One For Classic Car Fans.....

[Profpointy]

I love the 2CV. Refreshingly honest and very clever engineering without pretence or frivolity.

I do rather like the idea of the 4x4 Sahara version. It has the clever idea of a second engine and gearbox in the boot, usefully doubling the power as well. Never seen one in the wild

 

[Reynard]

I love the 2CV. Refreshingly honest and very clever engineering without pretence or frivolity.

They're very much a "ronseal" car i.e. does exactly what it says on the tin. Likewise the original Mini. And to a certain extent too, the Austin Seven. They were all designed with a very specific target audience and job in mind, and they all did it very well.

 

[Profpointy]

They're very much a "ronseal" car i.e. does exactly what it says on the tin. Likewise the original Mini. And to a certain extent too, the Austin Seven. They were all designed with a very specific target audience and job in mind, and they all did it very well.

Citroen ran a brilliant advert back in the day. Toyota or Honda had run and ad comparing the optional equipment on the Beemer which was standard even on their own more ordinary cars. Citroen did the same but showing all the stuff the 2CV didn't have:leci windows -no, air con -no etc, then fanbelt -no, water pump -no, ah yes very clever, then it goes distributor -no. Hang on WTF? Rather cleverly it sparks both cylinders twice each 4 stroke cycle but only the one with petrol init fires

 

[Reynard]

Citroen ran a brilliant advert back in the day. Toyota or Honda had run and ad comparing the optional equipment on the Beemer which was standard even on their own more ordinary cars. Citroen did the same but showing all the stuff the 2CV didn't have:leci windows -no, air con -no etc, then fanbelt -no, water pump -no, ah yes very clever, then it goes distributor -no. Hang on WTF? Rather cleverly it sparks both cylinders twice each 4 stroke cycle but only the one with petrol init fires

Yeah, I think I've seen that. Probably somewhere on the Tube of You.

 

[Drago]

Rather cleverly it sparks both cylinders twice each 4 stroke cycle but only the one with petrol init fires

Wasted spark. Beautifully simple, like me.

 

[Profpointy]

Wasted spark. Beautifully simple, like me.

As a bit of a tangent, here are the gears on a canal lift on the Dee we visited a while back. This type of gear profile was patented by a certain Monsieur Citroen who later used this as the basis of the logo for his car company

 

[Bonefish Blues]

A huge amount of technology just to lift pea soup. Impressive.

 

[Profpointy]

A huge amount of technology just to lift pea soup. Impressive.

Sadly it's busted at the moment but they envisage fixing it. A nice snippet is only a relatively small motor is needed as the weight is balanced and only friction needs to be overcome. Doesn't matter how much the boat weighs as it displaces it's own weight of water

 

[Drago]

And Citroen resisted the Nazzies!

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Well… we all had to start somewhere…

 

[CarbonClem]

My Dad had a Type 3 Fastback as a company car. I remember sitting on the rear seat central armrest while travelling for the best view.
Fast forward, and I owned a 1970 Fastback that had been customised by a previous owner (repainted mint green and lowered etc), and following that I bought a 1971 Squareback/Variant off a guys widow that had owned it for 30+ years - I did a sympathetic clean up on it to preserve its originality but slammed the suspension - was pretty cool.

 

[Tashman]

My F-in-L has a thing for "classics". He's on his 5th Hillman Imp and also has a 2CV. I've driven the Imp once and found both the gearbox and brakes were more suggestions than an effective addition haha.

The Imp was a standout for my lad when he went to his school Prom. Everyone else was in blinged up sportscars!

 

[presta]

My first car was a minivan but with side windows conversion.

When my father bought his 1966 Mini van in 1969 he didn't know that vans were restricted to 40mph except on motorways, and that if you put side windows in them before they're 6 years old you had to pay the extra purchase tax.

He wasn't about to pay any tax he didn't have to, so we used to use the M1 instead of the A1 for three years, then got a pair of windows from Walford's in Chelmsford, and put them in ourselves. Three years later he gave it to me for a 17th birthday present. The last time I ever saw it, it was on the back of a scrap man's truck heading out of Colchester towards the coast.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

As a bit of a tangent, here are the gears on a canal lift on the Dee we visited a while back. This type of gear profile was patented by a certain Monsieur Citroen who later used this as the basis of the logo for his car company

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It’s impressive
We’ve been to it, & up/down, when it was working
We also rode the ‘Falkirk Wheel’ a couple of years ago

 

[Drago]

When my father bought his 1966 Mini van in 1969 he didn't know that vans were restricted to 40mph except on motorways, and that if you put side windows in them before they're 6 years old you had to pay the extra purchase tax.

He wasn't about to pay any tax he didn't have to, so we used to use the M1 instead of the A1 for three years, then got a pair of windows from Walford's in Chelmsford, and put them in ourselves. Three years later he gave it to me for a 17th birthday present. The last time I ever saw it, it was on the back of a scrap man's truck heading out of Colchester towards the coast.

View attachment 801645

Fitting windows and rear seats to vans was a fairly common pass time well into the seventies.