RAMS French whispers "Miniature Cars 80 # 39;" ASMRSAV 10
There are sixty years old this year, a strange little vehicle appeared at the Paris automobile It looked like a pram upside down with a corrugated bonnet and a canvas roof.
He had no starter motor and a projector His windshield wipers were operated by the forward movement of the wheels Its seats seemed not expensive canvas chairs the wheels was as thin as saucepan lids The car was a car was available in any color you wanted, as long as it was dull gray.
Thus was born the Toute Petite really small car Car or Citroen Deux Chevaux, a car that suffered mockery throughout its 42 years of production, but has come to be regarded as an automotive icon to generations of foreign visitors, the PÖTTERING 2CV along a rural road incarnated France as well as berets, baguettes, yellow cigarettes or farm buildings painted with Martini signs Unfortunately everything except the guards are dead or very rare.
The life and times of the Toute Petite are recalled in Car excellent small exhibition, which begins this week at the Museum of Science and Industry in Paris L Peugeot Citroën 2CV and fans provide other commemorative events this year .
The exhibition includes one of the five other examples of early production run abandoned in 1939, the outbreak of war forced Citroën to stop work The 250 prototypes were hidden, and in some cases even buried to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Nazis, it is impossible to say what difference two armored divisions of 2CV could have at the end of the war.
The 2CV was the mid-1930s brainchild of Pierre-Jules Boulanger, the head of Citroen, which also inspired another Citroën icon, DS sedan sustained slope 1955 Long before the Volkswagen was heard, M baker decided there was a market for a cheap, easy maintenance, basic car to replace the horse and cart on French rural roads, and even on the fields His brief was an umbrella on wheels a car that could carry 50 kg 110lb and four 60kph to 35 mph to cross a plowed field with a basket of eggs As the seats were removable to allow the animals to carry, which has sometimes been drawn to a car capable of drive through a plowed field with a sheep in the back and an egg pile on the front seat, without breaking eggs or sheep.
The car that appeared at the motor show in Paris 1948, the 2CV type A, was an advance on the original, it could go up to 80 km 50 mph and had an air-cooled engine that could go to 100 kilometers 60 miles on a gallon of gasoline While the car was immediately mocked by the French automotive press, it was, in many respects, revolutionary design.
There was independent suspension on each wheel, but with front and rear wheels linked to a kind of gentle wave motion when the car hit a bump, of which there were many on French roads in 1948 The 2CV was also a light, easy to maintain, virtually indestructible, the engine air-cooled, which was based on motorcycle engines and was held in place by only four bolts the car had, in fact, with a capacity of eight horses, or eight horsepower the two horses refers to the notional, low, french taxation category in which it has been cleverly designed to fall.
Since its commercial launch in 1949, the car was a triumph triumph that even Citroën was not expecting too little 2CV were made to the Citroën factory in Levallois-Perret on the northwest edge of Paris ago had a waiting list of three to five years for a 2CV in the first half of the 1950s.
Everyone of a certain age has a favorite memory of a 2CV.
When I was 14, in 1964, I spent the summer with my godmother in Brussels, which had a 2CV, she called Caritas Charity At this time, the Citroën colors restrictions had been eased considerably His car was a pale fawn The 2CV was also updated two headlights, an electric starter and electric wipers Otherwise, little had changed.
We drove the length and width in Benelux Caritas With my godmother driving a 2CV, Benelux loomed as large as Canada, she refused to accept that she could drive faster than 40 mph To time, 2CV had three forward speeds and a mysteriously marked gear S.
, I understand now, to overdrive or overdrive The original specification Citroën demanded three speeds and that was the way engineers to provide a fourth gear without alarming their rural clients.
In any event, I do not think my godmother never ventured speed S It also took me most of the summer, and several fingers crushed, understand how to make the crazy, bending, rather than winding, side windows worked.
Efforts were made to expand international horizons 2CV beyond Belgium There was, briefly, a plant of the 2CV in Slough Citroën has produced a pickup and a van version of the 2CV Since the mid 1960, the company has splashed on the seats properly padded.
From 1967, there was a more modern variant in search called Dyane There was also all-terrain and trafficked roofless versions and a bright yellow version of James Bond, linked to a scene in the 1981 film for Your Eyes Only, where Roger Moore made a getaway in a 2CV.
The automotive historian LJK Setright, the author of the walk on a social history of the motor car, the 2CV described as the most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car journalist of the British car less flattering described a 2CV following a malicious link between a lawn chair and a Nissen hut.
In Britain and elsewhere, the strange little vehicle does not compete with the original Beetle VW or even the Morris Minor and Morris Mini historians blame Citroën French car industry not to realize that he had a earning potential abroad until it is too late the Beetle often costs twice as much as the 2CV, but it went on to sell 20 million vehicles worldwide, five million against all variants of the 2CV.
Late 1970s, however, the 2CV has become a lifestyle statement, popular with hippies and ecologists There was once a joke that some of the finishing mill of a 2CV was a sticker saying nuclear rear window No thank you.
A young French Prime Minister passion, Laurent Fabius 38 when he took office in 1984, created the 2CV as an urban runabout for chattering classes selfconsciously He drove the first ministerial offices every morning in one of the later versions, the fashion of the old rural sheep egg and support.
However, 2CV production in France ended in 1989 and Portugal in 1990 Historians of the automotive industry and the 2CV fans claim that Citroën was so embarrassed by his umbrella on wheels The car failed to meet modern expectations of security or speed, the company said at the time much the same arguments were given to kill the British Mini and VW Beetle.
In all three cases, the popularity and longevity of the surviving cars suggest that they have been abandoned too early victims of corporate strategy and aware of the image The 2CV was also, it is whispered by some experts of industry, too hard for his own good than use a manufacturer is a small car that can last 200,000 miles without requiring significant new pieces.
Surviving 2CV, often painted in bright colors that jar with utilities origins of the car are very popular in Britain, they go up to 4,000 on the secondary market and slightly less in France.
There is also a growing market in France and Britain, 2CV restores cars that are re-built to the original specifications, but with extras unheard by the designers of the car and my Belgian godmother is a 2CV with a multiple choice even stereo CD player a 2CV in 2004, the musician Billy Joel has given a huge boost when he had the street credibility of the 2CV an accident while driving a long Island.
In the era of eco-conscious, automakers are re-examining the concept of a cheap, economical, simple, reliable, easy to maintain car Peugeot Citroen promises a new two CV for next year but, judging by the pictures, the Citroën Cactus is a snappy little runabout economy is not the kind of car you make sheep or eggs in.
Ironically, perhaps, it was not Peugeot-Citroen, but the other French auto giant Renault, which has led the way in Europe to explore the possibilities of a retro car, stripped to basics is Logan however, a stretch limousine with respect to the odd little noddy car with wheels and a soft top that appeared there 60 years ago this October.
The 2CV A French icon The minicar The Independent, French icon Any.