TPV and 2CV prototypes - 1935 to 1948

The concept of the car which would be the ‘useful minimum’, better known as “four wheels under an umbrella” came to Pierre-Jules Boulanger, Citroën’s managing director, while stuck in traffic caused by a village fête in the Auvergne. He was surrounded by carts, horse-drawn carriages and handcarts, but not a single motorised vehicle. Having moved to Seattle in the USA the year the Ford Model T was launched, it is most likely he would have been aware of the success of Ford’s ‘people’s car’ and wondered if something similar could be a success in France as well.

To test his theory, he sent Jaques Duclos on a market research trip that was to last five months. The research survey revealed that cars were not favoured among potential rural customers for several reasons; those available were considered too much of a responsibility, too big and heavy for a woman to drive, and not practical for carrying milk to market or herding cattle. Potential customers were asked what kind of transport they used, how often they used it and what goods they carried. Over 10,000 people were questioned - a new concept in marketing. The results of the survey proved Boulanger’s theory.

In autumn the same year, instructions were issued to Maurice Brogly, head of the design office: “Design me a car to carry two people and fifty kilos of potatoes at 60km per hour (37 miles per hour), using no more than 3 litres of fuel per 100 km (about 94 miles per gallon).

“It must be capable of running on the worst roads, of being driven by a débutante, and must be totally comfortable. Its price must be less than a third of that of the 11CV Traction Avant.”

André Lefèbvre, the man who conceived the Traction Avant, led the project team. The bodywork was in the hands of Flaminio Bertoni and Jean Meurat, Marcel Chinon co-ordinated the bodywork and mechanical components, while Alphonse Forceau worked on the gearbox and the suspension system, all under Roger Prud’homme, Citroën’s head of experimental design.

Lefèbvre had designed and raced Grand Prix cars; his speciality was chassis design and he was particularly interested in maintaining contact between tyres and the road surface. His influence is likely to be one factor in the exceptional roadholding capabilities of the 2CV throughout its production run.

Designs were produced for a chassis-less, front wheel drive car weighing less than 300kg. The corrugated panels enabled thinner metal to be used without compromising rigidity.

The first prototype was produced. The wheels were magnesium and most of the prototype’s construction was in light alloy, because weight was a serious priority. Bodywork merely consisted of linen stretched over a frame, in common with many aeroplanes of the era. Eight torsion bars were used for the suspension and the engine was borrowed from a 500cc BMW motorcycle.

The vehicle was driven at 100km per hour, and when Lefèbvre drove it, after only 500 metres, he gave instructions to “take it to pieces and start again”.

Many full-scale mock-ups were produced and Boulanger took a close interest in each. When he sat in these, if his hat fell off, the design was rejected. He was a tall man who often wore a top hat - one reason why the 2CV remained one of the highest cars in the supermarket car park until relatively recently! The cars were subjected to over 50 individual tests, including such areas as: ease of servicing, ease of driving, the bodywork and suspension.

The first rolling prototype was produced in 1937 and was named Toute Petite Voiture (very small car). It had an aluminium body and chassis with four doors and a canvas roof, canvas hammock style seats, mica windows, magnesium alloy wheels, torsion bar springs for suspension, a flat twin 300cc BMW motorbike engine, a single headlamp and a cruising speed of 55kph (35mph). It was capable of 100kph but was difficult and unpredictable to drive at that speed.

By the end of 1937 20 TPV experimental prototypes had been built and tested at Citroën’s test track at Le Ferté-Vidame.

By the beginning of 1939 the TPV had been given a 375cc flat twin engine designed by Maurice Sainturat. The body was still mainly Duralinox (a light alloy) and although this seemed likely to cause supply and construction problems, Boulanger intended to launch the car at the 1939 Paris Salon de l’Automobile in October. He ordered 250 cars to be built at the factory at Clément-Bayard factory in Levallois-Perret, in readiness.

Some interesting specifications of the 1939 TPV include:

The suspension was very sophisticated for such a low-budget car. The suspension torsion bars (eight in all) were under the rear seat, so that ground clearance wasn’t affected. An ‘overload bar’ came into play when the car had the full load of four people and fifty kilograms of luggage.

As a result of the outbreak of war in September, Citroën decided to keep the TPV a secret. Boulanger gave orders for all prototypes and production TPVs to be destroyed. One was dismantled and hidden - to be reassembled by Citroën in the 1970s. Another survived as a pick-up and used as a runabout within the Michelin factory. It survives to this day.

In the 1990s a further three TPVs were discovered hidden in a building behind a brick wall at the La Ferté-Vidame test track, where they had been hidden from the Germans. A retiring employee asked what was to be done with them - it turned out he was the only person who knew they were there, although he’d assumed everyone else did as well!

Project TPV continued, but without any significant production of actual vehicles.

The design had to be reconsidered because the materials used in the pre-war TPV were now becoming expensive and were difficult to handle in the production process. It was calculated that the 1939 TPV was now 40% more expensive than was acceptable. Costs, rather than weight now became the priority.

Each component was examined, and as a result, sheet steel took the place of the alloys. Slowly, in great secrecy, a new prototype was worked on.

Walter Beccia, designer of the Talbot-Lago engines, joined the team in 1941 and produced a new air-cooled design for the TPV engine (the design took just six days). He also redesigned the gearbox to include a fourth gear. It is generally believed - but without concrete evidence - that it was described as an overdrive (surmultiplée) to overcome PJB’s objections (Citroën’s Traction Avant had only three gears). It wasn’t until the early 1970s that the dashboard graphic was changed to 1-2-3-4.

With the liberation of France, the project moved ahead, but still in great secrecy. The suspension was one of the problems, it was here that the now famous words came from Boulanger: “to be able to cross a field carrying a basket of eggs without breaking any”.

A starter motor was added along with a warm-air heater with ducting from the cylinder heads, two windscreen wipers and a grille with slats in a chevron pattern. Marker lights were mounted on top of the front wings and the famous and successful inertia dampers were installed.

Boulanger finally approved the car for production in February 1948 and the car was given a name, the Deux Chevaux or 2CV. Later that year, at the 35th Salon de l’Automobile, Boulanger unveiled the 2CV to the President of France and the public. It caused a sensation and guards had to be posted to protect the car.