La Révolution, Part Deux

The Automotive Equivalent Of Eating Bread, Not Cake 

- Srinivas Krishnan

What I am driving is the epitome of liberté-égalité-fraternité. It’s a car that liberated people from the tyranny caused by the lack of money, space, fastidiousness and mechanical inclination. Its appeal cut across barriers of wealth, sex, age, class, fame, taste, social standing and political leanings. And finally, it brought people together – to discuss how to clean bird poop from the fabric roll-up top, among other weightier things.

The Citroen 2CV, also called the Deux Chevaux (pronounce “the shuh-voh” while pouting like a teenager taking a selfie), is a revolution on wheels. Yes, the wheels indeed revolve, but that’s not what I meant. It brims with innovations to serve its purpose – to substitute the farmer’s horse cart. But the car was essentially meant for those who needed personal transport but couldn’t afford a regular car. Preference in the initial days was in fact given to doctors, veterinarians, midwives, parish priests and farmers.

The reason the car was so successful is that Citroen never deviated from the purity of this purpose, even if the end product looked like the love-child of an escargot and a tin can. The 2CV’s cartoony looks created by its genius designer Flaminio Bertoni were deceiving; even today, there is no better automotive example of form following function than this French icon.