Some friends of mine actually own Renaults of this age. They were very idiosyncratic in the way they laid things out. By now most makers had settled on a standard layout for cars with a cooling radiator up front with the engine in line behind it. Renault persisted with the radiator behind the engine right into the twenties. The piece which is in front of the passenger cabin, at the back of the bonnet is actually the radiator. Part of it is exposed, part enclosed, there is a huge cast iron fan which drags air over the engine and through the radiator. That silver bulge under the engine is actually an enclosure under the engine, the engine bay is sealed to control air flow over the engine and into the radiator. If you look closely at the front bottom edge of the bonnet you can see a handle to lift it with, in real life this is a brass cabinet handle.

I don't know whether this one was still on a handle start, but a truck I know just a few years younger than this has a huge great dynamo on the front of the engine which has its polarity reversed to turn it into a motor and is used to start the car.

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