Some of these cars are a long, if much transformed, afterlife. . . .

NO WONDER IT’S SO RELIABLE
…….THERE’S NOTHING TO GO WRONG

Look what you get with the Citroën 2CV…

In fact everything a driver needs to get him reliably and comfortably from A to B.

There have been references to the ‘wasted spark’ system used here as if it’s unique to this vehicle. It should be pointed out that this also happens to be the industry standard for inline fours and V6’s today. It has been seen even on the Corvette’s V8 engine.

The 2CV has the further simple advantage with just two cylinders, mounted in the horizontally opposed arrangement, to not be needing a camshaft sensor since there will be an ignition per 360 degrees of engine rotation.
It would be interesting if other posters can share details of ‘tuned” versions of these engines that they may know.

That’s right, the last 2CVs were built in Portugal, I think until 1990. Then there was another obit in the New York Times. I’d love to see “a car for Africa” . There are a fair number of 2CVs in the US, and there is a parts supplier in Seattle. There may have been about 40 or 50 at the big event in Saratoga Springs that I attended two years ago, and my rough guess is that there might be another 150-200 in the US.

The 42lbs/hp ratio is pretty close to that of two cars I’ve owned. A VW EuroVan (109hp, just over two tons) and an ‘82 Cavalier, 68hp when new (allegedly) and about 2600lbs. Certain situations were challenging. The EuroVan could not manage certain uphill interstate sections at reasonable speeds.

Of course, the passenger load in the 2CV changes the lbs/hp ratio dramatically. A jockey piloting the thing around is going to have a radically different experience than a family of four average-sized people. Make that, “a family of four average-sized occasionally panic-stricken people.”

No rolldown windows, but the bottom half is hinged, “folds up” and attaches to the top of the door. Or, you can kind of let them flap in the breeze.

The ventilation system consists of a hatch that opens/closes below the windshield. Some mesh protects the driver from debris that may otherwise just fly into the car.

It’s a 2 cylinder boxer, four stroke, but no distributor. The sparkplugs fire twice as much as needed…

You can adjust the headlights from inside the car.

In typical Citroen fashion, the wheels are attached with three nuts each, because more isn’t needed.

Some models had a cool one spoke steering wheel.

People actually towed small trailers with it. Certainly no fishing boats or anything like that, but still, makes you wonder about current “needs”.

- It’s a convertible – well kind of: it has a canvas top that you can fold to enjoy the sun and… water as it had some leakage problems
- It takes two minutes to take the seat off, so you can have a confortable dîner sur l’herbe
- It has the worst steering i’ve ever encountered on a car. You do feel like a trucker driving one
- Every year some fanatics gather in Francorchamps to have a 24hr race.
- There’s even a 4×4 version – with two engines: one in the front, one in the back

It’s a pity Citroen is unable to make cars that smart anymore (blame it on Peugeot)

To really understand these cars a person has to consider them in their historical and and geographical context. You might, but I couldn’t until I lived there for three years. Plenty of slow traffic in the early 90s. Plenty of narrow roads. Plenty of cobblestone streets. Plenty of trips a person needed to make around town that did not require a very complex cars. In fact those cars would still be very useful had we not graduated to SUVs, pickup trucks with 300+ horsepower, and luxury sedans capable of 0-60 in 5 seconds and 150+ mph top speeds. American roads are in a perpetual “arms race” rendering last decade’s cars too slow and inept for the modern roads. I don’t need that much power, speed or luxury. Don’t want it either. I want a/c and heat and a manual tranny. The radio is optional too.

Traffic evolved here making these simplistic cars obsolete. In way I think that is a shame.

They seem so slow and so dangerous until my mind wanders back to those narrow city streets and those slow speeds where a person wasn’t really endangered by riding in cars like that.

I remember leaning on the 2CV while we were visiting one afternoon and noting how much the body panels flexed. I began walking around the car noting how flimsy everything seemed yet the car itself seemed very strong at speed on ROUGH roads. My Beetle’s hood is the same way. Thin and flimsy when it is open. Pretty stiff closed.

I miss Italy. The cities were full of cars like the 500, the Beetle and 2CV and the dozens of 60s/70s/80s vintage European compacts and microcars. However the highways big and small were dominated by powerful touring and sports sedans, wagons and convertibles with unlimited speeds. In the city the slow cars dominated most of the time and few of those slowpokes ventured out to the Autostrada so their low power engines were seldom and isssue.

Here in America we tend to buy all purpose vehicles as if we fully expect to go crosscountry on short notice.

If I ever welcomed $10 per gallon gasoline in America it would be because perhaps we’d slow down a little.

Yes. They would be. They went out of style until 2400 or so, when they were used in the Federation Starship, “Voyager.” Consult any Trekkie for details. :-)

Johnnyangel: “dhathewa’s recollection of the gearshift pattern is correct except that he neglected to mention that fourth was found by twisting clockwise to move the shifter out of the 2-3 plane, then pushing forward.”

It had a fourth gear? I never drove one, myself, and I don’t think we ever got going fast enough in one to justify the use of fourth gear. Nor would I want to go that fast in one.

After a few minutes in Tehran traffic in a Deux Chevaux (I think the local name was Gian, it has been a long time), one longed for the solidity and security of the Paykhan (a Hillman Hunter).

Johnnyangel: “Something not often noted about these cars is that the engine had a relatively heavy flywheel. If you revved it up at idle and took off you could pretty much beat any car away from the lights from 0 to, er, about 5 miles per hour.”

Which is pretty much ideal performance for the maneuver I know as “The Jersey Turn,” which was also extremely popular in Iran. And in Beantown, unless things have changed a lot since I left. Maybe this explains the popularity of the car in Tehran and also why one still exists in Massachusetts.

Actually, I want to hear that story.

This story lost me when I realized that at no time was an elegantly dressed French woman going to appear.

Can’t help but ask…how does the heating compare to the Beetle?

For years my older brother wore the beret. He also took his junior year of college in Paris at Science Po. I never wore the beret. I do have a Gauloise ash tray decorating my living room.

btw, H-o-l-(no “t”, just coffee please)-z-m-a-n

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/04/paris-2008-citroen-2cv-by-hermes/

exactly. I spent 44 years mystified about the gear shift until I drove this.

Regarding the rollability–or lack thereof–that someone mentioned, Danielle, the source on that, may have simply been trying to impress us. Which is why I quoted her rather than stating that it had happened. At the time, though, it resonated with me.

Nicely written article – thank you.

Where is your Gauloise and beret?

I remember seeing one of these tarted up in a champagne and brown paint scheme with gold pin-striping. Considerable dissonance between the paint job and the underlying vehicle.

Great review.

I waved (in approval) like crazy from my 245DL.

Heston drove a Mehari in ‘Omega Man’.

Roughly the same principle was recently used, and banned, in Formula 1.

This resulted in an increase in top speed from 72 to 72.5 MPH, and a corresponding increase in fuel efficiency.’

/joke

I see a very ‘frog-like’ face with those headlights; the car needs to be green.

…and from what I hear they can finish a 24-hour endurance race in exactly the same time as a Ferrari!