staff@slashgear.com (Justin Owen)
2024-04-19 11:30:11
www.slashgear.com
After WWII, France, which had been devastated, needed to get its economy and people back on the move. Having limited resources while building a car for people with limited incomes, Citroën came up with the brilliant 2CV. Plans for this car actually pre-dated the war, but they had to be hidden, including tooling and prototypes, from the Nazis during occupation. It was not until 1949 that the new car could be produced.
Much of this car’s ingenuity is tied to its chassis and suspension, and the lightweight and simple bodywork. The engine powering the diminutive car was initially a 375cc air-cooled horizontally opposed twin making just 9 horsepower. The first models featured a pull cord starter akin to those on lawnmowers but would soon be replaced by an electric version. Engine size and corresponding power increased through its 42 years of production to a 602cc unit with up to 33 horsepower.
As it was built for a very affordable car, the 2CV engine is incredibly simple, using only a handful of parts to assemble. It also features clever designs to remain reliable. The spark plugs fire together on every power and exhaust stroke, eliminating the need for a distributor, and the cooling fan is driven directly from the crankshaft. Heads and cylinders were precision machined to fit without a gasket, eliminating another failure point. While some trouble spots can appear, including a plugged oil cooler, few common problems with this engine exist.