Wordless Outtake: 2CV HD Edition
– Posted on November 24, 2019
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What an unusual car to find in front of Le Home Depot. I guess it is an unusual car to find in front of anywhere here in the States.
L’Homme Depöt
If you don’t understand that, it’s a joke based on a cosmetic from a game.
I saw an orange one last month being driven down the main drag of a shi-shi boutique town in Central Florida, the sort of place you’d see the well-off driving expensive, old classic cars. Seemed substantially more appropriate than a Home Depot.
Gotta love it —
When sold in the USA in the ’60’s, these were described with 2 qualities :
1. The least safe — photos showed outrageous lean on a curve..
2. Most economical — 55 mpg.
(WAY surpassing the Mini that offered only 35 mpg)
Body lean in itself isn’t inherently unsafe. In fact, I’d think the 2CV’s compliant suspension has some value in providing good roadholding on bumpy roads. But I sure wouldn’t want to be in a 2CV that got in a collision with a typical Home Depot hauler, even if it were one of the Priuses in the background of my photo.
Err – what has leaning in a curve has to do with safety? Yes, they probably have the world record curve leaning but the car actually has quite good roadholding abilities. I loved it (my first car), it was a very slow car but once it had gained speed it could go faster through a bend than you would think and probably faster than big american iron at the time. The leaning just makes it more fun 🙂
I have fond memories when my father helped his brother out on Saturdays. My uncle had a liquor store and my father drove the store’s 2CV van filled with bottles, wine and beer trays to customers. My brother and myself could come along, “sitting” loosely in the back on the inner rear wings. The van was all metal inside of course and we laughed when my father went fast through the bends and we fell off the inner wings. Good times, not possible today of course.
Just sayin’
If I remember correctly, the design brief for the Deux Chavaux was something like; carry a basket of eggs across a plowed field without breaking an egg while using very little fuel. There was no consideration for surviving a collision with anything more robust than a flower.
There was a story, perhaps told by L.J.K. Setright, about getting pulled over for driving a 2CV around a traffic circle on its door handles. The bobby said that he knew the car was safe doing it, but the Citroen driver was scaring the public. What people ignore about this story is that driving a 2CV around listing like Nancy Pelosi after happy hour doesn’t involve going particularly fast.
LOL! That design brief is very French. It reflects the Gallic priorities of food, smooth ride and no consideration of safety.
I think your simile was supposed to be Hillary Clinton.
Great catch. When I see eclectic or out-of-their element cars like this, I enjoy the opportunity to chat with the owner (without imposing) about the story behind their car, and some of their experiences. And the challenges of integrating in modern traffic.
The 2CV’s suspension is one of the most elegant pieces of engineering ever. It manages to be ‘intelligent’ and adaptive without any kind of electronics or software. When the front wheel encounters a bump, it pre-adjusts the elasticity of the rear wheel on the same side to compensate.
Even though I grew up in a place with LOTS of odd Euro cars, and I’ve owned some odd Euro cars, I’ve never seen a 2CV in person. Bucket list item.
Seriously, this isn’t what I’d expect outside of Home Depot. If this was in my parts, it wouldn’t survive a week with the idget kids near Lean Baguettes throwing rocks at it for being slow. I actually rode in a 1964 2CV. I’ll never forget it, for better or worse.
Was it being driven by Richard Dreyfuss?
The cars in this video are Dyane’s not 2CV’s, but the principle is the same. If the scene just before 1:00 in doesn’t convince you of the stability of these cars, nothing will.
https://youtu.be/ziyzsN8-6C4
Yes they lean quite alarmingly but are very safe theres a video somewhere of a British car show trying to roll one over the wound it up to its top speed some 60mph and pulled on full lock the car just leaned and turned repeatedly finally they tried the same trick in reverse and managed to get it to turn over a 2CV will out corner pretty much anything else, my Xsara was similar the driver will run out of nerve or ability long before the car will.