This part of a small series of informational passages I'm writing for Granturismox.net. It's basically some background and some history on some of the 700+ cars in Polyphony Digital's new game, Gran Turismo 4 - the latest in the GT series, which dates back to 1998.
Its presence in a racing-oriented video game in the year 2005 is distinctly incongruous. Given the 2CV's modest speed and humble mission, you wouldn't think it a natural fit with Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 4. Creator Kazunori Yamauchi chose to include several pioneering, but not particularly racing oriented, cars in GT 4 and the 2CV is one of them. Like the 1940's VW Beetle and the Ford Model T, which have been similarly digitized, the 2CV put many people on wheels for the first time. The enormous length of the 2CV's production run - 42 years, to be exact - meant plenty of iterations of the basic car. As with almost all the cars that put loads of people on wheels, and were available cheap, in time some became race cars. 2CV's are popular to this day in one-make series, mostly in Europe and the UK. As the road car put people on wheels for the first time, these tiny racers are often the first step for motorsport beginners.
The version of the 2CV included in Gran Turismo 4 is a 1954 2CV - and at that time racing was very far from the agenda. The 2CV was conceived by Citroen boss Pierre Boulanger; who came to the job after Andre Citroen died and Michelin took over the ailing company in 1935. Development of the advanced and influential Traction Avant had virtually bankrupted the company (though the model would ultimately be a huge success). In contrast to the upmarket Traction, Boulanger sought to create an everyman's car which could serve the needs of rural France. His concept was a car to transport the Farmer, the Family, the Veterinarian, the Priest, and the Peasant and do so economically. It had to be inexpensive, light, durable, and extremely simple to service. It also had to be able to deal with rough rural roads and fields.
Prototypes were running by late 1936, and development concentrated on using lightweight materials and incorporating the front-drive lessons learned from the Traction. A deeply strange looking "final" prototype emerged in late August, 1939 - just in time for WW2 to begin, suspending any further work for the forseeable future. After the war, with fuel and resource rationing a way of life in war-weary France, an economy car of the 2CV's type became an essential part of the automotive landscape. Much of the advanced-material study was dropped in favor of simple construction and old fashioned practicality. The car also gained more conventional styling - though still very 1930's in fashion.
The production 2CV debuted for 1948, with a tiny 9 hp, air-cooled, 375-cc flat twin and a four-speed transmission. It was an instant success, proving popular and durable - but a bit too slow. By 1954, more was needed to keep pace with the competition - mainly the Renault 4CV. The engine was enlarged to 425-cc and 15 hp, an ample increase despite the low overall numbers. The car would remain in this basic form until 1969, when a newer 24 hp, 435-cc twin was installed. In 1970, a 602-cc twin was added with 29 hp, and these powerplants would see the 2CV through the rest of its long years - production ended in 1990.
Jaunty, fun, and unbelievably practical, 2CV's still remain the choice of economical transport in some parts of the world. They were popular in almost every kind of climate, circumstance, and situation. 2CV's in various guises also served all manner of owners - farmers, delivery truck operators, shopkeepers, urban hipsters, oil field workers, rallyists, they all found a use for the tiny "tin snail." That in mind, it's not surprising that you can still find "working" 2CV's from Paris to Indonesia. They are very easy to service - no single part takes more than a few hours to replace, including the chassis, and they are a model of the rugged simplicity originally envisioned by Boulanger.
Yamauchi's inclusion of such a car may seem puzzling in a game focused on blindingly fast modern cars, LeMans racers, and classic muscle cars. However in GT 4, as in life, 2CV's exhude charm and can be tuned to be quite quick, owing to their light weight, good suspension, and torquey, unburstable engine. The digital model of the car is also quite well done and realistic from a physics standpoint (including the wild amounts of body roll). The 2CV is a car that has been many things to many people (as Boulanger intended). Perhaps the reason it was included in the game is so that, perhaps, new people may be able to experience it for the first time, at least digitally. The inclusion of so many classics in GT 4 suggests that Yamauchi wants the enthusiasts who love the game to experience more of automotive history - and that's a great thing for the classic car world.
