Driving a Slow, Strange French Car In Modern American Traffic! 

The 2cv is actually the safest car of the world, due to its construction: Whenever there is a dangerous accident, the 2cv isn't there yet.

In 1985, I saw one in Germany with a bumper sticker that said, "This car will not be driven over 100 Km/Hr to save the environment."

To enjoy this car perfectly, you need narrow, winding country roads, even narrower cobblestone streets in small towns and a deeply relaxed work-life balance with six weeks of paid vacation and a maximum of 37 working hours per week. And what you definitely don't need is an environment where pickup trucks are the best-selling cars. So in Europe the "duck" ( how we call it in Germany ) makes sense, in the USA it is only something for connoisseurs with a pinch of death wish

Thank you for this video ! "2CV" does not mean "two steam horses", it means "two fiscal horses", which was a calculated power upon which taxes were based in France.

Take it off road, you WILL be impressed! :-). I drive one daily since 1997 and just love it.

We race them in Belgium ! we have the 24H 2CV in Spa-Francorchamp

In Germany when I went to visit my grandparents you could find these things running around and I always thought it was cool. It was affectionately called the “Duck”, so at that time from the 50’s through the 90’s you had Ducks and Bugs running around Europe.

En france, on la surnommait "la deudeuche". Il y avait un jeu amusant dans les années 80 : quand on voyait une 2cv verte, on disait " deudeuche verte !!!" et on pinçait son camarade ! J'ignore l'origine de ce jeu mais il fallait que ce soit une 2cv verte ! Une règle permettait de ne pas se faire pincer en retour si on précisait "deudeuche verte sans retour"...on devait alors attendre qu'une autre 2cv verte arrive. J'ai eu la chance de monter dedans quand j'étais jeune ado....le bruit et surtout les suspensions, vous donne l'impression d'être dans un bateau...C'est une voiture fun ou pas, belle ou moche, sécurisante ou pas, on l'apprécie pour diverses raisons... C'est une icône de la culture française comme la baguette. Si vous avez la chance d'en essayer une ou de monter dedans, n'hésitez pas, souvenirs garantis !

The 2CV in 1982, in europe, wasn't only a car, it was and it still is an "art de vivre". This is why this car never change !

I love cars like this. It's proof to me that you don't need tons of horsepower to have fun driving. These kinds of cars always make me smile when I see one.

A friend had one years ago and got pulled over as he was overspeeding downhill (there was a 50kmph limit there ;-) ). When he told the cops that he had to take some momentum before the hill, they laughed and said "that's right, you wouldn't make it" and cancelled the fine :-)

Best type of race, forget 500+ hp evenly matched shootouts. One at full throttle, ultra concentration. The other remains completely unaware even when the race is "over". No one gets a speeding ticket. And its still a toss-up who wins.

My mother had a succession of those, as that suspension is the only thing that could handle the roads of Central Africa, and not break.Yes low and underpowered, but perfect if you wanted to travel around, and that did drive all around, including a few 2600 miles trips, one way, to the coast as well. On roads that only later on even saw tar, and in general which were, at best, unpaved dirt, that possibly had seen a grader in the last decade.

That thing's a beast! Seven more horsepower than my zero turn mower and slightly faster, too.

In Denmark the 2CV had nicknames as 'Studenter Jaguar' (students Jaguar), 'Presset Citron' (Squeezed Lemon), 'Gyngehest' (Rocking Horse). It was slow compared to contemperanous cars in the 80'.

I still love how 6 men, 2 women and 1 child were fitted in the 2CV for Les Gendarmes En Balade all the while going as fast as it could

It is a very safe car, the crumple zone is as long as the car itself.

You saw it here first, the 2cv is faster than the Audi A8

The ratio of pleasure to hp is the best in this car. It's very fun to drive this very slow car the fastest possible on a winding small single lane mountain road. Here in France, in my small town in the Alps, I see at least one of them every day.

Our neighbor recently got one of these and her husband restored it. The engine makes a very distinctive sound especially when starting it; when she leaves in it in the morning, I'm hearing my childhood.

You guys should get a Renault Twingo 1

Es war für viele Menschen der bezahlbare Einstieg in die Mobilität. Und emotional hat es auch viele Menschen berührt, bis heute. Greetings 🇩🇪

No! Not though unplowed field, but thru a PLOWED field which is basically just rows of high mounts of soil one next to another. That's tough.

My parents had one in the late 60's early 70's. It was a easy, funny car, jumping, rolling like a boat, easy to repair. When the battery was low in energy, one can start the engine manually by turning a crank in front of the car... It could go on every ground, in country paths, where other cars touch the stones under. My brothers and I loved to travel in it.

Un voiture de légende !

To be fair, you're testing it on major roads. Put it in downtown traffic or some rural small town (dirt) roads and it'd fare better.

I had 15 years altogether (1989-'92 & 1998-2011) of driving two examples of 2CVs all across Europe from the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway to the Ebro Delta in Spain, from thousands of Kilometers across Swiss mountain passes to Istanbul,..living with it in germany, spain and switzerland, as my only motorized transportation for most of the time, even commuting with it, adding around 290KKm over the years to their mileages. I did enjoy urban and rural roads the most, but motorway long-distance travel, too. On european highways you can go at truck speeds of about 55MPH and enjoy a stress free travel experience - staying in the right lane for hours without having to brake or accelerate, because of overtaking maneuvers. The one thousand kilometres "Zürich to Bremen" trip took me around 12 to 14 hours including relaxed brakes. Doing the same trip, once with the Audi TT of a friend, borrowed to me just for this occasion, wanting to collect something "quickly", it took me only 8 and a half hours but I was knackered until noon of the next day, instead of starting the next day relaxed and well-rested. Both 2CVs were 29PS engines, weighing exactly 1500lbs including me as a 60Kg driver, doing more than 40MpG(US) = around 5 to 6 litres per 100Km on journeys over rural roads and motorways, only short distance cold engine city driving could get it to around 7litres. By the way: "auto motor und sport" magazine clocked it at 39second to 62MpH, on close to sea level, near Stuttgart, supposedly. In 1990 my sister, mother and me owned a red 2CV each - only my father owned, what he called a real car, a W124 series Mercedes. I overtook many tourists in the swiss alps, sometimes even going up hill. Paddy Hopkirk, training for the Monte-Carlo Rallye on the foothills of the alps close to the mediterranean sea, couldn't catch up in his Mini, with a car he thought, was of a rival competitor training, too. He could only get glimpses of back lights in the distance. Arriving at a stop light in the next small town he catched up with a nun in a 2CV. On country roads in europe it still is a vehicle quite lively. In France they changed the general speed limit on country roads from 62MpH(100Km/h) to 50MpH(80Km/H) in 2018, I think. The 29Ps Version has a Max Speed of 70Mph=113Km/h measured and of the speedo showing around 120Km/h at sea level on flat terrain. 90 to 95Km/h on the speedo is, what I would recommend doing as continous speed. I do not regret having parted with the last 2CV, since I enjoy traveling in lovingly self converted VW T3 and T4s (by an architect) ever since and just as much, but I personnaly would not feel any urge to make fun of 2CVs either, since I exclusively remember having a lot of fun. Two very highly regarded german motoring journalists of the second half of the 20th century, Fritz B. Busch (who had his own huge car museum in a castle) and Klaus Westrup were declared Fans of the 2CV, drove them daily and on vacation. When I picked up my daughter's mother for a sunday drive in Zürich, a little outing to the mountains, our first date, she later stated, my 2CV was the only car, she could think of, to have charmed her.

The 2CV is more than a car. As French say it's an 'Art de vivre!' a way of life different from the usual one which was invented by the Nazis in the 30s when they conceived the VW beetle to put on the autobahns they were building all over Germany. The VW beetle was not just a cat. It was an entire economy : highways, garages, all sorts of business to sell gaz, tired, sandwiches, you name it. It became the American way of life as well. Citroën had another idea. He wanted a car fitted for the existing facilities of rural France in the 30. Able to go cross country, to ride on unpaved roads, easy to take apart and self-repaired by a farmer with usual tools, burning a very reasonable quantity of gaz so that you can buy it in a can at the village's grocery's store. A way of life that will triumph in the near future since we reached pick oil and maintaining large infrastructures will become harder and harder. By the way the 2CV is an excellent candidate for EV conversion because of that. The car does not need a power station to provide assisted steering, air conditioning and other luxuries. The French were right in the long term.

You guys need to cruise at the wheel of the DS!

Very cool classic. Just want to say Hello from Miami’ Classic car scene. There is one of these driving around here but haven’t been able to interview him yet. Great work💪💪

I'd take it over any modern Jeep product. 🤷‍♂️

I bought my wife her 2CV a few years ago, it is an awsome little car, in Belgium there are still a lot of oldtimer rallies and we have the best 'bad' roads for this car, right in between the fields. I myself drive an '69 opel gt 1900 but the little 2cv puts far more smiles on peoples faces

I can’t imagine these videos (or perhaps the entire channel) are particularly profitable, but I’m sure glad you make them! And Tommy and Kase have become quite the team! Keep it coming!

Thank you Tommy for making the effort of pronouncing Citroën properly :)

I own the High End Version of this A-Type chassis, the Dyane. I still find it the best and most relaxing car for the sunday afternoon. In 2018 I drove it from The nord of Europe to Spain in just 2 days. Roof down. 100 km/h on the highway and thru rural France. Downhill in the Pyrenees I did 140 km/h (GPS) in 4th gear at maximum revs.

My new weight unit of measurement is “ an American on a HarDley “

These cars were still pretty common where I live back when I was a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s,then by the mid 2000s most of them (alongside Renaults 4, classic VW Beetles, Fiats 500, Mini Coopers and other old European cars) disappeared from traffic,getting replaced by newer cars. I saw one in mint condition parked on the street a couple of months ago,for the first time in I don't know how long,made me feel really nostalgic.

Man guys living dangerously with these old vehicles. Love it thank you

I had two, my first was a Charleston (same colours, which is rare) and a later Dolly with a "performance" upgrade to the engine. Lovely to drive everywhere and rewarding to go flat out on a country lane if you're brave! I once got stuck behind a Ferrari that left me on every straight but slowed me down when it got twisty.

Wonder how happy of a society we’d be if we all had a fun little car like this. Road rage.. just reach out an shake the other car..😂

peoples put motorcycles engines in it, the gearbox can take 140hp BMW GS1200 and you keep the classic gearbox whine

It makes me think of the James Bond film for your eyes only with the Citroen chase!

Boulanger mostly wanted to protect the DS project from the nazis. Your 2CV is wierd, the wiring, the gear shifter and all. The first versions had suicide doors in front and had a hole to start the engine with a crank on the front. The car was produced from 1939 to 1990 but you can still see one or two rarely in Paris. Also, there is a scene in "Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez" where they drive a 2CV very fast and brutally but don't get an accident. By the way, the French comedian Bourvil once told that he had musicians friends, and what they did is each time they saw a 2CV on the road, they passed it and went slowly but fast enough so it cannot pass them; usually, there was a family inside and the dad, driving was mad at them, so one of the guys went to the back windshield, put his pants down and the dad in the 2CV could only watch the show, kind of mean.

This has got a German registration from Fürth/Bavaria, the town that Kissinger was fond of at soccer.

You didn't close the top or the windows!! Thats gonna impact the arrow dynamics and the performance!!

With the front wheel drive and the original suspensions system, la deux chevaux was the most avanced economy car of his time. The handling on snow and wet roads is amazing, even by actuals standards.

My best friend has one of theses. His dad got it for him in High school there are entire racing leagues of them in Europe, when I lived there in the 1987-89. The Duc was a fun car, especially the fold down windows.

oui...l'époque où on étaient pas pressés d'arriver...un chef d'oeuvre, avec la 4L...

In 90's there was many competitions in France of "2cv cross", with prepared 2cv racing on offroad tracks. That was SO FUN to see these events.

Actor Richard Dreyfus (sp) in the classic movie "American Grafitti". He was shown driving one of these early on in the movie.

A few weeks ago i saw a video about people in Fracnce doing Ice-racing with these, one of the blokes installed a supercharger on it. That one was so cute. It reminded me of one of those crank powered pencil sharpeners.

That car is cool - glad it’s still in the TFL fleet

My father had one when I was a child. And being a family of 5 children, it was able to carry the entire family.

I love how you can give a detailed tutorial AND have small talk between the 2-3 shift and 3-4 shift while doing a max acceleration run.

I love the direction you guys are taking your channels. 👏🏼 I’ll be waiting for the next video. 👍🏼

Well documented and a good fun to watch 😊

I politely disagree with Case in regards to "better engineered" -- the 2CV is _exquisitely_ engineered... just not for most of the things a modern American would care about. It was designed for reliability, and By the way, from what I've heard, if you throw a rear sway bar on the suspension, you'll kill most of that body roll. It was left off, originally, because it was too heavy, is what I've been told.

For the heater , it works with the "red and blue" shifter. moving a panel to make air flow around cylinders to get hot air, or close the panel NOT to get hot air, thow you consider it as fresh .

I remember being on the German Autobahn, driving my (3 yo) '84 Chevy Cavalier 2.0L and seen these quirky little cars also on the autobahn, albeit in the slow lane....where we stayed most of the time. I liked seeing them because I knew someone slower than me was out there.

It has a party trick , drive backwards about 10 or 15 mph and zig zag kinda hard , you should be able to let go of the wheel and it will continue the zig zag on its own ..

"Every expense spared", sounds like Stellantis.

You two are killing it with the goofy, but enjoyable and entertaining, vids of late. Keep it up, lads!

I love these videos! You guys are a great team! You had me loling.

My hometown in Hamburg had a car race in the central park since (approx) the 1920s. They revived it in the 2000s as a vintage car race. EVERY YEAR there was a local Citroen-dealership who entered one of these, driven by their four mechanics (so...every seat filled). That thing had some impressive bodyroll^^ The "if you can flip one over" is a rumor though, they didn't actually have that claim or a competition.

it was a car for the post war period, where everybody was skint and resources where minimal. 2CV is a "Peoples Car" James May did a show on various Peoples Cars. They are legendary and now getting very rare. so look after it and enjoy it for what it is xx

Love these 2CV vids. I pretty much smile the whole time!

I love Kase's reactions to the 2CV's handling. He definitely has a "Get me out of this thing" vibe whenever he's in it in all the 2CV videos. He is definitely not a fan of that car, but it is so hysterical, and he clearly still rides in it whenever he's asked. Keep it up guys. lol.

We drove with this in summer 400 km to the Bodensee in Germany. It was the time of Right said Fred, Kate Bush, Prince... The weather was perfect, the music loud, the top was open and we had all the time. This is really a great memory for me. In Germany we called this car "Ente" (duck). VW made the Käfer (beetle)

It's not about being fast, it is about enjoying the journey ^^

A friend of mine had a 2CV in its commercial van version. He converted into a home-made RV, and took it to America. He cruised through the US and Canada for several months it it... and drew quite a bit of attention! 😉

This car has a very good handling, if you are a good driver it 's safe.

Bonjour, you are saying "citroen" very well :)

There is a great video here on RU-vid of a "Citroën 2CV Semi-trailer" No affiliation, just a cool concept this guy built - you might like it too^^ ".. a Citroën 2 CV transformed into a pick-up and associated with a custom-made trailer..."

Of course if it’s freezing outside dont expect to be much warmer inside !😂

If you race it to violent then the rivets of the clutch disk can break. Don't ask me how i know but i have replace a few when i was younger.

wait a minute…. The sound of the engine is GREAT!!! Ok, I am French Bruni

When I was a child in the late 80s and early 90s you could still see them drive around here and there. Now they've become very rare though.

Still the most cute & entertaining car ever made. The things you can do with it... The fact that there are so few parts that break & that everyone can fix it in their garage with a few YT videos as guide... Frugal faithful mule, absolutely worth the price they sell.

In 1967 my family and me spent 10 weeks camping all over Europe. I remember the seats in the 2cv were metal tubes and canvas, they looked like cheap lawn chairs. Cool cars!

You should test the Citroen Mehari 4x4

I'm born in 1982 and my parents had this car. It's nice to see you boys having a blast with it. It was a really good car, even in the 80's in europe. Our roads are quite differents. Like you said, it was a post-war car for every family to have, so it needed to be cheap and the car reeks of cheap. Though, it suspension makes it way safer than what you induced. It was a lot safer than a lot of european cars at the time (we're speaking at the time where car crash tests weren't a thing yet)

You don't win the speed race, but you will certainly will win the ultimate race, longevity. And style, and fun, and character and so on.

This is a cool car. I remember seeing These all over Paris. The famous Citroën Deux Chevaux

Watching from Scotland. That was fun.

It's not a performance car, it's performance ART! 😂

If you haven't already you should try a Renault 4L, another iconic french car from the 1960s, which was produced until 1995!

This was my very first car when I turned 18 yo. Mine was build in 1965, the year I was born. At that time I was living in the French Alps. Each time I was taking a girl to my place, I had to ask her to climb down and push the 2 cv or Dedeuche as we called it, to help to reach my house as the hill was too steep for it! Mind you, only 19 hp! No wonder, they ended ditching me (the birds, not the Dedeuche) ^^ Sold it for €90. Now, it’s worth 10/15 k€!

Just a mistake, 2CV is not for 2 steam horses, but for taxes, cars in France are taxed : registration document and years ago the "vignette", wich was a yearly tax to be paid, and in order to determine the tax amount, cars are classed with "chevaux fiscaux", first 2CV was "2 chevaux fiscaux", last ones 3 "chevaux fiscaux", and so on, i have an old french Renault Mégane, 110 HP but 7 "chevaux fiscaux", and a Peugeot 206 "coupé-cabriolet", 136 HP for 9 "chevaux fiscaux". Excuse my english if there are mistakes, i'm french :)

I do regret not buying one of these when I lived for 10 years in Europe. This would be perfect here in Hawai'i. We DO have a lot of kei-trucks on the roads, though...

This car was never meant to run 60MPH. It was meant to run on regular French roads that had a 56mph limit (now 50 in most places). and it was meant for rural France and you don't have much straight line roads in rural France anyway. It is not meant for long road trips on the highway. Because for long trips we got trains that run 200mph that will link any major cities in the country in less than 3h. And on top of that those cars were dirt cheap, extremly easy to fix yourself for pennies, and people kept them for decades. A 2CV was the car you bought in the 50s that you gave to your kids in the 70s wo gave it to their kids in the 90s. Only now, nostalgia had put a huge inflation on this. But you could buy those for less than the equivalent of $300 in the late 90s. You could get a broken one for free and fix it yourself with parts that were dirt cheap if needed. That's the kind of car a young person could get with a one week summer job salary.

I have a 2007 Toyota Yaris that we drag around behind our motorhome when traveling, it is also a car where you drive with your foot on the floor in everyday driving. The difference is that it has 106HP with a 5 speed manual transmission and weights 2,300 pounds

As a frog, I can tell you that this very car is a legend in France

Love the citroen 2cv!! very fun car ❤

Maxim : The French don't imitate anyone. Corollary: Nobody imitates the French.

Tommy and Case are the modern day Hope and Crosby. This and the Fiat RU-vid videos are great. Hilarious!

There are 2 1983 Corvettes. One is in the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The other one is my daughter. She lives in the state of OR with her husband. She was born in 1983. She never changed her name, although she hated it as a child. Then she got out into the adult world and found out how cool her name was. Suddenly she figured out the old man wasn't so stupid naming her Corvette.

I rate my red 2CV as the car my children loved most of all. I still miss it 34 years later

I actually began driving in a minimal car from japan, which had a lot in common with the 2cv. It had only slightly thicker doors, which I actually miss till today in very narrow european parkings because you didn't need the first 20cm of sidespace only for the thickness of the door itself. Plus it was designed along practical needs. As much space inside as possible by the outside as compact as possible. Mine Was a 2003 Daihatsu Cuore. Not by manufacturer a relative to a 2cv, but a well thought out modern interpretation of the idea. Except, it wasn't off road capable at all. Which didn't matter to me. We need such cars back, which where built according to the needs of the users.

je suis Français, My grandmother had one, the same limited edition (the Charleston) but red and black. I was sad when she sold it for a modern one. Good vidéo !

This and the Citroen Traction Avant are so interesting to me. I just wish they became successful in the US so I could find one easily.