A while back we batted around the question of what would a modern simple car look like? The Volkswagen Beetle was used as a point of comparison, but I suppose a Citroen 2CV could have also been thrown into the mix. That’s not because the 2CV was very well suited to American roads, as the sign on the rear of the pictured 2CV illustrates. However, the 2CV really presses the question: How simple can you go?
A Wikipedia (2018) entry quoted automotive writer L. J. K. Setright as describing the 2CV as the “most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car” and an automobile of “remorseless rationality.” Paul Niedermeyer (2017) offered a detailed assessment of the 2CV’s many advanced features, such as a boxer engine driving the front wheels, an eight torsion-bar suspension and lawn chair-type seats.
Niedermeyer concluded that “no one had ever built a car remotely like it. Its suspension is so unique and unlikely that it alone qualifies it, never mind the rest of the car. The 2CV makes the Model T and Volkswagen look downright conventional, which they mostly were.”
That sounds about right. I also don’t think it is any surprise that such simple ingenuity has failed to gain traction in the U.S. because of our relative affluence . . . and penchant for things big, fast and single purpose.
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RE:SOURCES
- Niedermeyer, Paul; 2017. “Curbside Classic: 1969 Citroen 2CV — The Most Original Car Ever.” Curbside Classic. Posted February 14; accessed May 3, 2018.
- Wikipedia; 2018. “Citroen 2CV.” Accessed May 3.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
- Author’s photo gallery: “French cars”
well, and safety regs. and climate control
Agreed. The 2CV is most useful as a means of comparison with U.S. automobile design up through the mid-60s (at the latest).