Saw this car last year but didn't grab a photo and on the way back from where we were going for breakfast, it was gone.
Not this year. Parked right along the Highway for at least 2 days. I posted about seeing this car last year but can't find the post so am doing a new topic here. Looks to be in fine condition.
We were on holiday in Door County, Wisconsin, and spotted it in Ephraim. Looks to be used by Arbor Crowne Properties, a real estate company specializing in high end, luxury properties in that area.
The license plate on the front looks European but the back plate was a Wisconsin tag with just 3 things - "2CV" . . . imagine that, how clever . . .
Looks kind of like a 2-Tone grey Charleston, but without the Charleston "sweep" on the doors, that and the darker paint looks blue, so, I guess it's a custom paintjob...
Nice to see it on that side of the pond though, some of them require extensive modification to make them road legal depending on state or province, and some parts just outright ban them sadly...
I'm reminded of Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). Does anyone remember The Silver Hornet? It was Inspector Clouseau's car and a 2CV in disguise. I love the fake fins on the back. I attached a picture below. Here is a video clip of it. One of my favorite Pink Panther moments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V2V5tes6YY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V2V5tes6YY)
I don't recall seeing that car (or the film, oddly, thought I'd seen many of the Pink Panther movies!), but looking it up it is indeed a very modified 2CV, and looking at some pictures of it, it was built to fall apart like a clown car revealing its 2CV guts... :)
The front licence plate is French. 75, the last two digits, means it is from Paris. (Where else from? :-)
Quote from: Matilo Telephones on October 25, 2016, 05:42:26 PM
The front licence plate is French. 75, the last two digits, means it is from Paris. (Where else from? :-)
Wish I would have gotten both the front and rear plates straight on. I was standing on one side of a busy State Highway and the car was parked on the other side. Snapped between traffic and didn't cross the road to see what was on the other side.
I found this short video of it on line from about a month ago (https://youtu.be/TOtxJdCwWz0) taken during some event I've never heard of. Doing a bit of research, it's a 4 day event drawing over a hundred cars to see which can climb the winding bluff road in Ephraim the fastest. Here's their site with photos (http://ephraimhillclimb.com/) of a lot of the cars (scroll down).
Anyway, seems like the driver is on the left side and I found this shot taken during the hill climb showing the full front plate. So, still sticking with Paris?
Which bloke among would know more about 2CVs than anyone else? twocvbloke, of course! ;)
I always thought 2CVs are cute looking cars; great examples of non-performance European cars, and in Europe, 'non-performance' meant 'slow, sluggish, cramped, and cheaply built'.
Why do us Americans have to blur the lines?!? ;D
Here in Norway this was a "cult" car for the "68-ers" (student revolution (??))
They claimed you cud get scrubbed on your ears in the curves, because it had so soft suspension. Actually it was almost impossible to roll over because it had a great grip on the road, and a top speed not to high.
I have tried one with the huge motor of 43 Hp, and about 70 km/h the front wheel covers (please help me with the right words) started to go up and down as bird wings, so I did not speed more.
It was a simple 2 cylinder air cooled boxer motor, it had one coil with a high voltage cable in each end going to the spark plugs.
Really fun, but probably not secure at all....
dsk
Don't know about the French registration plate info (they use a different system to us brits), but, it's definitely a 2CV, that's a given... ;D
At their most powerful, the 2CV6 (602cc, 8.5:1 Compression) was 28BHP and could reach a whopping top speed of 71.5MPH, on a good day, down a hill, with the wind at your back, and 0-60, yeah, it can do it, eventually... ;D
The name 2CV, which is short for Deux Chevaux Vapeur, stems from the old french taxation bands, where it (the original 375cc models released in the 50s) was originally measured as two steam horsepowers, which is different to brake horsepower, and as a result it's a common misconception that all 2CVs are 2 horsepower, as the first model was actually 9bhp, and over the years with increased engine capacities, it went up, and the derivatives (Mehari, Ami, Dyane, etc.) had slight modifications to increase output from their respective engines, such as the Dyane6 engine, also 602cc, but with 9:1 compression and very mild form of supercharging (mild being an exaggeration!), connecting the air intake to the blower housing around the fan, giving it a dizzying 32BHP, not much improvement on top speed or 0-60 though... ;D
Killed off in 1990 as it couldn't meet then-new European safety regulations on crash testing & emissions, it still lives on today as a cult classic, and has become a valuable classic car too, some I've seen fetching well over £10k, which is more than a lot of brand new "utilitarian" cars go for, plenty brand new aftermarket spares on the market to keep them going, people rebuilding & reconditioning engines, plenty of projects fitting more powerful replacement engines (as DSK mentioned), and some even being turned into electric vehicles, it's a car that's just not going to go away... :)
Could the motor in the one I tested be from a bigger Citroen? and still fit? I remember the owner stated 42HP.
dsk
Quote from: dsk on October 26, 2016, 03:18:28 PM
Could the motor in the one I tested be from a bigger Citroen? and still fit? I remember the owner stated 42HP.
dsk
Possibly, some 2CV owners modified theirs by fitting the larger 652cc Citroen Visa engine, or a 4-cylinder Citroen GS engine (essentially the same as a 2CV flat-twin engine, but with two cylinders per side), the latter of which was most famously used in the James Bond movie "For your eyes only", where Bond had to use a bright yellow 2CV to escape some bad guys in Peugeots, said 2CV had been retrofitted with the GS engine to provide a bit more pep for the filming... :)
The other option for 2CV engine upgrades are motorbike engines, particularly those from BMW touring bikes (which itself harks back to the days of the prototypes which used watercooled BMW motorbike flat-twin engines!), but they often produce a bit more than 42bhp as the owners tend to want more power... :)
So which does everyone prefer: round or square headlights?!?
I personally think the square headlights were a cheap attempt to modernize, but the round is more classic and fitting for that car!
Round, definitely...
Round of course, as round headlights produce a more even beam pattern compared to rectangular... :)
Though some cars designed for rectangular look completely ridiculous when they got americanised with them round headlamp units... :o
Such as the Mercedes R107 SL (US spec Left, Original rest-of-the-world spec Right):
Quote from: twocvbloke on October 27, 2016, 04:49:08 AM
Round of course, as round headlights produce a more even beam pattern compared to rectangular... :)
Though some cars designed for rectangular look completely ridiculous when they got americanised with them round headlamp units... :o
Such as the Mercedes R107 SL (US spec Left, Original rest-of-the-world spec Right):
I see your point. Those lights are built in the lines of the automobile and look correct.
When the lights are mounted on the fenders they must be large and round.
Could be a male thing!
A pair of round things appealing to males? Hmm, I've heard of that before somewhere.......... ;D
But yes, round headlights (in the right setting) are more appealing than square... :)
A year later and it's still there. Where it was parked, on a very busy corner where any and every tourist would see it, it is nothing more than a rolling billboard parked. Nice looking car and probably the most unique car seen daily in the area (the other "collectibles" are stored in private garages and only come out once or twice a year. Not this one. And in really good condition.
Still looking like it's well looked after, roof is looking like it needs a little treatment, but overall nice and shiny... :)
It definitely looks like it's still being worked on--it looks they added headlight visors in the past year.
A common accessory, often fitted by lady owners, not trying to generalise, but, it is considered "cute" by women, and not so much by us men... ;D
Didn't notice that. Nice catch. I've seen pretty colored Beetles with eyelashes on those headlight "visors" which are cute but definitely not a car driven by a man. The 2cv being an advertising eye catcher most likely won't sport eyelashes in the future. The owner is a real estate broker that deals with multi-million dollar lake and bay frontage lots and homes so I'm sure they are keeping it upper class.
There was another Film 2CV I remember...
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_2991-Citroen-2CV-AZA-1967.html
There was a 2CV in another US-based comedy film, can't recall which, but there was a character who drove into scene in a varied selection of cars including a black & burgundy 2CV Charleston, just wish I could recall the title of the film......