2CV Sahara

[Northsky]

This little belter had two engines, one front and one back, four wheel drive doodle to fix could strip and rebuild the entire thing in a couple of days and heaps of fun to boot

[Greg]

This little belter had two engines, one front and one back, four wheel drive doodle to fix could strip and rebuild the entire thing in a couple of days and heaps of fun to boot

Is that the 'James Bond' car from 'For your eyes only'?

[Butchd]

2CV yes, Sahara no. They were a bit rare and very sought after now. That isn't to say that people aren't making their own twin engined 2CV's for off road. Mind you Citroen weren't the only people at it since I recall a twin engined mini, though it must have been rubbish off road since it lacked the 2CV's independant suspension.

[Northsky]

The Bond one was a conventional 2CV mind you it still makes good transport,

[sam_acw]

The Bond one was in theory conventional. When you watch closely you can see all the sump guard, roll cage et al. Amazing the things you can learn when you Dad used to sell the tin snail!

[Northsky]

The Bond one was in theory conventional. When you watch closely you can see all the sump guard, roll cage et al. Amazing the things you can learn when you Dad used to sell the tin snail!

Off road 2CVs I've come across have these along with other mods

[sam_acw]

Thinking about it I've seen Mini Mokes with 4wd as they have 2 engines! There is at least one at the Motor Heritage museum at Gaydon

[sargey]

2CV sahara

i always wanted a mehari, the 2cv chassis plastic pick up. you often see them in tropical french colonys.



cheers, and.

[Butchd]

Meharis are nice though the 4x4 versions aren't as great as they should be, though I forget exactly what the problem is, I seem to remember that it's weakness in the transmission somewhere.

[twisted firestarter]

The Mehari looks nice but imo not as useful as a converted 2CV

[Butchd]

Ah well if you are talking about Louis Barbour, then that is something else altogether! :d

[Spikey DaPikey]

Those CV2's look great


Now, where's the OG paint.....

[Northsky]

Now thats what i'm talking about

[cyclist]

The Mehari looks nice but imo not as useful as a converted 2CV

don´t see a reason why one couldn´t convert a Mahari ...

Long time ago I´ve owned a 2CV 16hp multiple use vehicle - in fact I´ve transported all sorts of things (rolled the "roof" back and a huge christmas tree was no prob.) in it, it was perfect as a camp mobile (easy to take those fantastic camping furniture ....). It had a 6 volt electric system , the heating system we modified to an air intake from the cabin. We devided the cabin with some insulation material into a 2 seater.
Citroen had the 2CV delivery van - a couple of Dutch enthusiasts converted that into a mobile home.
And yes, we were dreaming of that twin engined SAHARA and of using VW engines (at that time a 2 liter 70hp was on the market) & gearboxes. A BMW flat twin (or even a Honda Gold Wing engine) also should fit with some minor modifications. Imagine 2 of those drivetrains: enough power to get the Duck flying

Should be no problem to convert a standard 2CV or a Mehari ....

The SAHARA didn´t have independent suspension?

[Butchd]

Sahara did have independent suspension as far as I'm aware, can't imagine why it wouldn't have. Actually the main reason for not converting a mehari is that the plastic is starting to get a bit fragile now and I don't think you'd want to risk crunching one off road. Not unless you've got access to the South of France of course!

[havingagiraffe]

The SAHARA didn´t have independent suspension?

Mind you Citroen weren't the only people at it since I recall a twin engined mini, though it must have been rubbish off road since it lacked the 2CV's independant suspension.

Both the 2CV and the Mini have independent suspension. MKI / III / IV / V Minis use Moulton rubber springs while MK II Minis use a Hydrolastic fluid system. Both systems give excellent on road handling but limited travel for keeping all four wheels in contact with the ground in an off road situation. The lack of suspension travel's irrelevant in an off road Mini...the car's low stance means that the sump, exhaust, or floorpan will probably ground out before the lack of articulation becomes an issue.

By contrast, the 2CV has lots of suspension travel and sits high off the ground so it is fantastic off road, but you can scrape the door handles if you take a roundabout at more than walking pace on road...

[Butchd]

<grins> Well pointed out. I did actually mean both lack of ground clearance and lack of suspension travel but the brain obviously wasn't engaged. I seem to recall a mini I had with wide wheels and group 5 arches. Couldn't have been an inch of travel between tyre and mudguard but the bugger never rubbed once.

[cyclist]

the 2CV has lots of suspension travel and sits high off the ground so it is fantastic off road, but you can scrape the door handles if you take a roundabout at more than walking pace on road...

true - the nice thing about that: you´re still driving . I´ve never managed to flipp a 2CV and you bet we drove enthusiastic ....
2CVs had no electronic stuff as ASP on modern cars - remember the A-class Merc. in Sweden

BTW, there have been lots of other twin engined vehicles, most of them prototypes. Some were made decades ago by Tempo (near Hamburg) for the Swedish military.
Jan de Rooy drove DAF Turbotwin trucks pretty fast from Paris to Dakar

[havingagiraffe]

<grins> Well pointed out. I did actually mean both lack of ground clearance and lack of suspension travel but the brain obviously wasn't engaged. I seem to recall a mini I had with wide wheels and group 5 arches. Couldn't have been an inch of travel between tyre and mudguard but the bugger never rubbed once.

I know exactly what you mean. Twin axle tow dolly on the back of mine and the suspension still didn't move...

Minis rock...

[Spikey DaPikey]

Found this on ebay..............

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Citroen-MEHARI...QQcmdZViewItem

[jojo]

Now that brings back memories. My first car was a 2CV. The little grey two seater van, I think small engine something like 400cc, 3gears if I remember correctly. Top speed, down hill with the wind at the back 40MPH! Those were the days
I kept that car a few years, I remember ripping the back, right end corner of it on some wall, and to repair, a 2X4 lump of wood nailed in!! it worked wonders. I eventually passed it on to a friend, who drove like a maniac and one day he lost the driver's door driving down hill. Never stopped to retrieve the things and replaced it with a short length of chain!!

[cyclist]

jojo, exactly that´s the way it was. My CV reached top speed in 4th gear, down hill with backwind and some extra tuning: the Police following.
I remember one winter: it was much faster than a mate´s highpowered ralley Simca which couldn´t bring all it´s power to the road

The french electrics was just an extreme nightmare: 6V made the red control light shining when using high beam plus windsreen wipers (frequently using sandpaper on some parts of the generator helped), the wiring all green .....
Who said Lucas was the inventor of darknes - must have had no experience with Citroen

[jojo]

Picture of the twin engine 2cv (4cv???) apparently that one managed to go up the biggest sand dune in France la Dune du Pilat., It's a big sand dune, I have walked up it yaers ago, quite a feat to drive up there!
Funny, I can't remember any problems at all with electrics, must have been a 6v.. but you could fix the thing, couldn't you? sticky tape, baling wire, 2x4 for the bodywork. The floor panels were rotten, could see the road going past underneath.. freezing in winter!!! the good old days, miss them

[Butchd]

Can't say I've ever had any problems with my 6v citroens, and indeed they are more reliable than the 12v Slough citroens which indeed were lucas.

[cyclist]

sure I fixed the electric problems. In fact I´ve learned a lot by having to work on that "system" - at that time sometimes I thought: " Hell, the french do have nuclear power plants ..."

My 2CV was paid by itself: paid 800,-hfl for it, one year later someone crossed my way (as a result 2CV was shortened about half a meter - his Audi was banana styled) and insurance payed 1000hfl cause it was all his fault plus the 2CV was old. All I had to do was mounting a new lamp, fabricated a new radiator grille from wire mesh and hammered some of the metal foil (on other vehicles you have sheet metal ).
Drove it another year and until there was this ratteling noise, than came a lot of blue smoke with performance rapidly going down. After inspektion we saw that one piston was broken in two pieces.
The body of the vehicle was in perfect shape (no rust - I wonder why) and was transplanted to a newer chassis (at the engine inspection we discovered a cracked chassis - must have been from the crash) with a 32hp engine.
Heck...
.... that was an experience: 100% power increase

yes, the 2CV in that picture is twin engined