2CV Sahara

[jojo]

Now that brings back memories. My first car was a 2CV. The little grey two seater van, I think small engine something like 400cc, 3gears if I remember correctly. Top speed, down hill with the wind at the back 40MPH! Those were the days
I kept that car a few years, I remember ripping the back, right end corner of it on some wall, and to repair, a 2X4 lump of wood nailed in!! it worked wonders. I eventually passed it on to a friend, who drove like a maniac and one day he lost the driver's door driving down hill. Never stopped to retrieve the things and replaced it with a short length of chain!!

 

[cyclist]

jojo, exactly that´s the way it was. My CV reached top speed in 4th gear, down hill with backwind and some extra tuning: the Police following.
I remember one winter: it was much faster than a mate´s highpowered ralley Simca which couldn´t bring all it´s power to the road

The french electrics was just an extreme nightmare: 6V made the red control light shining when using high beam plus windsreen wipers (frequently using sandpaper on some parts of the generator helped), the wiring all green .....
Who said Lucas was the inventor of darknes - must have had no experience with Citroen

 

[jojo]

Picture of the twin engine 2cv (4cv???) apparently that one managed to go up the biggest sand dune in France la Dune du Pilat., It's a big sand dune, I have walked up it yaers ago, quite a feat to drive up there!
Funny, I can't remember any problems at all with electrics, must have been a 6v.. but you could fix the thing, couldn't you? sticky tape, baling wire, 2x4 for the bodywork. The floor panels were rotten, could see the road going past underneath.. freezing in winter!!! the good old days, miss them

 

[Butchd]

Can't say I've ever had any problems with my 6v citroens, and indeed they are more reliable than the 12v Slough citroens which indeed were lucas.

 

[cyclist]

sure I fixed the electric problems. In fact I´ve learned a lot by having to work on that "system" - at that time sometimes I thought: " Hell, the french do have nuclear power plants ..."

My 2CV was paid by itself: paid 800,-hfl for it, one year later someone crossed my way (as a result 2CV was shortened about half a meter - his Audi was banana styled) and insurance payed 1000hfl cause it was all his fault plus the 2CV was old. All I had to do was mounting a new lamp, fabricated a new radiator grille from wire mesh and hammered some of the metal foil (on other vehicles you have sheet metal ).
Drove it another year and until there was this ratteling noise, than came a lot of blue smoke with performance rapidly going down. After inspektion we saw that one piston was broken in two pieces.
The body of the vehicle was in perfect shape (no rust - I wonder why) and was transplanted to a newer chassis (at the engine inspection we discovered a cracked chassis - must have been from the crash) with a 32hp engine.
Heck...
.... that was an experience: 100% power increase

yes, the 2CV in that picture is twin engined