Good morning to all of you out there in Greater Autopia! The Craigslist gods have smiled upon me today. I have stumbled upon, without actually looking for them, two wonderfully weird old French cars for us to look at. And one of them is one of my favorite sports cars of all time.
Yesterday was all about that decade referred to in that Killing Joke song, with two turbocharged fastbacks. It was a complete blowout in favor of the Dodge, which just goes to show how undesirable the wrong options can make a car. I imagine if the Merkur had had a manual transmission, the vote would have been just as lopsided the other way.
Me, I’m all about that Charger. I’ve been a fan of the L-body coupes since I was a kid. Actually buying this car would probably be a really stupid idea, but daydreaming doesn’t do any harm.
If you know anything about French cars, you know that they are just a little off-center from the rest of the automotive world. The French have their own way of doing things, and that’s just how it is, and if you don’t like it, mange tes morts. I guess it’s their prerogative; they did pretty much invent the automobile, after all. But if you look at French cars next to cars from other parts of the world, they do start to look strange. Take, for example, today’s choices: a van that looks like a garden shed on wheels, and a mid-engined coupe with a really bizarre seating arrangement inspired by a piece of furniture. Grab a croissant and a glass of petit verdot, get comfy, and let’s check them out.
1956 Citroën 2CV Fourgonnette – $7,000
Engine/drivetrain: 425 cc OHV air-cooled flat 2, four-speed manual, FWD
Location: Delaware, OH
Odometer reading: 77,000 miles (but odometer is broken, so who knows?)
Operational status: Runs and drives well
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that there is a Citroën 2CV in the Autopian family. Rescued from a back yard by Stephen Walter Gossin, the little yellow and black tin snail is now under the stewardship of weird-car connoisseur Jason Torchinsky. That 2CV is the standard four-door version, but here, for sale in a small town in Ohio, we have its utilitarian cousin, the Fourgonnette panel van. From the front doors forward, it’s a standard 2CV, but behind that, it’s basically a miniature Quonset hut.
This 2CV is older than Jason’s, and therefore has an even smaller engine. It displaces 425 cubic centimeters, and puts out – wait for it – twelve and a half horsepower. That’s just 5 cc and one horsepower more than my riding mower. Nevertheless, this cookie tin on wheels can hit 50 miles an hour, eventually. The seller bought it in a non-running state at an auction, and carefully brought it back to life. It runs and drives well now, though the seller says it can be a little stubborn to start.
The 2CV is famous for its simplicity, and being a cargo vehicle, this one is even simpler. Two seats, a steering wheel, and that funny umbrella-handle gearshift lever, and that’s about it. The seller redid the seats, and they look great. I don’t know if the famous basket-of-eggs trick works with the Fourgonnette, but I assume so.
It’s a little scruffy outside, but in a charming way. I see a little rust along the bottom of the van section, and some chips and flakes in the paint on the roof, but I think restoring it and repainting it would be a crime. It’s perfect the way it is. It has new tires – Michelin, of course – and includes some spare parts, tools, and literature.
1976 Matra-Simca Bagheera – $6,500
Engine/drivetrain: 1.5 liter OHV inline 4, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Map shows Wood Dale, IL but ad title says Menominee, MI
Odometer reading: 56,000 miles
Operational status: Unknown; has just come out of a museum
There’s a good chance, unless you had a die-cast toy car of one like I did when you were a kid and looked it up out of curioslty, you might not know what you’re looking at. This is the product of a collaboration between Matra, a French aerospace company that also dabbled in sports cars, and Simca, which was the French arm of Chrysler Europe. It is also, to my knowledge, the only car named after a fictional black panther, or any fictional large cat, for that matter.
In the grand tradition of affordable sports cars like the Fiat X1/9, Pontiac Fiero, and Toyota MR2, the Bagheera is mid-engined, using the drivetrain from the front-wheel-drive Simca 1100 economy car, moved behind the seats. Both 1.3- and 1.5-liter engines were available; I’ll give this car the benefit of the doubt and assume it has the larger engine. Either way, a four-speed manual was the only transmission available. This one spent many years in a museum, and the seller isn’t clear about its running status, and I have no idea what museum it came from. I believe most museums maintain their vehicles in running condition, as long as it ran to begin with. So there’s a chance this thing is ready to hit the road – but check the dates on the tires just to be safe.
As if the mid-engine layout and the Rudyard Kipling-inspired name weren’t enough, the Bagheera has another surprise in store: three-across seating. The driver’s seat is separate, but the passenger’s seat is a doublewide, apparently based on a chair that Matra’s chief designer spotted in a shop in Paris. You can take two friends along for the ride, but they had better know each other really well, or else they will by the end of the ride. It’s in good shape, and I love the plaid upholstery. Why don’t cars have plaid seats anymore? Who do I talk to about that?
The Bagheera has a steel space frame with fiberglass-reinforced plastic body panels. Build quality was apparently spotty, but this one looks pretty good. It has cool snowflake-style alloy wheels and a Webasto-style cloth sunroof, both classic ’70s sports car cues. Though I promise you, if you show up to a classic sports-car gathering in this, you’ll turn everyone’s head – even the guy with the Lotus Elite.
Weird, as we like to say around here, is good. Uncommon cars with unusual features are just fun, and nobody does them better than the French. One of these is an icon, and the other is a footnote – but they’re both insanely cool, if you ask me. But which one appeals to you more? You’ve got a three-day weekend to mull it over. See you back here on Tuesday!
I wouldn’t be too concerned about spares for the Matra. It’s based on the much more common Simca 1100, so I imagine most parts are available at NAPA. Ahem.
Love the 2CV van; I just purchased a Citroen Berlingo Multispace which is in many ways its spiritual successor (and is more or less as rusty). But I still picked the Matra.
Both, please. I can see someone using the 2CV; the Bagheera is cool AF. I need a wee truck right now, and the 2CV would do the job.
The Matra is the better choice here. Too bad they didn’t put the steering wheel in the middle LOL
That 3-seat front seat is common in vans over there.
I already have fun finding parts for a popular French car in the U.S.. I can’t imagine trying to find parts for a Bagheera. Even though it looks cool, I think that’s as far as it would ever get when you spend a lifetime looking for and then waiting for parts. Deux Chevaux for me today.
It says the tires are fresh. I imagine those are the hardest to find. Everything else should be a breeze to fabricate.
Ohio has been representing lately, though today is the best in recent memory.
Matra-Simca Bagheera, the official car of the throuple.
Ménage à trois was right there!
That 2cv is right down the street from where I work…might have to check it out.
I’m not a fan of France, what with the ridiculous accents and all the surrendering. I do have an appreciation for French cars that are weird-good, though, and both of these qualify.
I could make an argument for either, but the three across bucket-ish seats and plaid upholstery made me vote for the Matra. I also like the variation on the single spoke steering wheel. Overall, this is an incredibly interesting vehicle.
Name checks out
50 mph ? so you should test the 40 mph impact into a deformable barrier with 40 percent overlap with this Citroen ?
(crash dummies on strike)
An impact into a bicycle would kill the driver.
a parked bicycle, not a rolling one !
along with the lawn chair like seats? should be a fun test!
I love the 2CV but the absolute disregard of safety is terrifying
I scoff at your safety concerns in a way a French man would.
Through a cloud of Gauloises smoke?
When did people become such absolute pussies?
Exactly. The French aren’t pussies! They didn’t surrender, they lured the Nazis in. Who got the last laugh!
The CV is weird. The mythical cat car is weirder. That one please.
Reminds me of the sticker I saw on an old F-150 in Texas, “No seatbelts, we die like real men!”
That’s one rusty and crusty 2CV. The Bagheera will almost certainly give you sleepless nights as you scour the internet for parts and service specifications, but holy hell what an awesome little car it is. Absurdly clean too given its museum life. I have to think it is easily worth $6,500 to someone who loves obscure French cars and knows how to keep it running.
I mean, if your going to go French, you might as well go full French and get the mobile quonset hut. The plaid seats almost swayed me the other way.
I’ve said this many times before, and it bears repeating. Whatever manufacturer grows enough balls to sell me a new crew cab pickup truck, with two plaid bench seats, gets my money.
I went with the Matra, goodness help me. But when I was shopping for a 2CV, the quonset huts on wheels just never caught me. And I wouldn’t love having to deal with the older engine. Parts are much easier to come by with the newer engines
As I am not one to care too much about originality, as long as it is all the same make, an engine swap to a newer one would make this 2CV a lot more usable in today’s world.
And parts swaps are generally not too bad in the 2CV’s. Heck, my 2CV6 appears to have had a Mehari transmission in it for a few years.
I’ll take the little French Van, and start going on picnics. My life will be idyllic and devoid of enui.
It totally needs a wicker basket tossed in the back. Completion.
Mid engine you say? I’m in.
The Bagheera’s frame is not stainless steel. And being well hidden under the fiberglass body, it can pretty much do what it wants. Gimme the 2CV, at least it’s honest.
Ils sont tous chapeau pas de bétail non?
I will take the wedge. I have never seen one, and it is not nearly as heinous looking as an X/19 or Porsche 914. I would probably cuss it a lot trying to make it run, but I feel like using a FWD passenger car for the drivetrain means there might be a French connection to a lot of the stuff.
It’s literally the drivetrain of a Simca hatch/sedan stuffed in the back. Just like an X1/9 or a Fiero – just cheap econobox bits repurposed. Nothing exotic or uncommon about it but the looks.
Matra: Threedom!!
BOTH
Gimme the Bagheera.
Also, I cannot be the only one who saw its interior shot and initially thought “That’s gonna cause one helluva wedgie for the passenger.”
I was wondering if I could even fit in it, but yeah, wedgie wife for sure.
The seats are superbly comfortable in that squidgy French way.
That 2CV needs to be a camper
This is not only a 2CV, but one with a 425 in it. I can imagine a Top Gear sketch where they put camper stuff in it and are then unable to move the car off in first gear.
You lost me at “french arm of Chrysler”. But really, you lost me at “just came out of a museum”. I want to drive my cars and keeping that low volume beast on the road seems like it would be a chore. Keeping a 2CV on the road requires nothing but a couple tools, a baguette, and little skill.
But DO you want to try to drive the 2CV anywhere really. you would almost have to drive in the bike lanes and even then you would get passed by pissed off Karen’s in spandex shorts.
You’ve asked this on the wrong site :-). I daily a 2CV (albeit a newer one with a bigger engine), and it keeps up pretty darn well as long as you do not even think about an interstate. And the Karen’s are too overcome with cute to be pissed off.
I have a 1949 Plymouth Super Deluxe and the chassis design dates to the 30’s. Top speed? Maybe 45-55MPH. I took it on the freeway. Once. Horrifying!
My recumbent trike currently does 71 mph. I’ve taken it on the freeway. Probably never again. At 10kW, that motor gets hot FAST. If I had the body back on it, I might only need 4kW or so to hold that speed.
I have VERY short distances to the office and the grocery store and what-not, so, yeah. I’d drive it. Maybe not daily, but I don’t need to go fast for most things. Certainly the highway is off the table, though. Point well taken.
Pissing off Karen sounds like a selling feature.
That 2CV with about $5k in EV parts would make an excellent low-voltage conversion for getting around town on the cheap and could easily have a 50-75 mile range with that budget. I’d daily that shit.
Why would you think you can’t do the same with the Matra?
It’s not that I can’t, it’s that I wouldn’t want to.
I’d rather not convert such a rare museum piece, but if I was going to do that, I’d give it a budget closer to $30,000 so that I could make it a performance machine with long range at highway speeds, while keeping it as light and nimble as it is as an ICE. Low-end golf cart parts will not do for such a machine, even if they’d be fine in a 2CV.
I’m here for the Matra –
So I can take my Husband and BF with me.
Ménage et trois
Which makes for more interesting dinner conversations too.
Ah, talking at dinner. So French.