A car for existentialists
It said at first glance not much that from these willfully shaped loose box of sheet metal an automotive legend would be. The model had already at its debut at the Paris Motor Show 1948, the time like: An American journalist said to have spotted that the manufacturer will also mitliefern because a can opener. The French poet Boris Vian called later the car a “mobile mental confusion”. Yet the Citroën for its millionfold sold Renner was 2CV – and for generations to express a feeling of life
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25 years ago, the last duck in Portugal from the tape ran, but when lovers their charm remains undiminished. They rave about the whining melody of the Boxer engine, the unique cornering, the perceived convertible luxury of rollable vinyl top. That Samuel Beckett, the author traveled from “Waiting for Godot”, 2CV, no surprise: No other car embodies such existentialism
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Here, the Spartan design was originally chosen mainly for practical reasons. Citroën wanted in the 1930s a car for the little man from the country, robust and cheap. The strange job of CEO Pierre-Jules Boulanger to his people: a “favorable set of wheels, the four people and 50 kg of potatoes or a small barrel with maximum speed to transport 60″. The suspension should make it possible to provide a basket Eggs to go without breaking a beackertes field.
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As with Volkswagen in Germany also came Citroën TPV project - for "Toute Petite Voiture" very small car - the war between them. With the German invasion Boulanger left the prototype disassemble and hide, the enemy, the concept of the mini car should not snaffle.
The triumph of the "Deux Chevaux" - the "two-horsepower", but which are not for the engine power, but denote the (very cheap) Tax Class - began in the 1950s. The practical benefits and the price convinced, partly there were delays of five to six years.
But abroad, especially in the Federal Republic of 2CV embodied a piece of France, such as red wine and Gauloises. Celebs drove the car as well as students from the anti-nuclear movement, hippies went to the felt to be politically correct car on a long trip to distant lands - and even Roger Moore as James Bond sat in the movie "For Your Eyes Only" in a bright yellow duck .
© AFP ducks parade in Le Mans
ducks parade in Le Mans
Over the years, ran more than five million 2CV and its van version of the band came to more variants. That is far from the 21.5 million sold copies of the VW Beetle removed - moreover there is often a certain playful rivalry between duck and beetle lovers. The duck was "the right car for people who really did not want a car or could pay none" as the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" once wrote.
The 2CV was adapted over the years again and again to new color trends, were 9PS initially from the end even up to 30 - which made speeds of over 110 kilometers per hour possible. However, the shape remained the same. Put an end to making the duck finally particularly stringent emission and safety regulations. The cessation of production in France in 1988 heralded the end of a year or two later rolled on 27 July 1990 in the Portuguese Mangualde the last 2CV from the factory.
© dpa The car as a flower pot
The car as a flower pot
Where it is still moving, since it is still an eye-catcher, the "umbrella on four wheels" - one of the most charming Kosennamen the French for the car. Every two years, for example, hundreds of fans of the cult car at a meeting Germany, most recently in July of last year in the Taunus. One organizer said it back then: ". The duck is not a car but an art of living"
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