75 years of the Citroën 2CV

Citroën’s small superstar

Yes, that’s right, the car that got France moving was revealed 75 years ago, at 1948’s Paris Salon.

Like the Mini, the Fiat 500 and the Volkswagen Beetle, the Citroën 2CV achieved what people like to call cult status, even though it was designed as purely functional, low-budget transport for a mass market.

Work on the project started in the 1930s, but due to the Second World War the 2CV did not go on sale until 1948. Despite this late start, it remained in production for four decades – and few cars embody a single philosophy quite like it.

Nearly four million examples of the saloon version were built, but if you include derivatives the figure rises to more than double that.

We’ll come to the derivatives in due course, but first we start with the story of the 2CV itself, as we celebrate the model’s 75th birthday.

Early days

The heavily corrugated front bodywork and the single headlight of the prototype pictured here did not survive to production, but nearly everything else did.

Right from the start, the 2CV was very roomy for a small car, and its suspension was ingenious, with soft springing, immensely long wheel travel and a startling amount of negative caster at the front.

With the exception of versions modified for racing, the 2CV and the other cars based on it rolled like rowing boats in an Atlantic storm, but their ride quality was excellent and their grip was phenomenal.

Engines

Every 2CV had an air-cooled, horizontally opposed two-cylinder (or flat-twin) engine which could withstand the cruellest abuse and helped keep the car’s centre of gravity usefully low.

Its capacity started out at 375cc but was increased first to 425cc, then to 435cc and finally to 602cc. Power outputs rose out of all proportion to displacement, from a very modest 9bhp in the early days to around 30bhp at close of play.

The cylinder barrels from the flat-twin used in the much later Citroën Visa also fit the 2CV motor, giving a capacity of 652cc. With other modifications, engines of this type used in racing 2CVs can produce 70bhp.

Off-roading

Famously, part of the design brief for the 2CV was that it should be able to carry a basketful of eggs across a ploughed field without damaging any of them.

It was certainly happy to venture away from sealed-surface roads. Thanks to the inventive suspension design, 2CV owners could drive through terrain which would have brought other vehicles of the time to a standstill.

The Sahara

In the unlikely event that some owners might want even better off-roading than the standard 2CV could provide, there was always the option of the Sahara.

This remarkable machine had the usual engine and gearbox mounted up front, plus another complete set in the rear. The modest power output was therefore doubled, and the car had four-wheel drive without the usual additional transmission complexity.

Apart from being twice as noisy as other 2CVs, the Sahara could also be distinguished by a spare wheel mounted on the bonnet.

Unconnected engines

The Sahara’s gearlever operated both gearboxes at the same time, which saved an awful lot of trouble as long as the combined linkages played nicely with each other.

Other than that, the two drivetrains were completely unconnected. Each engine required its own starter key.

The only relationship between the systems was that the wheels they drove sat on the same piece of ground. Or, as a 2CV expert once put it, “The road was the propshaft”.

The 2CV from Slough

In 1926, Citroën opened a factory in Slough, in the UK, to assemble right-hand-drive models. This was in response to the government’s McKenna Duties, which placed a one-third levy on the cost of imported cars.

Local production of the 2CV began in 1953. The British cars differed from the French in several respects – for example, they had lockable bootlids and waterproof roofs, which the cars built in France at the time did not.

In contrast to later enthusiasm in the UK, the 2CV was not popular in the country in those days. Production was abandoned in 1961. British motorists were denied the opportunity to buy a 2CV from then until 1974.

The military pick-up

In addition to the regular 2CV, Slough also produced a pick-up version for the Royal Marines.

In all, 35 were built for use on the light fleet carrier HMS Bulwark in 1959, and a further 30 were commissioned for the similar HMS Albion.

In each case, the vehicles were carried on and off the ship by helicopter. For active service in Aden, Borneo and Malaya, the windows were removed to reduce reflections and to give commandos a wider range of fire.

The 2CV AZAM

For the first decade and a half of its production life, the 2CV was strictly a utilitarian vehicle.

In 1963, Citroën attempted to push it upmarket. The AZAM was mechanically identical to the regular version, but it had a great many interior and exterior upgrades.

It was manufactured until April 1967, when the even fancier AZAM Export replaced it. This much rarer model was discontinued later in the same year, having been rendered superfluous by the introduction of the Dyane.

Rectangular headlights

For a car produced for so long, the Citroën 2CV received very few styling upgrades.

Perhaps the most dramatic was the introduction of rectangular headlights in 1975. These made the car look considerably more modern than it had done previously.

Latterly, when the longevity of the design became something to be celebrated rather than concealed, Citroën reverted to the more old-fashioned round headlights.

The Charleston

As the 2CV’s relevance to modern motoring faded, Citroën began producing special editions.

One of the most popular was the Charleston, which featured two-tone paintwork. The three colour schemes all included black, which contrasted with maroon, yellow or grey panels.

Both the name and the styling gave the car a 1920s feel. This was anachronistic, since the 2CV hadn’t even been thought of back then, but nobody seemed to mind.

The 007

James Bond is usually associated with powerful and expensive cars, but in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only he found himself temporarily in charge of a yellow 2CV.

Citroën followed this up by introducing a special edition which featured similar yellow paintwork, a very large 007 logo and fake bullet holes.

The 2CV Picasso

If the 2CV had remained in production long enough for Citroën to create an MPV version, it might have been called Picasso, as such variants of later models were.

No vehicle of this type was ever produced, but a 2CV Picasso does exist. Based on a car which left the factory in 1983, it was converted 24 years later by automotive artist Andy Saunders.

Saunders was inspired by the Cubist works of artist Pablo Picasso, specifically Three Musicians and Portrait of Dora Maar.

The front grille and most of the panels have been displaced, while both headlights are mounted on the left. In typical Cubist style, the effect is of an object being looked at from several angles at once.
 

The 2CV Hermès

The 2CV reached its 60th anniversary in 2008. By way of celebration, luxury fashion house Hermès was commissioned to convert an example built in 1989.

The car was repainted in brown and given a comprehensive interior makeover which involved much use of beautifully worked leather. In a way, it was a modern equivalent of the AZAM.

Citroën, which had once seemed almost embarrassed by the 2CV but was by now proud of it again, displayed the Hermès version on its stand at the 2008 Paris motor show.

The Hoffmann Convertible

Several 2CV-based kit cars have been built over the years. One of the most elegant was the two-seat convertible developed in 1988 by Wolfgang Hoffmann.

Although Hoffmann stayed faithful to part of the original design, especially the standard-looking front end, the body was in fact made of glassfibre.

One of these convertibles is in the collection owned by comedian and chat show host Jay Leno.

Lomax

British company Lomax produced several versions of a kit car based on the 2CV.

The two-seat roadsters are only just recognisable as being connected with the production car, though the round headlights and partly visible flat-twin engine are obvious giveaways.

The Lomax was possibly most famous as a three-wheeler, but four-wheeled kits were also produced.

A four-wheeler with a 652cc engine (the 2CV unit with Visa cylinder barrels, as described previously) competed in Scottish sprints and hillclimbs for several years, and on one occasion beat a 6.6-litre AC Cobra replica.

The 2CV van

The earliest derivative of the 2CV was the Fourgonette panel van, which made its debut in 1951.

At first, it was equipped with the then standard 375cc engine, but the 425cc became available in 1955, the same year it appeared in the saloon.

The Fourgonette had a very impressive load volume, thanks partly to its high rear roofline. The same feature appeared later on the rival Renault 4 van.
 

The Bijou

The Bijou (French for ‘jewel’) was the first passenger-car derivative of the 2CV, designed and built by Citroën’s UK outpost in Slough from 1959 to 1964.

The regular 2CV was not popular among British buyers (mostly because of its looks), so the Slough team gave it a more attractive body designed by Peter Kirwan-Taylor, who had previously created the shape of the beautiful Lotus Elite.

Unfortunately, the glassfibre British body was much heavier than the metal French one. The Bijou was accordingly even slower than the 2CV. In independent testing, it was found to have a top speed of 45mph and a 0-40mph time of 41.7 secs.

This sluggardly performance, combined with an outrageously high list price of £695 including taxes, condemned the Bijou to failure. A little more than 200 are believed to have been built in five years.

The Ami

In its original form, as launched in 1961, the Ami was one of the strangest looking cars ever produced by Citroën or anyone else, thanks to a radical design by Flaminio Bertoni.

The front end was particularly notable for its rectangular headlights, an amazing feature at a time when everyone knew that headlights were meant to be round. In some versions they actually were, but since Citroën fitted four of them the effect was still dramatic.

Right from the start, the Ami had a 602cc version of the flat-twin engine which did not become available in the 2CV until several years later.

The Ami was very successful despite its weirdness, comfortably outselling the 2CV for several years on its way to a production total of nearly 1.6 million units.
 

The Ami (cont.)

The saloon version of the Ami had a very distinctive reverse-sloped rear window. This had been accepted without too much fuss when it appeared in the Ford Anglia two years before, but it added to the general oddness of the Ami design.

When the Ami was revised in 1969, Robert Opron abandoned this feature, and also toned down the front-end appearance.

In later years, the Ami was available with the 1015cc flat-four also used in the larger Citroën GS. The Ami-based M35 prototype was fitted with a single-rotor engine. A dual-rotor version powered the cataclysmically unsuccessful GS Birotor.
 

The Dyane

As noted earlier, the Dyane replaced the AZAM Export in 1967 as Citroën’s attempt to produce a more upmarket alternative to the regular 2CV.

Mechanically identical to that car, its hatchback body was more modern-looking and practical, though it had none of the Ami’s shock value.

Only the 425cc engine was available for the first few months of production, but this was quickly replaced by the 602cc unit.

Although it was a successful car in its own right, the Dyane rarely outsold the 2CV in any year. Its production total of more than 1.4 million units was decent enough, but less than that of the Ami even though it was on sale for five years longer.

The Méhari

The Méhari was essentially a 2CV with the metal body removed and an open plastic body fitted in its place.

Produced from 1968 to 1988, it was a recreational vehicle similar in concept to the Mini Moke, the Renault Rodeo, and Ghia beach cars based on the Fiat 500 and 600.

Most Méharis were front-wheel drive, but Citroën also produced a four-wheel-drive version for a few years around 1980. Unlike the 2CV Sahara, it had just one engine and gearbox, with extra shafts taking drive to the rear.

The Acadiane

Citroën’s replacement for the 2CV van was more or less the rear of the old vehicle mated to the front end of a Dyane.

The 2CV van was known within Citroën as the AK. The new model was called Acadiane, which means a member of an old French colony in what is known as eastern Canada, and is pronounced the same way (in French) as AK-Dyane.

The Acadiane went into production in 1977, just as sales of the Dyane hatchback were beginning to decline, and kept going until 1987, three years after the launch of its effective replacement, the far more modern, Visa-based C15.

The FAF

From 1977 to 1981, Citroën produced a 2CV-based machine intended for use in developing countries. It was similar to the Méhari, but with a body made of metal rather than plastic.

The intentions behind the machine were embedded in its name. FAF stood for both ‘facile à fabriquer’ and ‘facile à financer’, the French for ‘easy to make’ and ‘easy to finance’ respectively.

The idea wasn’t entirely new. In 1963, two Frenchmen living in Ivory Coast developed the similar Baby-Brousse, whose metal panels were bolted rather than welded together.

The Baby-Brousse inspired many other cars including La Dalat, the first passenger vehicle manufactured in Vietnam.

The Namco Pony

The Pony was another vehicle with a very strong resemblance to the Baby-Brousse.

Greek company Namco started building it in 1972 and continued doing so until 1983. Its production life therefore began six years before Citroën introduced the FAF, and ended two years after the FAF was discontinued.

The later Pony Super was available with a variety of Ford engines. Unlike the original model, it was completely unrelated to the 2CV.

The Yagan

The Yagan was yet another Baby-Brousse derivative – this time built in Chile.

Its styling might be described as a case of function over form, but nobody ever said that cars like this have to be pretty.

Chile was also the home of several 2CV derivatives called Citroneta. The chassis and mechanicals were imported from France, but the bodies – including a three-box saloon and a pick-up – were built locally.

The Cimos Diana

Better known for its mopeds, Slovenian company Tomos began building Citroëns under licence in 1959.

Citroën and Tomos created a joint venture called Cimos in the early 1970s. One of its products was the Diana, a locally produced Dyane with, as you can see, a slightly different name.

The Dyane was also manufactured by SAIPA, one of the major players in the Iranian motor industry.
 

The Cimos Dak and Geri

The Diana and most other Cimos cars were simply Citroëns built outside France. One exception was the Dak van.

Rather than being a combination of the Dyane and the 2CV Fourgonette, as the Acadiane was, it was in fact derived entirely from the Diana/Dyane passenger car.

Cimos also produced a pick-up version of the same vehicle called the Geri (pictured).

Reportedly, Citroën was unhappy with all this and stopped exporting components to Slovenia, leading to the demise of the Cimos joint venture.

Happy 75th birthday to the Citroën 2CV.