5 Things You Should to Know About the Citroën 2CV | The Bad Blonde Car History
/Here are 5 things you should to know about the Citroen 2CV! Do you really need to know them? Probably not but I am going to tell you anyway. If you like classic car history subscribe to The Bad Blonde youtube channel. #Citroen #2CV #deuxchevaux Full history Citreon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5w6em-KFq0 History of VW Beetle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pJyVYPOmt0 If you want the full history of the little car that put the people of France on wheels check out this video.. It also covers quite a bit about the Citroen Founder Andre Citroen who was a darn cool guy. The Citroen 2cv was produced from 1948-1990 with 8.8 million variants and here are the five things you should know about this precious car. #1 The team that created this was also the team that created the Citroen Traction Avant - Traction Avant is a car that pioneered the mass production of three revolutionary features that are still in use today in your car: a unitary body with no separate frame, four-wheel independent suspension and front-wheel drive. #2 When war broke out the prototype was hidden from the Nazis! - Why? Well the Nazis weren’t scared to steal ideas and equipment.. Much of the peoples cars, the Volkswagen Beetle was borrowed eyes.. Especially from the Czech company Tatra. - They destroyed them.. with only five known the existing - Not only did they hide the vehicles from the Nazi’s advantage.. Factory workers at the Citroen factory while France was occupied, they altered the dipstick location THUS Nazis were blowing engines left and right #3 This was the car that put France on wheels - France had a very rural population - Which meant many French citizens relied on horse and cart - You add that to the fact that France was still in post-war recovery, you didn’t have many at all owning a vehicle. - This was exactly why the 2cv was designed with extreme austerity. Literally this car was designed to carry 2 persons and a bag of potatoes. - Another of it’s design parameters was that customers be able to drive eggs across a freshly ploughed field without breakage. - The car became a bestseller, achieving the designer's aim of providing rural French people with a motorized alternative to the horse. #4 The 2cv was the first car designed with radial tires - Yes, with the 2CV Michelin introduced and first commercialized the radial tire - At the time, Citroen’s main shareholder was Michelin, once again long story, check it out here - Radial tires are what you have on your car today #5 Second hand 2CV were more expensive than brand new - Why on earth was that? - Well because there was an extensive waitlist to receive you 2cv.. within months of its introduction it had a three year waiting list - However, if you bought it second hand you did not have to wait - In fact, waitlist priority was given to those who have to travel by car because of their work, country vets, doctors, midwives, priests and small farmers.