The Citroen 2CV is, by now, a meme car, but its hope of being something serious isn’t trapped back in 1981 thanks to BMW.
Well, only sort of. The Bavarian brand is the manufacturer behind the 1,170cc twin-cylinder boxer engine used in its own R12 cruiser, which in this case has been transplanted into the engine bay of a 2CV.
The transplantation was done by an evidently tasteful British guy who was featured in a recent YouTube video from Practical Performance Car.
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In R12 form, the boxer produces 95bhp, which doesn’t sound like much for a car. But the 2CV in the video originally produced 29bhp, meaning an increase of more than 300 per cent in terms of peak power.
And that’s assuming the engine is standard, which it isn’t. A Power Commander has been added, and the peak power has been increased from the standard 95bhp to, presumably, somewhere above the 100bhp mark, although the exact figure isn’t specified.
Unfortunately, the new engine comes with a new side-exit exhaust, which is so low to the ground that the 2CV’s traditional target market of French farmers probably won’t be able to make much use of this particular specification.
It does sound great, though, as you might expect. BMW’s boxers have never been the most spectacular sounding things but to say they sound ‘bad’ would also be far from the truth, especially when compared to the wheezy whine of the standard motor.
And if the 1,170cc boxer just isn’t enough for you, there’s a hillclimb car that could satisfy your own 2CV fetish, as someone was mad enough to swap in a BMW R1200 GS motor to their 2CV, and then whack a supercharger on that for a ridiculous 154bhp. Still the stock steering wheel, though!
Lead image credit: YouTube/Practical Performance Car.
