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Post by Jamie on Jan 14, 2018 9:43:19 GMT
Your mentioning the Citroen Dyanne had me reminiscing this morning John......My Dad, Uncle and Grandad had a car bodyshop business in Palmers Green (North London) and in the same yard was 'The Dyanne Motor Company' which was a 2CV and Dyanne specialist. As a kid in my early teens I was fascinated by those cars and really wanted to drive one; many is the time I would go to work with Dad during my school summer holidays and pester John (the owner) about sitting in the cars, he would occasionally let me wash one! Great cars and quirky in the extreme. In later years (early 2000's) a chap I worked with competed in the 24 hour 2CV race at Snetterton and I went along to watch - great fun, probably the slowest and least aurally exciting racing cars I've ever watched, but still brilliant racing - the roll angle was something to behold! As a complete aside, the above mentioned yard has long gone as, like so many places in London, the yard became more valuable as development land than a place for small businesses and its now a Sainsbury supermarket. I have very fond memories of hooning round and round that yard in my dads mini van, learning to drive on my own when about 11-12, imagine trying to do that now......I perfected my handbrake turns in that yard too, I must have been a menace   However, every cloud has a silver lining and when the business moved from Palmers Green to Buntingford, Hertfordshire in the mid-80's we were next door to Chamberlain Engineering which ran C2 cars in the World Sportscar Championship, they soon became a customer of Dads and he painted all their race cars from the mid-80's onwards - we got to know them really well, went to the races with them and my love for Group C was born.... Chamberlain Engineering is no more these days and the workshops are now the home of Blakeney Motorsport who were subject to an article in MotorSport last year I think......it still looks the same, I spent an awful lot of time in that workshop in my youth |
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Post by chrisb on Jan 14, 2018 10:45:09 GMT
Jamie, what a wonderful story - thank you - in the early 90's I used to sell oil to a car accessory and worksop in Palmers Green, but for the life of me I can't remember their name, I do remember the owner had a replica Cobra with a 5.4 ltr V8 which was so shiny, it hurt to look at , but my word it looked good!
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Post by charleselan on Jan 14, 2018 19:33:29 GMT
Jamie,
Such great memories that you must cherish, for it is things like you have related that make us what we are. In some ways it is very sad to hear of places like the Dyanne/2CV centre disappearing all in the name of real estate enterprise, just as Carl has mentioned with the much missed Riverside Raceway.
Hugh Chamberlain's team were legendary in the C2 days of yore, I must see if I can dig out some of my photos from Group C meetings where I must have some of their car.
On the subject of the Dyanne 6/2CV they were obviously very common in France a while back quite naturally, along with the Renault 4L (a car that none other than Gordon Murray rates as an all time great). However today they are more common in the UK, I have only seen a couple these past few years and one is owned by an English girl who lives along our lane.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2018 19:48:51 GMT
Guys, apologies if it looks a bit pedantic, with so many Dyannes mentioned I suppose you are talking about the Citroen Dyane. One n. Cheers. Great car, btw.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2018 8:59:10 GMT
On the subject of impressive 2Cv's, I thought you guys might enjoy this link;
Whodathunk a 2CV could go like that?
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Post by René on Apr 26, 2018 10:45:04 GMT
That's brilliant! The sound is actually quite good. |
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Post by charleselan on Apr 26, 2018 11:37:20 GMT
That is a brilliant bit of film, best filmage I have seen in a long while and put a smile on my face. What an inspired conversion as well, putting a flat twin R series BMW motorcycle motor in a 2CV. It says in the accompanying notes that the car is bog standard other than the engine, however that suspension looks much firmer than standard to me.
Pretty impressive driving by Mr Sparrow also, simply doing everyone on the brakes, made Ricciardo look like an amateur.
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Post by charleselan on Apr 26, 2018 17:51:57 GMT
Further to Jim's brilliant post this morning of the Citroën 2CV with the BMW R series flat twin motorcycle engine, this is the second part from a Prescott Hill Climb Meeting in 2013. Brings back happy memories as it is in the vicinity of my old home territory.
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Post by Carl on Apr 26, 2018 20:04:28 GMT
I've always loved the 2CV best when both horses were well-rested. My favorite experience with one was driving with my girlfriend in Oregon, cornering hard at full lean to allow her to pick wild raspberries beside the road.
Actually, Pete Sparrow is super-cool. His modifications remind me of how Paul Newman once installed a Porsche engine in a Volkswagen Beetle and enjoyed embarrassing drivers of presumably faster cars at stoplights.
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Post by mikael on Apr 27, 2018 5:46:33 GMT
On the subject of impressive 2Cv's, I thought you guys might enjoy this link; Whodathunk a 2CV could go like that? The driving of Pete Sparrow is just as impressive as the performance of the car - very neat driving indeed! Is the car really just equipped with the standard drum brakes? I would imagine that competition driving like that would make them start fading after just one lap or so. But maybe modern linings can make wonders ... or maybe it is "just" Pete Sparrow who is very good at using the brakes sparsely ... Personally, it was painful to see the 2CV literally flying past an RX-8 (at 4:08). Didn't like that at all ... |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2018 6:39:31 GMT
On the subject of impressive 2Cv's, I thought you guys might enjoy this link; Whodathunk a 2CV could go like that? The driving of Pete Sparrow is just as impressive as the performance of the car - very neat driving indeed! Is the car really just equipped with the standard drum brakes? I would imagine that competition driving like that would make them start fading after just one lap or so. But maybe modern linings can make wonders ... or maybe it is "just" Pete Sparrow who is very good at using the brakes sparsely ... Personally, it was painful to see the 2CV literally flying past an RX-8 (at 4:08). Didn't like that at all ... The driving is very impressive, he's a multiple 2CV championship winner, and obviously knows his way around that circuit. But the robustness of the 2CV is amazing, I'm not sure about the brakes, but apparently it is the standard gearbox, coping with nearly 5 times the standard torque and power, magnifique! |
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Post by René on Apr 27, 2018 8:38:09 GMT
Personally, it was painful to see the 2CV literally flying past an RX-8 (at 4:08). Didn't like that at all ... Ha ha Mikael, I guess that was personal! |
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Post by charleselan on Apr 27, 2018 10:27:29 GMT
Not only the Mazda RX-8 but some pretty fast BMW's (well the cars had the potential, not so sure about the pilots), one I think was an M3!
I can't believe that the suspension and brakes were standard 2CV items. The guys who race these cars must have some good tuning parts for those components. With the standard 2CV the drum brakes are pretty reasonable for road use, but with over 4 times the power available from the BMW engine they would have been pretty challenged, let alone allowing a very good driver like Pete Sparrow to out brake everything in sight.
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