I’m writing this now from the relative comfort of my own home, safely strapped into my work-pod, nutrient and waste tubes properly affixed, and the reason that is happening instead of me furtively texting this from the shoulder of some forgotten rural Carolina road is because the little ramshackle French car I’ve been tinkering on for months has officially proven itself. My Citroën 2CV successfully made the trip from Chapel Hill, NC to the Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC, and back.
I call that a victory.
I’m not saying there weren’t some issues, because of course there were, but nothing that actually stopped me. The car feels like it wants to drive, it feels willing and eager and alive. Yes, it’s loud as hell, and I need to work on the driver’s seat a bit more because it made my butt hurt (literally, not the internet way), but it met the goal I set out for it when I started to try and get it running all those months ago. This was the milestone voyage, and I’m thrilled to say it made it.
Starting out, I had the roof rolled back, and the weather was perfect, and the whole experience in this car was delightful, just textbook, happy cliché delightful. It’s quirky and noisy and happy, and everyone who sees it smiles and either knows what it is and wants to tell you every experience they had with a 2CV, or they’re curious and ask questions. Or, they mistakenly think it’s a Volkswagen. All those responses are fine, because everyone who comes up to peer at it seems like their day has been improved, even ever so slightly, by the encounter.
One of the issues I still need to address is the lack of a working fuel gauge; I brought a five-gallon gas can with me, which is almost the size of the 6.6-gallon built-in tank, so that at least keeps me from getting stuck anywhere. As it was, I ran out of gas one time, but it was right, and I do mean right, as I rolled into the parking lot where all the Lemons officials were parking for the big street festival/car inspection that we do in the town of Camden, SC, before each race at the track there. So I got pretty lucky!
As far as the actual experience of driving goes, I’m really pretty thrilled. I think my idle is still too fast by a bit, and if I lower it too much it will stall, but when it’s actually driving, that plucky flat-twin is more than happy to run and rev, and, on slight downhill grades, I even managed to get it up to a sustained speed of around 65-68 mph (110 kph) or so! Look up there, there’s proof, at least if we believe that tiny speedometer, which I think I do, based on tests with those speed limit signs that display your speed in flashing numbers.
I should probably mention the noise level when driving, because it is, as they say, non-trivial. I’m used to air-cooled clatter from my many years of Beetle-driving, but in a Beetle, that air-cooled engine is behind you, happily blaring its cacophony out the back of the car. In the 2CV, it’s in front of you, just past your feet, and it’s more than happy to make its presence known.
My sound insulation under the hood is in pretty poor shape, which is likely part of the issue, and looks a bit like the fur of a murdered Muppet just after being exhumed from a shallow grave. You can see some of it here, as I was taking a picture of the fuse that kept popping:
That was one of the other issues: for some reason, this fuse would seemingly randomly blow, which was a pain, because that’s the one that controls a lot of ancillary functions like turn indicators and windshield wipers – which was a very annoying issue one rainy morning on the way to the track as they quit partway – and, perhaps most significantly, also affected whether or not the alternator would charge.
I “solved” this by buying more fuses on the trip back, but I need to see what is grounding out or whatever. I suspect it’s one of the turn signal wires from the fenders, but I’m not sure yet.
Oh, but back to the noise; with the windows open, the under-windshield vent flap open, and the engine at full tilt, it’s a whole symphony of white noise. It made listening to the Bluetooth speaker in my dash shelf difficult, so I put in some noise-cancelling earbuds, which definitely helped, but then when those cut off, the full audio reality would return, and you’d think the world was exploding, only to remember, no, that’s just normal.
I bet I can mitigate the noise a bit, and around town it’s fine, but I suppose worth pointing out so you get the idea of the full experience.
Oh, here’s an odd issue I noticed the morning when I drove from the hotel to the track: my alternator wasn’t alternating for the whole ride over, and this was before the fuse started popping, so I looked at it when I parked at the track. I don’t really understand how, but the bolt that holds the fan and alternator pulley to the crankshaft pulley somehow worked itself loose.
That means I drove about a half hour with not just no alternator, but no fan! Luckily, it was cool, and I was in motion essentially the whole time, so there was plenty of airflow. Still, I need to keep an eye on this so that doesn’t happen again.
I think I probably need new shocks, as there isn’t so much dampening going on, at least outside of my pants. On road, it’s pretty much fine, but on rougher terrain, it can get a little bouncy, even with the soft suspension these are known for. The only real repercussion of this was that one bounce popped off the little clip that holds the window open, so I’ll have to find a good way to re-affix that.
That did allow me to use the alternate window-opening method I had yet to try, this little wire doohickey that holds the window partially open for airflow without flipping it up entirely. That means these windows have an incredible three openness settings!
I did lose my Autopian Member grille badge somewhere along the way, too. Look, here it is at the beginning of the trip, down on the lower center area of the grille:
…and here it isn’t near the end:
Maybe someone will find it. If so, enjoy, and consider becoming an actual Autopian member!
Some other minor things I noticed: if you look above, you’ll see some water dripping down the instrument cluster. In heavy rain, there seems to be a leak from the vent flap that helpfully keeps my buttons clean there, so that’s handy. Besides, I hear electrical things love water!
Oh, and during the trip, the odometer hit 98,000 kilometers! That’s about 60,900 miles! I wonder if it’s already rolled over before? Who knows?
Oh, and I need to fix my trunk latch/lock/handle. It works itself open and then the trunk lid flaps open when you pull away from a stop, which I bet looks funny. Thankfully, nothing fell out!
I know I keep saying it, but I can’t believe this is the same car that was mouldering in that field not so long ago. I can’t believe I actually own a 2CV! I can’t believe how well it’s actually driving! What I can easily believe is how much I love driving this thing, how happy it makes me feel to loudly rattle around in this two-tone tin baguette.
Sure, it still needs some refinement and tweaking and dialing in, but it works, it runs, it drives, it gets me from place to place, it does what it was designed to do, and it seems as thrilled as I am to be doing it.
This’ll be the first of many happily loud road trips in the 2CV. I can’t wait.
Oh, and I’ll have a post about all the stuff at the race later today!
All photos: Jason Torchinsky
Maybe it should have been a “tin two-tone tarte tatin” to keep the alliterations alliterating.
Great maiden voyage! Regarding the noise level, 110 km/u is a lot for the 2cv and I guess that you drive that for prolonged periods of time overthere in the US. It was designed for French rural roads going 60~80 km/u. My own experience with the 2cv taught me to drive it not at max speed at the highway to keep the levels somewhat acceptable, and I remember that when I was driving 90 km/u and wanted to overtake a truck, further pushing the gas pedal immediately doubled the noise level.
Glad you made it Jason. Taking a boring drive and making it an adventure just by choice of vehicle. You and David are getting good at this thing.
Congratulations! I did mention taking extra fuses when you were about to set out….and my MGB had stretchy webbing under the seat foam that just hooked into the frame rails all around. Check out The Roadster Factory or Moss Motors and maybe you can see if they work! I think there were about 4 or 5 in each direction, so maybe some are longer than others.
Congratulations! My dad just took his first real (much shorter) drive in the 73 Corvette we started restoring together over 20 years ago. He had a list of squawks when he came back too. Driver’s door wouldn’t open from the inside, throttle stuck occasionally.
This story and the pictures he sent only amplified my excitement to hopefully drive it all weekend when I visit him in two weeks.
I watched the God-awful movie Antitrust yesterday (seriously, it’s so bad, no one watch it) and the girlfriend in it was driving a 2CV.
Milo!
That’s really the only thing I remember about that movie is the 2CV
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll be sure to skip it. I’ll get my 2CV fix here.
The BMW R motorcycles drove 80+ years with the same engine setup and NO fans!
Also no bodywork.. So I guess I’m saying, ditch those front fenders again and go for the hot rod look 🙂
Come to think of it, would be fun with a BMW style dual carburetor setup on a 2CV: Can’t be too hard to make. People do it all the time on old VWs 😉
BTW make sure your engine oil drain plug is properly tightened: We’ve lost one 2CV engine on that account in the family.
TBF a big part of why 2CV engines are hard to kill is because the engines are so strangled, which makes everything else in them significantly overbuilt. You could put dual carbs on it, but then if the fan failed again you really would be in trouble.
Some genius, years ago, worked out that the twin-cam head from a BMW bike would fit perfectly on the A-series engine in a Mini.
HELL YEAH! Built>Bought! Congrats Jason! There’s nothing more satisfying than driving something that you fixed up yourself. This car is way cool!
Congrats! I recently resurrected a ’79 Fairmont that had been sitting and baking outside for 7 years and was weeks away from getting crushed so I know this is a great feeling to have!
One thing though: Dampening = making something wet. Damping = controlling vibrations. They’re often used interchangeably, but as the product manager of a shock absorber manufacturer I can’t help but be pedantic, especially since you mentioned dampening the inside of your pants.
Jason knows.
yeah, I was kind of having some fun.
You rascal, I was about to make that same correction and would have ended with a basket of unbroken eggs on my face.
Can you get Jason a ‘friends and family’ deal? Good sponsorship opportunity!
It was a play on words.
Torch, I think you need to replace the Autopian Member badge with a small hand-stenciled decal somewhere on this car, because it is the official mascot of this website now.
Congratulations on the successful trip! For the seat, you should really get a pack of the official Citroen seat rubber bands. Knowing Citroen they were specifically calibrated as part of the suspension system. They’re a bit pricey at ~$1 each, but replacing them all is easy and about as zen of a maintenance project as you can get.
Re: fuel gauge – what are you, the king? Early 2CVs (and Beetles I think?) just had leather dipsticks. Maybe pick up one of those with your rubber band order.
And, I’m told, the official French method of showing up those rubber rings (I just replaced them and the original “canvas” on my driver’s seat with new ones) is used bicycle inner tubes. Which is how I added a little more support to my old seat. Even with the new canvas and bands, I needed a little more back support
Local Citroën guru Til gave me a bunch! I need to use them on my back seat!
Til MAY have been where I heard that this was considered an approved aftermarket option 🙂
You lift up the front of the car before you embark on your trip and you note the weight. Then you stop every once and a while and lift it again to feel how much lighter it is. Until you get the feel of it, you can slip a bathroom scale under there.
That might actually work, only you’d lift the back of the car, where the tank is. And it’s about the only heavy thing back there!
Deux chevaux! Deux chevaux! Deux chevaux!
C’est magnifique!
With great disregard for personal well being, comes great adventure! Or something like that. Recommend you change the oil ASAP, as it will give you a good clue as to the health of internals, and may have degraded when the cooling fan(looks out of balance with chunks out of blades) wasn’t working.
A pretty common 2CV mod is to remove (balanced sets) of fan blades. The 2CV is notoriously over-cooled
I have 0 experience with 2CVs, but broke off aluminium fan fins opposite missing ones on old lawn mower engines in go-carts and minibikes as a kid.
I’m not saying I think it is a SMART mod, but it is kinda common 🙂
Good to see you made it. Was getting worried when no quick update was forthcoming over the weekend. Roll on!
We need another Torchfest in Chapel Hill so we can see this beast!
great idea! I’ll set something up soon!
+1 in the Triangle
I know I want to come visit it.
Awesome little car. I’m glad it didn’t decide to strand you anywhere. You must be treating it right. When I used to ride motorcycles, I found earplugs were a life saver, and no, I didn’t have loud pipes. You can still hear the things you need to hear, but you’re not bombarded by the wind and motor noise.
I kept a pair of ear plugs in my ’98 Chevy C1500 until I was able to fix the A/C – it was deafening in there with both windows down.
What a great running project car. Just fix things as you go.
My MGB leaks the same way in the rain, but drips on your leg.
I imagine my mini I just picked up will be similar, as it’s an “open top” model with the leak-o-matic ragtop sunroof.
You brought back a memory, I remember my MGB doing that too. Left leg, IIRC. Something around the vent window area or the top edge of the windshield.
If your suspension is dampening anything, you have a serious problem!
I don’t know if anyone else is having this issue, but some of the adds seem to be floating around aimlessly, often covering the text. I managed to read the article two lines at a time in the space between them, but if they propagate any further I’m afraid I will be stuck getting back to work.
It’s impossible to arrive anywhere in a 2CV and not feel like a total hero.
I did 4 years of daily driving a 2CV, and 12 years of being driven in it as a kid before that. I also have hearing damage.
This. I don’t have any interest in rolling up in a supercar in the thought people might thing I’m cool (which will never happen anyway). I love rolling up in my 2CV and people truly being fascinated with what it is. Or, on the road, the smiles and waves. It just spreads happiness.
(sees pic of underhood insulation)
Rowlf? ROWLF?!?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
You drove with noise-cancelling headphones?
That’s terrifying to me.
I can’t even ride my motorcycle with earplugs part-way-in to reduce the noise. The few times I’ve tried, felt so disconnected to what’s around me and feel like I’m going to get a jump-scare – but it’ll be an F250 instead. Not worth it to me.
With Torch the jump-scare is always a deer.
At 55mph in a 2CV, you will hear NOTHING around you anyway. So while I’d normally be appalled, in this case I get it. I can do about 40mph in mine in 4th and be able to have a decently normal conversation, but above that… It’s like you’re in a WWI fighter
Get some NoNoise reuseable earplugs for the bike. It’s what I wear and you can still hear things well. I even pop them in at concerts and feel like it improves the sound by filtering out garbage noise.
Never mind the fact that you’ll still be able to hear the concerts (and everything else) when you’re 50, which is far less likely if you just blast your ear drums to confetti.
I recommend musicians earplugs. They are made by a number of companies. Etymonic makes affordable ones. They are designed to attenuate sound evenly across the spectrum so performers can still hear properly. I love them for going to concerts and loud clubs. A friend of mine loves them when he rides his motorcycle. He says they are perfect for taking the nuisance out of the wind noise.
Some can be specified to attenuate a certain amount of dB, according to what you need. They just make things quieter. Remember every dB is a doubling of sound energy, so you don’t need the number to be big.
If you also want to listen to music, you can get in ear monitors that work the same, but they usually require some extra transmission infrastructure if they are wireless ones.
There are also industrial noise cancelling models that don’t eliminate all noise, just reduce the volume, so you don’t lose situational awareness and can communicate with colleagues. Some of those can be more comfortable to wear for longer periods. I use those in my workshop, but I forget the manufacturer.
Looks like a great trip!
Your idle speed sounds like it might be an air leak of some sort – spray a bit of carb cleaner around the joints between the carb and manifold, and the manifold and head to see if the engine revs up.
I want to drive one of these slow, simple, lightweight, antique crapcans so bad. I’m so thrilled this is part of the Autopian fleet. Thank you for documenting your journey with it.
Same here. I’d love a chance to get behind the wheel of all the iconic “people’s cars.” I have a Beetle so that’s off the list, but that leaves the Model T, Mini, 2CV, and Fiat 500.
I pity the fool that won’t. PITY, you hear?