Citroën 2CV6 Special

Key facts

Year

1986
Country

France
Capacity

602cc
Cylinders

Horizontally-Opposed
Valves

Overhead
Output

29hp @ 5,750rpm
Performance

0-60mph 24.6 seconds
Price new

£2,774
Owner

National Motor Museum Trust
Manufacturer

Citroën SA

The international motoring press ridiculed the Citroën 2CV when it first appeared at the 1948 Paris Salon. The French public disagreed and orders for the ingenious, mechanically simple and, above all, cheap utility car flooded in. The 2CV remained fundamentally unchanged for four decades. Over 3.8 million had been built by the time production ended in 1990. There were also 3 million 2CV based derivatives such as vans, the Bijou and the Dyane.

In the 1930s Citroën’s managing director Maurice Boulanger instigated a design for a ‘toute petite voiture’ (very small car) that could carry two people, 50kg of potatoes and a box of eggs at 60kph over the worst roads in France. Prototypes were produced before the Second World War. Innovative features of the 2CV included inboard mounted front brakes, interconnected mechanical self-levelling suspension and easily detachable body panels.