The 60 years of the Citroen 2 CV

This year, Citroën celebrates the 60th anniversary of the very famous 2 CV which remains one oif the most suprising and original car ever made. Altough its funny looks, this car is just a marvel of excellent engineering for the masses.

In fact, Citroën would again hit very strongly like its was often the case with the Traction or even later with the sleak aerodynamical DS. To my humble research engineer's opinion, the 2CV contains a large number of important innovations.

Here is a list of achievements:
- Front wheell drive
- Independent suspension
- Large amplitude suspension
- Excellent road holding on any terrain

- Floating motor fixed by 4 screws
- Very simple air cooled two cylinder motor
- Unibody without any frames
- As agile as any 4x4 in the fields (useful considering that France has a lot of farm lands)
- Cooled brakes

In those days, it was very rare to find a car with all these features, even in the most expensive ones.

And all this at a really cheap price making it available to almost anyone. A no nonsense car like it was described by the specifications which determined a very limited budget. But this is where you can recognize the french touch of genius. The car as also renowned for its reliability (much more than the Austin Mini, Fiat 500 or even a VW bug) and it was also so easy to repair (a farmer with limited skills would be able to work on it).

Its road holding was a legend since Citroën would announce that if you could put a 2CV on its top, they would give you another one for free.

Moreover, the little 750 cc motor would allow very small petrol consumption. One could say that this was a very ecological car ahead of its time. But, this car was needed in a country ravaged by an awful war which did ruin a very prolific car industry. The 2CV has the record of having the least number of accidents leading to death, since it top speed was limited to 75 km/h and it should surely not overwhelm those young guys with too much testosterone.

When it was released at the Salon de l'Auto de Paris in 1948, whatever you could the people say about this car is that it does not leave anyone without any opinion and when you see one on the street, everyone looks at it with a little bit of admiration.

The Cité des Sciences of Paris is having a show on the 2CV which has been highly recommended by the very good English journal The Indepedant.

One can really say that the Citroën “Deuche” represents a true way of living and in harmony with our world I would add.

Luc

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/classic-cars/citron-2cv-490103.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-2cv--a-french-icon-la-toute-petite-voiture-811246.html
http://www.cite-sciences.fr/francais/indexFLASH.htm