[HN Gopher] Citroen 2cv pages ___________________________________________________________________ Citroen 2cv pages Author : dayve Score : 69 points Date : 2022-07-31 18:50 UTC (4 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.citrobe.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.citrobe.org) | Normille wrote: | Ah. Memories. I actually learned to drive in a 2CV. Brilliant wee | motors. I'd love to have one again. Just to play around in. | Gordonjcp wrote: | I once beat a colleague of mine driving is Porsche 911 Turbo in | an impromptu street race in a deserted semi-demolished housing | scheme somewhere in central Scotland, in an elderly Citroen | Dyane. | | Yup. With its 602cc engine, it absolutely wiped the floor with | the 911. Totally unfair fight, fully 30 seconds faster per mile. | | I probably shouldn't have goaded him into the bits that still had | speed bumps, eh? | nwatson wrote: | Those 2CV are very light. My family were passengers in a drive | from Santiago to Valparaiso (Chile) in someone's American | station-wagon when a 2CV tried to cross in front of us. We hit | them and a passenger from that other vehicle got pinned under the | top-of-door frame when the 2CV toppled over. My one-armed dad | managed to tilt the vehicle off them so they could be pulled out. | She didn't seem extremely hurt. | bufordtwain wrote: | The 2CV is an interesting car to drive. It has very little power | and the gear stick pokes out of the dashboard. It's a comfortable | ride and you can peel back the cloth roof cover on a sunny day. | Unfortunately it's not great at protecting the occupants in the | event of a crash. Its doors are really thin and there are no air | bags. Its design is very simple. Here is a video of a 2CV being | dismantled and reassembled in 5 minutes by a few people: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo1Z5072xr4 | jacquesm wrote: | That's a funny video, but I suspect a lot of the parts were | already disconnected, I've rebuilt the gearbox on one and | getting the engine out took a lot longer than that! | wafriedemann wrote: | Very cool. Would be even better if they included pricing. | jacquesm wrote: | 2CV: 4500 dutch guilders, Dyane 4800, AMI 6250, GS 8000, | D-Special 12000, DS 17000. | | For French Francs multiply by three or so, German Marks divide | by 1.10. | | I was in a crash in a 2CV, it was my first car and after that | never got into another one. The damage was incredible given the | kind of accident it was. | Svip wrote: | I've been a big fan of Citroens for a long time, but I cannot | quite get the 2CV. I get it's cute, but I think the Dyane is | actually cuter. I can see how it lives up to Andre Citroen's | 1930s vision, but what has always truly captured me is the | engineering in the hydropneumatic suspension. | | Fortunately, my first car was (and is) a Citroen DS 23. I | have not tried Citroen's new suspension (seems to be limited | so far to the kind of car, I don't particularly care for), | partly because I've grown disgruntled with Citroen since | about the time PSA (or whatever they are called now) started | the DS brand, but I really ought to. | jacquesm wrote: | The 2CV makes perfect sense if you look at why it was | designed: 'an umbrella with wheels'. | | The Dyane is much better as a car but it was also a bit | more expensive and people really loved the 2CV for its | lines and thought the Dyane to be too blockish. | | My second car was a DS (a DS 21 to be precise), I loved it | and ended up touring the former east bloc with it (and | ended up living in Poland because of it). | Svip wrote: | Was your DS 21 pre- or post-1968? Basically, did it have | the red or the green fluid? I once drove mine from | Denmark to Provence and back again, it was an experience, | and not without problems (it started to leak around | Paris). I am not sure I would make that big of a trip in | it again (although, some part of me hopes I will). Since | those days, I've mostly made the big trips in my '98 | Xantia. | jacquesm wrote: | Green. It was one of the latest made (1974). | | I've done plenty of really long trips with it (many | thousands of km), but I did replace all of the accessible | high pressure LHM tubing at some point to get rid of the | periodical 'Arret!' light on the dash because the system | lost pressure. I can also tell you from experience that | trying to drive a DS without pressure is both an art and | a body building exercise at once. | | Xantia is a great compromise between 'modern' and 'old | fashioned', a bit plasticy but the one I had I drove into | the ground over many 100's of thousands of km. The final | nail in that particular coffin was to lose the headgasket | somewhere between Munich and NL and just continuing the | trip, it even got decent fuel economy but it wouldn't | start up after being shut down and once we looked into | the engine it was declared a miracle that it made it all | the way back. Great car, all around and given the | distances covered ultra reliable. | | The real problem in the DS model is the semi-automatic | gearbox which is super finicky regarding hydraulics | levels (you'll notice a ticking sound when it is trying | to engage and can't quite make it due to a lack of fluid, | you can temporarily fix that under the hood by forcibly | actuating it but driving it like that is really not | recommended. Nor is driving it when one of your drive | shafts breaks and you block up that side of the drive | train. Nice low engine revs though, we jokingly called it | 'economy mode'. | | I also had an ID-19, a simpler but altogether far more | robust car. | TedDoesntTalk wrote: | The 2CV always seemed like a death trap to me. It could not | get approved in the USA for import; I'm guessing because of | safety regulations...although no Citroen cars were available | in the US at all. | Svip wrote: | Citroen sold cars in the US till around 1975, when the US | introduced regulations that essentially prohibited the | hydropneumatic suspension. Citroen even had US spec | versions of the DS and the SM for the US market. | | I am not sure whether the 2CV was ever sold in the USA, but | it has definitely been imported. I think in the US, the | limit is 25 years before you can import a foreign car. I've | encountered plenty of 2CVs and Meharis in North America. | jacquesm wrote: | I've seen a DS in Canada, but only once. (Toronto) | Svip wrote: | Speaking of Toronto, I once had the pleasure of being | driven around the city in a Mehari. | jacquesm wrote: | I hope it was in summer :) | jacquesm wrote: | In US traffic an accident between your average 60's US | built car and a 2CV would amount to a death sentence for | the occupants of the 2CV. | masklinn wrote: | Afaik it could be sold in the US just fine (this is a car | created in 1948, safety regulations were not really a | thing). | | The issue is that it could not be _sold_ : it was | particularly low-powered even for french cars of the time, | the original model barely reached 40 mph (out of a 9 hp | engine), and the later fastest models topped out around 70. | | The 2CV had literally been designed to cross freshly | ploughed fields and drive on unpaved roads, it just was not | suitable for the interstate-expanding American market. | jacquesm wrote: | I had one of the faster models but even those could not | reliably overtake a truck, chances are that when you | tried to come out ahead of the lee of the truck you'd be | blown back. More than once I had to sheepishly fall back | all 60 feet to go back behind and let others pass. | adhesive_wombat wrote: | Not car-specific but I do miss the days of huge paper catalogues. | The multi-volume RS ones were great, but the real joy was | something arcane like an optics, RF or connector company. | | I was convinced to throw away my relatively small and likely | valueless but prized collection to well-intentioned | "decluttering" when I moved to my own house. The thing is, they | actually did spark joy, as Marie Kondo would say. | | Also data books. Sure, electronic formats are objectively better | in nearly every sense from weight, dead tree count and Ctrl-F- | ability, but nothing says you know what you're about better than | a well-thumbed Philips data book. | Gordonjcp wrote: | I have a couple of volumes of RS data sheets sitting on the | shelf in my shed, that I cannot bear to throw out. Yours if you | want 'em. | jansan wrote: | Did the 2CV have a nickname in other countries? Here in Germany | it was called "the duck" ("die Ente"). Oooh, that suspension, | great memories :) | jacquesm wrote: | Same here in NL 'de eend'. There's a whole raft of wordplay | jokes on that name. | | As for the suspension, it's the only car that you can scrape | the mirrors with while it's still on all four wheels ;) | m2fkxy wrote: | in French, "la Deudeuche" [de-duhsh], for a very roughly | approximated anglicised pronunciation ([do.doS] is the proper | IPA, but I feel like it wouldn't resonate with everyone... at | least I would have no idea). | | short for "deux chevaux", i.e. ... 2CV. | forinti wrote: | I heard a joke in Uruguay that they were called "pedo" (fart) | because only the owner could like it. | throwaway744678 wrote: | In french, it is pronounced "2 chevaux", as in "2 horses" | (horsepower), abbreviated "deuche", or "dodoche" | shrx wrote: | In Slovenia it's called "spacek" - a diminutive masculine form | of "spaka", i.e. "monstrosity". | haunter wrote: | The GSA had a beautiful dashboard | https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FL0xd9wXMAAdIm8.jpg | rz2k wrote: | That instrument control looks inspired by a Curta[1] mechanical | calculator. | | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta | userbinator wrote: | Definitely has the "futuristic 80s" look. I think that style | lasted into the mid 90s and then started becoming more subdued. | jacquesm wrote: | Yes, it pre-saged the dashboard of the later CX (the DS | replacement). | drewzero1 wrote: | That's glorious! The 70s and 80s were a wonderful and weird | time for automotive design. I see echoes of it in the interior | of my early 90s Saturn. | https://img.hmn.com/900x0/stories/2016/11/1991-Saturn-SL2-In... | ur-whale wrote: | Oooh, so star-trek-y. Very nice. | woobar wrote: | Ford catalogues from the same time - | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32298524 | YVoyiatzis wrote: | Ten or so years ago, being a Citroen enthusiast since I was a | kid, but never got around to owning one, I came across a Citroen | farm in New Hampshire--about a hundred miles from where I was at | the time, in Massachusetts. | | He ended up convincing me to refrain from purchasing the D50 I | had my eye on--it was selling for less than three grand at the | time, not in mint condition, but with a weathered patina that | suited its faded buttery canary yellow just right. The Northeast, | he said, given its often extreme weather conditions in winter, | uses too much salt to weather driving conditions. I had to be | prepared to replacing its chassis in just a couple of years | thenceforth, were I to expose it to Boston's driving conditions. | | I wanted that little car to be my every-day commuter here in | Boston, it would not have proven feasible to garage it over the | winter, so I had to let it go. | | In retrospect, having driven in Boston all these years after the | fact, not ending up that little car proved a prudentchoice. Cudos | to the gentleman Citroen farmer for his sage advice. | jacquesm wrote: | What is a D50? I know quite a few Citroen models but not that | one and google isn't helping. | amelius wrote: | They should really make a modern retro version of the 2CV, like | they did with the MINI and VW Beatle. It's such an iconic car. | sbarre wrote: | Wonder if they could make an electric version of the wagon? It | could be great as a short-haul utility/delivery vehicle... | iancmceachern wrote: | Totally, it was so clever and revolutionary in many ways. I put | it on the same pedestal as you say with the Mini and Beetle. | ur-whale wrote: | The Mehari [1] (red car on front page) was an amazing car (4 | wheel drive), that was used by the French military for a while | and later became very emblematic of the St-Tropez area of France | in the 60's and vacationing there. | | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_M%C3%A9hari | jonasdegendt wrote: | I just saw a yellow one today! The way they're cambered makes | them look so cool. | jacquesm wrote: | They're still very much wanted and go for a large multiple of | their original new price. They are also probably one of the | lightest and most dangerous four wheeled production cars ever | manufactured. | TedDoesntTalk wrote: | It reminds me of Volkswagen "Thing". | jacquesm wrote: | Compared to the beetle it's a tent on wheels. The beetle is | quite strong for a car designed in those days. | userbinator wrote: | Compared to a 2CV, I agree; but it was definitely less | substantial than the average American sedan back then. | jacquesm wrote: | Yes, that's true whatever came out of Detroit in those | days would classify as an armored vehicle now. The steel | on those things was a time and a half as thick as your | typical EU economy car. That showed up in the kerb weight | as well. | TedDoesntTalk wrote: | The Thing is not the Beetle. Different cars. | forinti wrote: | The Pallas DS was such a beautiful car, they should resurrect it | as an eletric car. | jacquesm wrote: | There is a group in the UK converting them (sacrilege!): | | https://www.electrogenic.co.uk/cars/electric-citroen-ds | gorgoiler wrote: | The 2CV was the first and last car my mother owned that had a had | a hand crank start. I think we only bought it because of the | Tintin related marketing material. The carburettor controls were | front and centre, presumably for live adjusting the fuel richness | as you ascended a Pyrenean cirque. I saw the famous twin engined | version in Berlin a few years ago for a mere six figure euro | price tag. | janlukacs wrote: | How I miss the "old" internet. These fan made websites used to | show up in google serps ages ago. I've never ran into these | personal websites in the past 3+ years, no matter how deep I | search. | olivermarks wrote: | My Francophile artist dad, who was a terrible driver, had a sky | blue deux chevaux. He used to drop me off at school sometimes in | the morning (UK midlands). | | For urban driving he typically drove in 2nd or 3rd gear at around | 23 mph which was very slow in a straight line and terrifying | around corners and roundabouts. I used to see ashen faced drivers | out of the passenger window trying to understand why his engine | was screaming and the car was lurching at such an extreme angle | around the roundabout lanes. He would typically have a car full | of stuff which would be rolling around on the floor and it wasn't | unusual be hit on the head with an easel or painting under | extreme braking evasions. Great cars, spent a lot of time in 2CVs | in France too, such character... | petercooper wrote: | This has just reminded me that as a kid I used to nag my parents | to visit car dealerships and collect car brochures. My parents | were too risk averse to buy anything like a Citroen, but they | were clearly the most forward thinking company. I remember the | Citroen XM being the most futuristic car I'd ever read about, but | now the cheapest hatchback has far more advanced technology! | jacquesm wrote: | The cheapest hatchback still doesn't have that suspension | though. | Svip wrote: | Even in the 1990s, a Xantia would be a cheap way to buy a | luxury suspension. Still amazes me that my '74 DS and my '98 | Xantia can use the same hydraulic fluid. Even the pressure | spheres are interchangeable, although not advisable. | jacquesm wrote: | The Xantia probably has the best of the hydraulic | suspension systems that were ever on the market (including | MB, which is a ridiculously fragile system). The XM is more | comfy but the Xantia is far more reliable mostly because it | is a somewhat simpler system (cheaper car, so less | complexity = more profit but incidentally also more | reliability). | | The very worst was the SM, which overcomplicated just about | everything. If you open the hood on one you'll have at | least six "WHY?"'s going through your head at once, the | kicker being the rotating shaft over the top of the engine | to drive a pump on the other side of the block. | classified wrote: | The presentation style of those catalogs is just wonderful. And | hose hippie colors! Today's presentation styles are mind- | numbingly dull in comparison. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-07-31 23:00 UTC)