un artisan à l’anglaise ! » · Auta5P — fiche Coste C1 · Belles Autos — Coste C1 · Autopasion18 — Historia Coste · France Motor Museum — Coste · societe.com — Coste Engineering — and on The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile (2001). A photo, an invoice, a registration certificate or an original handbook would at last tell which engine code each car carried: the Contribute page awaits you.
Seven answers drawn from the publications cited above — the FAQ carries them too.
No document specific to the Coste C1 is in the Library yet — if you own one, the Contribute page awaits you.
The Coste C1 has its own section on the forum — presentations, restorations, questions to members who drive one. Coste C1 section →
Z7W and Z7U — the two production PRVs whose figures the C1 shares — and the Renault 25 that carried them.