The 1987 Citroën 2CV, registration number BJ-31-77, belongs to the family of Carlos Luís Freitas Pereira.
It was purchased about three years ago in Madeira.
It was teal in colour.
After being purchased, it underwent a complete renovation process carried out during the pandemic years, with the colour being altered to yellow and white.
The Citroën 2CV is a low-cost vehicle from the French factory Citroën.
It was produced between 1948 and 1990 and was one of the brand's most popular models, reaching the incredible milestone of 5,114,969 units produced, 3,868,634 of which were the saloon version and 1,246,335 the cargo version.
The abbreviation CV, which is part of the denomination of this model, comes from "cheval fiscal" or tax horsepower, a unit used to tax the vehicle. Despite being related, among other factors, to engine power, the abbreviation CV, in this case, does not express the actual power of the engine.
The creation of the 2CV is due to the French engineer Pierre Jules Boulanger, who started the TPV (French acronym of Toute Petite Voiture, in English, a very small car), and was president of Citroën until the end of 1934, when the family Michelin took control of the company.
The creators (who had worked on the creation of the Traction Avant or front-wheel drive), under the direction of André Lefèbvre and the Italian Flaminio Bertoni, responsible for the design of the bodywork, set to work on the TPV project (Toute Petite Voiture) to develop the ‘umbrella’ with 4 wheels, the ironic way the first 2CVs were named.
The work of engineer Alphonse Forceau is worth highlighting, the designer of the suspension that forms an essential part of the two-horse philosophy.
In 1939, 250 prototypes (at that time still water-cooled) of the TPV were made.
During the German occupation of France in World War II, it was decided to keep the project a secret. In addition, all the production since the beginning of the war was destined for the construction of Renault brand combat cars. Any attempt to continue production of prototypes would be impossible, and more so considering the danger in that the Germans would use the project for their own ends.
Some prototypes were hidden, but most were destroyed.
In 1994, three prototypes of the TPV of that era were rediscovered in a barn in France. By 2004, a total of five TPV prototypes had been found.
On 8 October 1948, at the Paris Motor Show, the TPV versions, as known today, were finally shown for the first time, with an air-cooled twin-cylinder 375 cc engine and 9 CV power. As yet, at its first public appearance, the car caused both admiration and laughter. It is said that an American journalist, upon seeing the Citroën 2CV for the first time, asked: "And where is the can opener?".
The last models of the 2CV were produced in Mangualde, Portugal, on July 27, 1990.
As a matter of fact, the model was used by the father of the Argentinian comic book character Mafalda, as a family car bought at high instalments.
The 2CV also had a prominent place in the famous Adventures of Tintin by Hergé in the book ‘The Calculus Affair’, when driven by detectives Dupond and Dupont. The most charismatic and cherished Citroën model of all time was also part of a special edition of Côte d'Or chocolates, which joined characters from the Adventures of Tintin with various Citroën models.
In the film ‘Madeline’, the nun Miss Clavel drives a Citroën 2CV and it is even with this car that she, at the climax of the film, confronts the villains on a bridge in a kind of chicken game between vehicles.
In the film series ‘The Pink Panther’, Inspector Clouseau (main character), played by Peter Sellers, owns a modified Citroën 2CV, nicknamed the ‘Silver Hornet’. The vehicle appears in the 1978 film ‘Revenge of the Pink Panther’.
Datasheet
Year: 1987
Brand: Citroën
Model: 2CV
Country: France
License plate: BJ-31-77
Engine: 375 cc
Gearbox: 4