ping anyone with a 2CV...

[Baggy]

When I were a lass 2CVs were fun to drive, cheap, and easy to maintain with basic tools like a hairgrip, spoon and a rubber band. I don't think being green came into it.

You can't beat a dashboard mounted gear lever for racing gear changes

 

[Crackle]

......You can't beat a dashboard mounted gear lever for racing gear changes

Did you read the title. It said 2CV.......

Anyway, hello Dolly. I could see you and chuffy in this, wearing tank helmets and you standing on the passenger seat....

.....medication must be wearing off, I'm hallucinating again.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

SimonCC, have you ever driven one?

Don't be ridiculous. No one who has driven one ever says they're "crap". It's a classic Simoncc piece of ill - informed anti everything claptrap.
Sure they weren't rugged, and they weren't fast (although I could get 85 out of all mine, coming down off the Pennines on the M62), but they were innovatively designed (air cooled inboard disc brakes, no drivetrain intrusion into the cab, space to carry four people or a double mattress, or a twenty foot ladder, or a 1k PA rig with speakers and a bass amp, all of which I carried in mine). Fair enough, they're not for everyone, but "crap" is one thing they weren't. Very good off road too, believe it or not.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

When I were a lass 2CVs were fun to drive, cheap, and easy to maintain with basic tools like a hairgrip, spoon and a rubber band. I don't think being green came into it.
You can't beat a dashboard mounted gear lever for racing gear changes

Absolutely. Especially the bit in bold. The racing gear changes came in handy while tanking around roundabouts at improbable angles, as I recall.

 

[simoncc]

SimonCC, have you ever driven one?

Yes. They are rubbish. Compared to a Ford Fiesta of late 80's vintage they were slow, cold, noisy, leaky, about as economical on petrol and expensive to repair and service. I'm too young to remember how wonderful they were compared to other cars when they first came out but when I had access to one it was a dinosaur.

They seemed to be the car that the 'Nuclear Power No Thanks' crowd had. These people seemed to think it was a way of having a car but remaining aloof from the common herd of motorists. Why they thought this I don't know.

 

[Baggy]

Absolutely. Especially the bit in bold. The racing gear changes came in handy while tanking around roundabouts at improbable angles, as I recall.

The racing gear change was also useful when trying to beat Fiat Panda 750s away from the lights .

 

[Baggy]

Anyway, hello Dolly. I could see you and chuffy in this, wearing tank helmets and you standing on the passenger seat....

Our local Fat Face currently has a Dolly in the window with a sign on it saying "Come in for your chance to win this car". I'm almost tempted.

My brother owned a white 2CV with red stickybacked plastic spots stuck all over it. If anyone ever parked too close it would become infectious

 

[Proto]

Anyone else remember the ads in Private Eye, along the line sof:

"Faster than a Ferrari! Amazing but true. A 2CV travelling at its top speed of 72mph will easily overtake a Ferrari doing 65mph"

Didn't have "Nuclear Power, No Thanks" on the back of our first one. Did though have "Stop the Bloody Whaling" and "This little car cllimbed Mt Washington"

 

[Lardyboy]

One of my mates had a Manx 2cv based kit car (see not that good photos linked, not of his car which was blue) -

http://www.bathtubclub.co.uk/index_files/Page814.htm

It was hysterically funny as it could be driven flat out everywhere, all day. It loved having it's t**s rev'd off, and it handled surprisingly well too.

But having driven it, the steering was very heavy; the steering geometry not working properly due to the different body and weight balance.

 

[Aperitif]

Mrs A had one of these until it fell apart - carried everything - often poking through the roofspace. A fun car also.

Simoncc - it's a 2CV not a 2BC...calm down!

 

[Hilldodger]

I got stopped for speeding in a 2CV once by cops using a hand held speed gun. They said "do you realise you were clocked doing 76mph?"

There was 4 of us in it at the time - all biggish blokes.

Our reply was "Fu*k off!"

And the coppers said "that's what we thought"

 

[cookiemonster]

When I were a lass 2CVs were fun to drive, cheap, and easy to maintain with basic tools like a hairgrip, spoon and a rubber band. I don't think being green came into it.

You can't beat a dashboard mounted gear lever for racing gear changes

Good point about the gearlever. And, if you lose your keys/lock yourself out, all you need is a canopener.

I wonder if Citroen will ever consider putting it back into production? I think they would shift a fair few thousand cars.

 

[sheddy]

Funniest motorsport I have ever seen took the form of 2CV Rallycross sometime in the 1980s.
As well as the obvious rolling over incidents, the lack of modified bonnet latches meant that the bonnets were often wrapped over the windcreen. Many drivers just blindly drove on......

 

[LLB]

I had one of these for about 10 years and so and also one of these which I scrapped in the late 90s due to rotten heater channels

I have to laugh at the 'owned by a certain type' comments for all the stick I get for my current choice of vehicle - the difference is that mine are made for practical (utility) reasons, not because I want to present any particular image to any particular crowd

 

[Rhythm Thief]

... and also one of these which I scrapped in the late 90s due to rotten heater channels

The Beetle is a classic example of a car which just wasn't as good as the 2CV in any way. While not wishing to knock Beetle enthusiasts (and I've no doubt Beetles are fun to drive), Beetles have the fuel tank under the bonnet, the engine in the boot and four fixed seats; ergo nowhere for luggage. Contrast with the 2CV, which has a large boot even with the back seat in, and a cavernous load area with the seat removed.

I have to laugh at the 'owned by a certain type' comments for all the stick I get for my current choice of vehicle - the difference is that mine are made for practical (utility) reasons, not because I want to present any particular image to any particular crowd

I agree. That's also the reason I owned 2CVs for so many years.