In case you are unaware, and I will allow you to determine the correct level of shame you should feel if you are, Jason has a Citroën 2CV. I am very happy about this, not only for the content I have been enjoying and am looking forward to more of, but because there’s a not-unreasonable chance of me getting to drive the thing.
I’m keen to drive just about any quirky French car (or any quirky car regardless of country of origin, or any car period, to be honest), and as happy as I would be just to go for a polite baguette run in Jason’s 2CV, what I really hope to do is experience the thing getting a good flogging, if not flog it myself. I’ve long been fascinated by the car’s ingenious and highly unconventional suspension, and the wild lean angles it can achieve while being seemingly impossible to flip over – watch:
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Pretty wild, right? Even snapping from full-lean in one direction into full-lean in the other, the little 2CV is just planted, as if there were some unbreakable magnetic attraction between its skinny wheelbarrow tires and the road.
Here’s a fascinating deep-dive into how well it all works and why from TFLclassics:
So that’s what I want to experience most, a 2CV at full boil on a twisty road. How about you?
What Famous/Infamous Car Capability Would You Most Like To Experience?
Top graphic image: screen grab, TFLclassics
I wanna drive a Mini Moke – no roof, no doors – it’d be a hoot
I want to try the Citroen DS suspension.
I would most likel to experience the low “off road” gear in a Porsche 959.
930 mid-corner snap oversteer – “The Dentist Killer”. Not in real-life, mind you, but a driving simulator that gives a decent approximation of the ‘oh shit!’ moment of failing to keep one’s foot in it.
Full Self Driving. That actually works as promised.
I’d like to drive one of those early race cars like the 1909 Benz with a 21.5-liter, inline-four cylinder engine or the 1910 Fiat S76 with a 28.4-liter, 4-cylinder engine. And skinny little tires.
300 to 440 cubic inches per cylinder is the sweet spot in my opinion.
The mythical ability of the right car to get you laid. The closest was my Range Rover – those things are like catnip for women – but I don’t swing that way anymore. Gay gearheads are a relatively rare species, I have never managed to date any dudes who gave much of a shit about cars.
Though I DID get laid in the back seat of my ’84 Jetta GLI a few times back in the day, it had nothing to do with the car. Living in a dorm with a roommate, you do what one must for “privacy”, and it’s cold and/or buggy in DownEast Maine so outdoors was right out. I was a LOT more flexible 35 years ago too. 🙂
I had a VW Dasher painted about 200 different colors, and women would just get in the car when I stopped for a red light.
Granted it was NYC in the 70s, and it only happened twice, but still.
I had a black on black Suburban for a rental this week – I kept expecting that to happen when I stopped. 😉
You need to be the second black suburban in a convoy of three, possibly with outriders on Harley Davidson Electra Glides for that to work.
ROFL! I actually had somebody get in the back of a black Town Car I had as a rental while I was sitting in front of my hotel many years ago. Hertz had a sense of humor about what “upgrade” meant.
I know such a power MUST exist because most of the cars I’ve owned have had similar powers. Some made me invisible, others made anyone I had any interest in suddenly be in a committed relationship. Some had the right power but it got other people laid.
Wait, what? You say it WASN’T the cars? Well what else could it possibly have been then?
I would imagine a mint vw cabrio would do that? Either one of the mk 2 and 3.
I almost bought one when I bought my Spitfire… Which attracts old men and young boys, neither of which are remotely my jam. 🙂
Oh Kev – You’ve been hanging out w/ the wrong gays in the wrong state.
Lots of car-nut gays in SF, LA and Palm Springs.
https://www.lambdacarclub.com/
https://greatautos.org/
https://www.thefreewheelers.net/
Meanwhile, your story reminds me of an episode in the back of a Buick Skyhawk T-Type with a certain tall, handsome sailor stationed at Norfolk….
…he was pretty flexible too.
Oh, I know… My last relationship was a bicoastal one with a Virginia boy transplanted to San Francisco. But I have no interest in living there.
I’d need a lot of space for it but I’ve always wanted to experience how wildly wheel-spin prone at speed the early Vipers were. I do NOT, however, want a snake bite, where you burn your leg on the side pipe exhausts.
I can’t wait for Autopian-branded olive oil, made exclusively from olives harvested via 2CV barreling/tumbling through olive groves!
You know that ubiquitous cop car from early 80s TV shows?
The Dodge Monaco? Not the Bluesmobile, the one from the Dukes of Hazard etc.
You know, this one
I want to drive one of those. On a race track. Not an oval, a track with corners. Like the Nurburgring.
I bet it would be utterly hilarious
I have autocrossed both my Peugeot 504D and my Land Rover Disco I. Both were hilarious from both behind the wheel and to watch. I can only imaging what some huge ’70s boat would be like. Probably not completely terrible with cop tires, cop brakes, cop suspension, etc. Helped by being dog slow if still stock.
Preferably with a mixed-race driving team dressed as Hill and Renko from “Hill Street Blues.”
See also: my similar desire to drive in a “police chase” behind the wheel of another ubiquitous 70s Mopar cop car: a Plymouth Satellite.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJBM9grJA4bdx0J7jhZ8dgG1TYGdOGjd5adFQqv3D7Ew&s=10
Special Agent Bill Tench dailied one in “Mindhunter” recently, and I actually surprised myself at what a handsome car I thought it was – with about a 30-year break since the last time I saw one on TV. I sure didn’t think that way when I was watching Fred Dryer drive one through LA in “Hunter” – although he sure made one look pretty cool with a SPAS-12 in place of a windshield.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/0/00/Hunt101-franchi1.jpg
My Delta 88 sort of handled like that when I put it on a racetrack.
I’d like to do that with Buford T. Justice’s Pontiac LeMans, without the roof to be true to the real experience.
Torch needs to drive one and write about it
At my age I prefer to witness over experiencing it. Richard Hammond is a good life lesson here
Has a buddy I worked with ex-army, he said he was one the soldiers that test drove the original Humvee. He was told it could not be flipped. He said if you get it to top speed then drive down a hill and turn the steering wheel tight you can flip it. Makes sense, I don’t want to be in the vehicle when it happens but that is a better test than a 25 HP VW motor that won’t get you past a decent jogging pace on a flat level surface saying it is unflippable