From Laurent REBOURS
Published on Jan 28 '24 at 5:12 pm. Check out my messages. Follow the news Chartres
Find every Sunday on Actu Chartres a Eurelian Chronicle of History and Stories suggested by Alain Denizet. A professor, historian and writer from Eure-et-Loir, he has been compiling all his chronicles on his website for years.
Mystery project of the TPV… the 2 horses
At the automobile exhibition inOctober 1948Citroën decided at the last minute to introduce the first three examples of the TPV: ” Very small vehicle », renamed “Still Not Seen” by its critics for the occasion [1].
We were ironic about it revolutionary project which came from before the war and which shrouded the company in a great secret. We had to make do with the meager information distilled by a brochure : “375 cm³, air-cooled 2-cylinder 4-stroke engine and 3-speed normal transmission, plus overdrive and reverse gear” and comfort guaranteed: “Heating for the winter, ventilation for the summer.” »
The two horses were unveiled at the 1948 Salon
The two horses presented at the 1948 show. https://2cv-legende.com/histoire-de-la-2cv/histoire-1940-2cv. (©DR.)
THE September 6, 1948the day before the show opens, three 2 horses secretly entered the Grand Palais, hidden under a tarpaulin. The next day the public discovered their lines, their sunroof, their suspensions, but not the engine because the prototypes had nothing under the hood yet…
This funny car has the shape tin can initially sparked laughter [2] “Do you get a can opener with it?” quipped a Yankee journalist. But just a few days later, the little Citroën was the attraction of the show. We gathered around this explosive, popular and economical car [3].
Engine still top secret at the Ferté-Vidame test center
Citroën prototype, top secret… Tested on the road (©DR)
As for the engine – promised, sworn – the rafting company would reveal its secrets at the next motor show in 1949.
Well-kept secrets in a rural setting, a stone's throw from the castle of the Duke of Saint-Simon La Ferté-Vidame where Citroën has been housed behind a twelve kilometer long fence since 1938, its test center. Engineers and drivers were busy making the final adjustments. No one was allowed to enter the shrine without showing their ID. And, according to Le Soir, the secret service is not allowed to provide the telephone number, which is not listed in the directory, under any circumstances.
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The drivers carried out tests on the 32 kilometers of closed circuitbut also under real conditions on a sixty kilometer loop Longny au Perche, Sainte Anne du Perche And Verneuil-sur-Avre.
When he reached this place, a young 21-year-old test pilot named Grammont suffered a serious misfortune a full-scale attack on September 5, 1949. It was early and the street was deserted. Or almost. Because suddenly a powerful one Front wheel drive overtook him, braked and stopped on the other side of the road. Two men got out.
September 5, 1949: The two horses attack
Le Soir, September 7, 1949 (©DR)
According to the instructions that prohibited any approach to the prototypes, Grammont risked a roadside maneuverbut threw the TPV into the ditch.
The two people ordered him to open the hood and when the driver resisted, he did so severe blows to the stomach, abdomen and head. According to Le Soir, the bandits were examining the engine when he regained consciousness. Then they quickly jumped into the Traction Avant with the idea – and who knows, printed on film – the technical characteristics of the famous engine.
Grammont, seriously injured, still managed to return to La Ferté-Vidame. It was a month before the salon opened.
Industrial espionage or orchestration?
On the front page of L'Eclaireur de l'ouest, September 7, 1949 (©DR)
The press and police were lost in speculation. On September 7, Le Soir hypothesized: “I'm tired of attacking mail vans, the pull-up gang [4] Was he now working on behalf of a huge economic espionage organization that served the competition or the specialist press?
The Citroën group protested and ensured that since the vehicle was approved by the mines on June 24, there was no longer any secret, since the models had even been entrusted to dealers [5].
Did we then want to make sure that the company's engineers hadn't made any final modifications to cause a surprise at the show? Unless, scoffed L'Humanité, never tender to Uncle Sam, it was “a somewhat brutal but effective form of.” American advertising »?
In short, a setup. This attack, which some call ” most incredible news of the year » has, to our knowledge, never been clarified.
The 2 Horses of 1949: incredible success of a… rudimentary car
L'Humanité, September 7, 1949. American-style advertising… The title of the communist daily, inextricably linked to the context of the Cold War… (©DR)
The price for the 2-horse model from 1949 was set at two hundred and thirty thousand francs. Back then it was a unique and rudimentary model: only one color available (gray), no door lock (but an anti-theft device that is modeled on that of bicycles…), the fuel level could only be checked with an oil dipstick and there was only one traffic light. Pieces that are now “collectibles.”
Her The success was phenomenal. Production increased from nine hundred vehicles in 1949 to fifteen thousand in 1951 [6]. With something more five million copies The Citroën “TPV” is one of them, rolled off the chains ten of the best-selling French cars in history.
Markings
[1] In fact, the TPV (Tout Petit Véhicule) project was born at Citroën before the war, in 1936. Goal: To make the automobile an everyday product, useful for agricultural work and accessible to the working class, at a time when it was still considered a luxury item.
[2] Of particular note was the Renault stand, which displayed the new version of the 4 HP engine, first presented at the 1946 Motor Show.
[3] In times of fuel restrictions, Citroën emphasized its low consumption of less than five liters per hundred kilometers.
[4] “The Traction Avant Gang” is a post-war criminal gang specializing in armed robberies. Under the leadership of Pierre Loutrel, known as Pierrot le Fou, it committed its crimes from 1946 to 1947. The last member was arrested in May 1949.
[5] https://2cv-legende.com/2cv-series-speciales/2cv-a. Important page about the 2 horses.
[6] In the early days, production fell far short of demand. It took several months before I got a new vehicle.
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