Viking,
no problem, don't forget where you need to go if you seek a really flexible chassis...
< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjKI9R4cjtc >

ken.

Ya ya ya. It is never popular to challenge the establishment. It is just like religion, don’t ask anything just follow what God says. The world is not black or white OK

Cheers Viking bastard

within the tinternet world everyone is entitled to their own view, which make places like this great....

I agree chassis, kingpins etc are always going to be tough subjects - a bit marmite, you either love it or hate it.....

As for Barbour 4x4 which I do share an interest in, (along with Louis and Rupert). I feel that some people might want to buy a 2wd replacement chassis, which is built along the lines of the famous Barbour 4x4 one.

We too have joined "Status" and are going to get it properly tested. Once tested by Status we are going to run it on some standard cars before even producing one to sell. It has already taken us years to develop and we wont offer it for sale until we are 100% happy, which could run into another year.

As I said before these are all emotive subjects for us and we are all different and have a choice.

Rich

Ayel thats me ^
true the chassis will have a fine pedigree coming from the Barbour stables

I have a great deal of repect for Loui's work and hes always been tempting m , I was sorley tempted when Mick offered me the pickup, but it would have just be a weekend toy .........with no one to play with up here

Studioru,
Is that you offering me a chasis cool ive got a shell to pick up this week and need something to do with it

And in general

AAARRRRGGGGG
Sean

If I was going serious off-roading, think I'd need more than a different chassis design to make the car last/go well. Would probably end up with something radically different to a normal 2CV, mechanically.

I think it's great there are people who want to make a 2CV go at 100mph, over 3' high tree stumps, up 45 degree muddy slopes, run tyres as wide as a Porsche, etc etc - there's nothing like enthusiasm. And good business.

But, the car's in its element doing what it was designed to do, providing amazing day to day transport. As UK average speeds come lower all the time and speed limits are enforced ever more rigidly, what could be more perfect? As temperatures rise what's better than a car intended to stay cool in the South of France. As winters get less predictable, the ability to slice through standing water and remain surefooted in the odd snowy spell is brilliant. As electronics force otherwise practical people to have their cars serviced/repaired at £100/hour, a pair of plugs and a set of points is less than £30 even if you don't do it yourself. As life gets ever more stressful, to have the flat twin singing under the bonnet, consuming less fuel than many contemporary economy cars on short trips (ie most). Suspension which swallows speed humps whole, wheels which can be knocked out when the worst potholes dent them, wings replaced in 10 minutes, roadholding to knock spots off many modern cars, comfort second bar none, the ability to squeeze through council-width bollards if necessary, seeing people smile as you whizz past, smiling yourself every time you turn the key...

We all have in our possesion an icon of post-WW2 France, an icon of motoring, the perfect solution to modern conditions, a car which was so right that Citroën barely altered the car in over 40 years of production... Levallois could always have behaved like Ford and appealed to the lowest common denominator and made as options sports exhausts, alloy wheels, Recaro seats, rev counters, twin carb engines, but didn't. There was no need.

I have been involved in racing them, off-roading them, modifying them, perhaps it is only when you have gone round the houses you realise how utterly perfect and sublime the car is - as it is, if a genuinely good one. A set of Michelin M+S tyres which allows seriously rapid transport in the snow (Discoveries vanishing in the trailing powder storm) is the best investment, if you really like to show off how capable a 2CV is.

S'pose in today's world gizmos and new things are essential to maintain the MTV attention span, you've only got to see what Jaguar thinks are the most important sales features of the XF - mainly a computer control knob which rises from the dash! Somehow think there will be more XK120s and 140s in about 15-20 years time...

Given a car which has a good motor, a sweet and free 'box, Michelin wheels and tyres, correct suspension geometries, everything just so, my idea of mods go as far as having intermittent wipers and a heated rear window(!), about the only things missing which are truly useful in today's environment. Subtlety can be a virtue.

Oolong, I couldn't of put it better myself. Now where's the keys to the Fabia?.........Only joking, the Skoda is staying on the drive and I'm taking the 2cv to NW Scotland and the Isle of Harris & Lewis on Tuesday

I think the biggest change over the next 10-20yrs, will be that surviving cars would be valued higher, if they have an original chassis, or a replacement chassis, that is identical to the Citroen original. If an Austin 7 had a 21st Century galvanised chassis under it, I doubt a buyer would have the same 'feeling' for it. I know that the galvanised chassis under my car, barely resembles the Citroen original.

Slightly off topic, back in the 60s and 70s, in Holland, the Traction Avant was cheap and in plentiful supply and were mostly painted in garish colours and other 'horrors' , but now, the remaining cars a mostly restored to a very high 'as close to factory' condition and by the ones who created the 'horrors' in the 70s. This will happen to the 2cv, as sure as eggs are eggs

When I first got into the 2cv a little over ten years ago, I wanted a racing steering wheel, alloys and other suchlike accessories, but now, I liking originality. I will say though, I don't turn my nose up at non-originality.

Hope nobody feels offended by this post, it's just a truth and may generate a dialogue(which is good for the forum ) Just don't be nasty, as the name of the forum states...2cvfriends

Indeed, I don't see any point in 'originality' being the favoured direction for our cars, when we have fields of 2cvs that are all the same and all shiney, then 2cving will be dead.

Remember the old sticker, (in French) "Two identical 2cvs don't exist"

Long may that continue.

*Spoken in a friendly tone*

Russ, I completely agree with you and perhaps the majority of I2F members, but as the 2cv becomes more scarce and so more sort after, it will happen.

Heaven forbid the 2cv scene turning into a Morris Minor Owners Club event, it was a major reason for my defection from that camp to the 2cv scene(as well as the constant expenditure and constant mechanical failings ) In almost 107,000miles in my current 2cv, it's only let me down seven or eight times(most of those was due to a knackered battery)and it's now done 177,000miles on original, untouched engine(try and get an A-series from a Minor or Mini to do that).

2cv camps/meetings are unbeatable in the car world, long may it continue