I’m On The Road To Lime Rock, Towing My 2CV

It’s pretty late, and I really need to get to sleep, because I’m about to be driving 9-ish hours to get me, my kid, and my Citroën 2CV to our 1rd Autopian Member’s Only Track Day, which should be a blast. As much as I’d love to drive the 2CV the whole way there, it’s about 3 times as far as the longest trip I’ve taken it so far, and I really don’t want to risk something breaking before I even get to the track.

Also, this Ford Ranger press car has A/C, which, I’m not going to lie, is a pretty decadent and wonderful thing. There’s probably some safety advantages, too, but I prefer not to scrutinize that willful blind spot of mine too closely.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the Ranger does here; while it’s not the genuinely small Ranger of yore, it’s still not a huge truck, and I appreciate that. It’ll have no problem towing the 1300 pounds of 2CV plus the trailer’s 2,200-ish pounds. Holy crap, the trailer weighs more than the car!

Getting the car onto the trailer was a bit tricky, because the 2CV is pretty narrow compared with most cars, and those tires are absurdly skinny. So that meant it just fit onto the ramps. I had my wife (hand pictured) help guide and align me as I drove up the ramps, and I’m not ashamed to say it was a little nervy. The car fit across that gap with just inches to spare.

Still, it did fit, and I aligned it a bit better than what you see up there, so don’t worry about that. If you are looking for something about which to worry, I have this for you:

See what’s going on here? Whomever inspected this thing had a pretty cavalier attitude towards what would be considered okay, because the tire-holdown-webbing strap or whatever it’s called was jammed in the ratchet arm thing really, really well. Like completely pinched in there. No amount of adjusting the ratchet or pulling would get that free, and, even if I did, the condition of those straps didn’t look great.

I tried to call the rental place to see if they could swap the trailer out for one that didn’t, you know, suck, but they were closed and I was leaving in the morning no matter what. So on to plan B.

Plan B is I used one ratchet strap to try and secure the tire hold-down as best I could, then went out and bought a really heavy duty set of ratchet straps and connected one to the 2CV’s towing eye welded to the frame rails and secured that to the body of the trailer. I connected the safety chain to the towing eye at the rear and then did the most important thing: I tugged at the added ratchet strap twice and said, in an authoritative and confident tone, “that’s not going anywhere.”

Glad that’s sorted out.

Just to give the 2CV a bit more racing flair, I took one of the magnetic race number panels I had gotten when I raced the Changli at a Motorsport 4the Masses event way back in 2020:

That adds something, I think. And it helps to keep the tradition of bringing really low-power, painfully slow machines to tracks alive, so that’s good.

I’m bringing an extra coil with me, some spark plug wires, a bottle of the weird mineral oil-based brake fluid 2CVs need, motor oil, a socket set and some other tools, all of which I hope I won’t need.

I’ll be driving pretty much all day today, going North up highway 95, mostly, and 270. I’ll be passing through Richmond, skirting Washington, and avoiding Pyongyang entirely, so if you’re around those areas, keep an eye out for me! If you see me, honk and scream something! And let me know if it looks like anything is about to fly off!