This has got to be one of the most bizarre hybrids we’ve seen in quite some time. How do you even explain the thinking behind doing a ‘cut and paste’ job on a Ferrari F355 and a Citroen 2CV?
Little is known about the Ferrari’s condition before it was butchered but hopefully it was a total write-off and in need of extensive transplanting. Far from a simple operation, this conversion looks to have taken some serious craftsmanship and man hours, as aside from the basics (four wheels, an engine, headlamps, etc.), there isn’t exactly a whole lot of natural compatibility between the two vehicles.
This is also likely the costliest 2CV ever built, having apparently costed 180,000 Euros to build. The big question is why a Citroen? It appears that the car is some type of personal amusement/promotional tool for the Nimik Rally Team, which runs (big surprise) Citroen race cars.
Check out the video below, the photos in the gallery and start planning your own F355 hybrid.
Today we have the Citroen C4 Picasso, inspired by the greatest artist of the 20th Century, but what if Pablo Picasso had been working in Citroen’s own styling studios? That’s the question British car customizer Andy Saunders posed when he took a Citroen 2CV and turned it into “Picasso’s Citroen”.
“I decided to try and blur the line between car design and art by using Picasso as an inspiration,” explains Saunders, who was inspired by Picasso’s famous “Portrait of Dora Maar”. Every panel on the car has been altered, leaving no visible symmetry. The body shell has been widened by 152 mm on the right side only, the boot has been moved off centre and the bonnet is now made up of 12 separate parts. The headlights are now on one side and the off kilter grille and doors are striking by their very misfit. The rainbow palette of colours comes from the shades used in Picasso’s “The 3 Musicians” and “Still life on a table”.
Despite the conversion, which took more than 1200 hours, the unique Citroen 2CV is still drivable — and for sale. Like so many art works, it goes under the hammer, in this case at the RM Auctions’ Automobiles of London event on 29 October.
The Citroen 2CV, which celebrates its 60th birthday next week (7 October 2008), the anniversary of its launch at the 1948 Paris Motor Show, has been a favourite of generations of artists, both as transport and an inspiration.
The rise of the popular frontin France in the mid-1930s made the time ripe for a “vehicle for the people”.Designers in engineering offices were working on a light and economical model that would be cheaper than the other cars of the period. At Citroën, Pierre Boulanger was working on a project called TPV (for “Très Petite Voiture” or very small car). The Marque wanted to develop a car that was economical to manufacture, use and maintain — and sold at unrivalled low prices. The idea was to offer customers automotive essentials: four seats, a top speed of 50 km/h, 100 km on 5 litres of petrol, and low production and maintenance costs. Fiat had just launched its 500 Topolino, so Citroën had to work fast.
The vehicle was homologated by the French government vehicle testing service on 23 August 1939 under the 2CV A name. But the advent of World War II just several days later, on 3 September, put the car’s future on hold. The 2CV A was hidden away during the war, especially from the prying eyes of the Germans, who were developing their own “folks’ wagon”, the Beetle. The 2CV A was so well hidden, in fact, that it was only rediscovered by chance in 1968, when work was being done at Citroën’s La Ferte Vidame test track. The car they found was a real production model, not a prototype. Out of the 100 models that went into circulation, only four are left today. All of them are conserved in Citroën’s collection, one of which is on show at the exhibition.
