Quintessentially French

[Deleted]

www.micro-trike.co.uk/wordpress/quintessentially-french/

Enjoy!

Roger

[beana51]

Thnx Roger...Like In Italy when there..Small ,Very Small Cars...for the Often much bigger Brit Or American?? its like being "SPAM IN A CAN"..I would look for a VW,bug better yet the VW Bus..I Had a VW BUS in 1974,Had a wife And 4 Kids...Our first Trip in it was to Florida and Disney Park..It did well.Load Capacity great.Another VW is the incomparable "THING"..loved That TOY!...CHEERS ROGER HAVE FUN!!

[sgtmajor]

Good Stuff Roger!!! I'm afraid if I lived in France, I would have to purchase a Citroen just because!!! (smile) However, I agree on the mustache and beret....I too would have to pass. (smile)

Cheers!!

[Deleted]

Nov 12, 2016 23:54:39 GMT -5 sgtmajor said:

Good Stuff Roger!!! I'm afraid if I lived in France, I would have to purchase a Citroen just because!!! (smile)
Cheers!!

Steve, one of the hazards of driving a 2CV in France - last night I was returning home after having dinner with Victor, its owner, who is still in hospital but insists on getting out on his crutches for a bit of fun. It was dark, rainy and a bit misty and all of a sudden a large wild boar sauntered out of the woods on the right straight in front of the car! I slammed on the brakes, if you can call it that in a 2CV, and was amazed that all four wheels did actually lock up, although it was probably only because the road was wet. Just before impact the boar must have heard the sound of the tyres and luckily for us both, did a skip and a hop across the road and disappeared into the trees on the other side. Fortunately he was a big old lone male because although the sows are just as big, they very often have a stream of piglets in tow. I hate to think what damage would have been done to the front of the 2CV if we had collided. We're used to deer jumping out in front of us and they can do plenty of damage, but those big old boars are built like a battle tank

Roger

[bhk]

Roger...what a GREAT story!!!
If I lived in France I would just have to own a 2CV.

They were sold out here for a while (back in the day before Japanese imports took over) but Citroen did pull out of Australia and that was that. Same with Renault for decades.
A bloke in Canberra had one when we were there (maybe there were more but we only ever saw this particular one). It was "Kermit Green".

However....if you are going to drive a French contraption, you REALLY must get into the true spirit of the occasion, Roger.
Take note of your fellow countryman - particularly his appearance and what he is wearing:-

[Deleted]

Bruce, Steve, you'd need to be ready to get your wallet out then. They're still pulling them out of barns and gardens but as they're not very waterproof anyway, the ones that have been left outside are generally in poor shape with floors and chassies rusted through and needing A LOT of work (and money) to get them into any kind of shape. You can pick those up for under 1000€ but as many don't have their Carte Grises (registration docs) I'm not sure that you can get them re-registered nowadays even under their old numbers as they don't meet modern emission regs. I might be wrong so would need to check with an 'expert'. No problem if the Carte Grise hasn't been lost though. A fair, running 2CV with CT (test doc) can be had for anything from say 2500€ (if you're quick to spot a good'un and lucky) to 6000€ depending on condition and prices go higher still for older (pre/post 1960) models. Once restored you can pay anything from 9000€ at the low end to 10-15000€ depending on the restoration skill, vehicle condition and age with early models (1950s) commanding a substantial premium.

The one I'm driving has been fully restored and falls into the above bracket but my pal insists on regularly using it because as a retired engineer, he thinks that 'cars are there to be used'. He's retained the standard gearbox but has fitted a Visa engine, still air-cooled, which gives it quite a bit more zip. The gear ratios limit you to 80/90 kmh though, but he says you (I) needn't worry about revving the engine as it's unburstable and can comfortably exceed 6000 rpm. He points out that not only do they bore them out and race them with blowers and goodness knows what fitted, they also fit them to light aircraft. Mind you, you know that you're doing 85 kmh, especially if you have to brake in a left hand bend!

To give you an idea of how quick the market is, I scanned the small ads on Friday night out of interest and came across a 2CV up north in the Vendée with Carte Grise, a fair bit of surface rust but no huge rust problem on its underside (from the pics anyway) and in need of restoration, or at least a LOT of TLC, for 2200€. Today the ad has gone.

Fascinating eh? It's good fun to drive but if it was mine, I'd put it away in the autumn and get it out again in the spring as it's not really practical IMO by modern day standards. Having said that, my pal drove it to the South of Spain and back, as I mentioned in my blog post - but then again he is a bit of a nutcase

Roger

PS my pal also has a fully restored yellow Mehari which he also uses daily, is increasingly rare, in really great demand and is valued accordingly. He's fretting because he's in hospital and it's not running - it was but has an electrical problem. Although he's just out of a wheelchair and on crutches as of the end of last week, he's trying to wangle some time at home so he can get under its bonnet. See what I mean about the 'nutcase' comment

[bhk]

Wasn't the Mehari the (sort of) French equivalent of the Mini Moke....and that VW "Thing" than Vin had?

[Deleted]

Yup, it was. Because the 2CV has a chassis, you can bolt all kinds of bodies onto it, and some people have been known in the past to do just that. The Mehari's body is plastic but because the chassis and underpan are 2CV/metal, they still suffer from the same corrosion problem. So when they fail their CT, French owners have been known just to park them up and leave them outside (in the usual French way) and then they start to deteriorate as a result of UV and weather. It's amazing how what are actually complete wrecks are now being put up for sale for eg 2500€ 'price firm' and selling, because it appears that you can still get hold of the body panels. An 'average' Mehari with CT (test) sells for 6500-9000€, a well restored one, especially a 4-seater (most are 2) sells FROM 15000€. There are also 4wd versions - from 25/30000€!! But you need the Carte Grise or the chassis number and manufacturer's 'series number' to be able to register/re-register them. If they have been lost or removed from the vehicle, no chance because of emission laws.

[nige]

When I lived in London in '90-'93 2CVs were reasonably common. Some were quite nice looking. I don't know whether Citroen made 'luxury' models or whether the car was improved over its production life.

The first time I went to Brooklands racetrack there were what appeared to be Morgan three-wheelers motoring up and down the banking. They turned out to be kit cars based on a 2CV chassis! In England the kit car scene is quite big and doesn't suffer from the restrictive legislation that bedevills kit cars in places like Australia.

[sgtmajor]

Interesting stuff folks!! I can't recall ever seeing a 2CV here in the states......however, I have seen a couple newer models. A quick search on google appears to be DS models? For some odd reason, French cars were never very popular here in the states. At least not in the sense of German or Italian cars. Renault probably did the best......... but haven't seen one in years now.

Every now and again I might see a Peugeot .......however, I actually can't remember the last time.

Cheers!!