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Bill Vance: Citroen’s ‘tin snail’ was made for 42 years

The Citroen Deux Chevaux (two taxable horsepower), known as the 2CV, was France’s answer to America’s Model T Ford, Germany’s Volkswagen and Britain’s Austin Seven. It was economical, sturdy, affordable and offbeat.
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Over more than 42 years, almost seven million 2CVs were built by Citroen.

The Citroen Deux Chevaux (two taxable horsepower), known as the 2CV, was France’s answer to America’s Model T Ford, Germany’s Volkswagen and Britain’s Austin Seven. It was economical, sturdy, affordable and offbeat.

It came from Citroen SA of Paris, the creation of Andre Citroen, who was born in 1878 in Paris. A gifted lad, he graduated in engineering from prestigious école Polytechnique.

Following successfully manufacturing chevron-toothed gearwheels and artillery shells during the First World War, he turned his plant to peacetime use in 1919 as an automobile factory. His cars were well-engineered and popular, and within a decade Citroen joined Renault and Peugeot as France’s Big Three.

Citroen was a progressive company, and in 1934 it surprised the world with its Traction Avant model with such advanced features as front-wheel drive, unit construction and torsion-bar suspension.

Unfortunately, Traction’s development overextended Citroen, and it fell under control of its largest creditor, Michelin Tire, in 1935. It was a blow to Andre Citroen’s pride and he died within a year, many said of a broken heart.

Pierre Boulanger, Citroen’s general manager, carried on. He decided to complement the Traction with a simple, sturdy, affordable car. Traction’s chief engineer, Andre Lefebvre, started designing it in 1936 based on a simple parameter: “Four wheels under an umbrella.”

The first prototypes were ready by 1938 with 2CV introduction planned for the 1939 Paris Auto Show. The Second World War intervened, and it didn’t arrive until the 1948 Paris show.

The delay was beneficial, as proved by the 1955 discovery of three pre-war 2CVs hidden hours before the plant was seized by the German army in 1939. In spite of the Nazi prohibition against building or designing cars, Citroen engineers continued improving the 2CV during the war.

Early prototypes were quite different than the original. The flat 375-cc water-cooled engine was replaced by a two-cylinder air-cooled type, and the original suspension’s torsion bars were replaced by interconnected coil springs.

The 2CV’s engineering was brilliant and ingenious in a seemingly simple car. Its platform carried a minimal four-door body with few compound curves to facilitate easy manufacturing. Body panels were ribbed for stiffness, the canvas top could be rolled back and the seats easily removed for picnics or hauling duties.

The horizontally opposed, overhead-valve engine had a vertically split crankcase, light alloy cylinder heads, hemispherical combustion chambers and oil cooler. The cooling fan was attached to the front of the counterweighted crankshaft, as was the ingenious generator, which required no bearings. The generator/fan and crankshaft assembly was secured by one bolt, eliminating drive belts.

The 375-cc (22.8 cu. in.) twin’s nine brake horsepower went to the front wheels through an all-synchromesh four-speed transaxle operated by an “umbrella handle” protruding from the instrument panel.

The 2CV’s simple, yet imaginative, suspension had each wheel independently carried on a single curved arm, leading in the front and trailing at the rear. Coil springs for each set of wheel were housed inside movable metal cylinders mounted horizontally under the doors on each side of the car.

Each suspension arm was attached to its spring through a pull rod, and the system was interconnected front to rear so that when a front wheel passed over a bump, the suspension automatically compressed its companion rear spring in preparation for the impending shock.

Wheel patter was controlled by fitting each wheel with a spring-mounted, iron 3.5-kilogram inertia-damping weight inside a vertical cylinder. Shock absorbing was by friction dampers at the suspension arm pivots.

The suspension was extremely soft, providing an excellent ride, but allowing alarming body roll in corners. The springs were so compliant, it was necessary to mount the headlamps on an adjustable horizontal rod so the beams could be cranked back to earth when hauling a load. The 2CV weighed just over 499 kg.

Upon its introduction, the motoring media treated the Citroen 2CV more like a joke than a real car. But the public loved it. By 1950, production was running at 1,000 a day with a six-year waiting list (suggesting something about the power of the press).

Improvements appeared through the years, and performance progressed from slow to modest. By 1982, now with 602 cc and 29 horsepower, it could reach 108 km/h and still exceed 50 mpg.

Citroen finally ended 2CV production in July 1990. Despite adding more luxurious versions such as the Dyane and the Charleston, time and technology had passed the little car by.

Over more than 42 years, almost seven million of those fascinating little French flivvers were built. With nicknames such as “rolling garden shed” and “tin snail,” they were loved by millions for their basic simplicity, toughness, versatility and economy, all leavened by a touch of lovely French whimsicality.