| Re: The joy of Engine-Cars [message #426355] |
Sat, 11 January 2025 15:39  |
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Originally posted by: Bud Frede
Bud Frede <frede@mouse-potato.com> writes:
> Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>
>> On Sun, 3 Nov 2024 08:54:10 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>
>>> One that did well here was the Renault 4. More lean than a drunken
>>> Irishman, but it still kept its tyres on the road.
>>
>> The French had lots of brilliant engineering, and pioneered concepts
>> decades before other car makers adopted them -- like front-wheel drive.
>> Renault invented both the hatchback and the people mover.
>>
>> I looked up the details of Renault 4 suspension after reading the above;
>> it didn’t have self-levelling suspension (it was the Citroën 2CV I was
>> thinking of), but it did have a clever system nonetheless.
>
>
> I remember seeing a 2CV on display at the local mall when they first
> came out in the US. They had the suspension set to keep changing the
> height, so the car was going up and down, front and back, then both at
> once, etc. Kind of interesting to see at first, but it evidently wasn't
> interesting enough to most people to actually get them to buy one.
It wasn't the 2CV, it was the SM that had the interesting suspension.
The 2CV was the little thing with lawn chairs for seats and not much
motor.
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| Re: The joy of Engine-Cars [message #426358 is a reply to message #426355] |
Sat, 11 January 2025 16:27  |
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Originally posted by: rbowman
On Sat, 11 Jan 2025 15:39:14 -0500, Bud Frede wrote:
> Bud Frede <frede@mouse-potato.com> writes:
>
>> Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>>
>>> On Sun, 3 Nov 2024 08:54:10 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>>
>>>> One that did well here was the Renault 4. More lean than a drunken
>>>> Irishman, but it still kept its tyres on the road.
>>>
>>> The French had lots of brilliant engineering, and pioneered concepts
>>> decades before other car makers adopted them -- like front-wheel
>>> drive. Renault invented both the hatchback and the people mover.
>>>
>>> I looked up the details of Renault 4 suspension after reading the
>>> above; it didn’t have self-levelling suspension (it was the Citroën
>>> 2CV I was thinking of), but it did have a clever system nonetheless.
>>
>>
>> I remember seeing a 2CV on display at the local mall when they first
>> came out in the US. They had the suspension set to keep changing the
>> height, so the car was going up and down, front and back, then both at
>> once, etc. Kind of interesting to see at first, but it evidently wasn't
>> interesting enough to most people to actually get them to buy one.
>
> It wasn't the 2CV, it was the SM that had the interesting suspension.
>
I looked at a used DS in the '60s. Even with the fearlessness of youth I
recognized it as a potential maintenance nightmare. Like many French and
Italian designs 'interesting' covers a lot of bear traps.
> The 2CV was the little thing with lawn chairs for seats and not much
> motor.
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| Re: The joy of Engine-Cars [message #426359 is a reply to message #426358] |
Sat, 11 January 2025 17:33 |
Mike Spencer
Messages: 1017
Registered: January 2012
Karma: 0
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Senior Member |
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rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:
> I looked at a used DS in the '60s. Even with the fearlessness of youth I
> recognized it as a potential maintenance nightmare. Like many French and
> Italian designs 'interesting' covers a lot of bear traps.
The most comfortable car I ever drove, the one also with the best
cling-to-the-road qualities in any weather including lots of snow, was
a 1960 Panhard sedan. I acquired it for free in 1967 because, even in
our shop that specialized in weird foreign cars (back when "foreign
car" really meant something and we'd never seen a Japanse or Korean
car) we couldn't figure out how to maintain it and there were no new
parts whatever available. I drove it until a transmission leak became
impossible to cope with, swapped it even for a working McCulloch
chainsaw. It ended up in a rubbish tip in the woods.
Front-wheel drive, 2-cylinder flat-opposed air-cooled front engine,
manual shift, remarkable suspension about which I never learned any
engineering details. Sic transit gloria mundi.
--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
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| Re: The joy of Engine-Cars [message #426364 is a reply to message #426355] |
Sat, 11 January 2025 20:02 |
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Originally posted by: Lawrence D'Oliveiro
On Sat, 11 Jan 2025 15:39:14 -0500, Bud Frede wrote:
> I remember seeing a 2CV on display at the local mall when they first
> came out in the US. They had the suspension set to keep changing the
> height, so the car was going up and down, front and back, then both at
> once, etc. Kind of interesting to see at first, but it evidently wasn't
> interesting enough to most people to actually get them to buy one.
>
> It wasn't the 2CV, it was the SM that had the interesting suspension.
The SM had much more complex and interesting suspension, it is true. But
the 2CV did have its own simple (and elegant) system for keeping the car
level, without the need for active controls and pumps: longitudinal coil
springs running between the front and back wheels on each side.
One of the design goals for the 2CV was, a farmer could use it to carry a
load of eggs safely across a freshly-ploughed field.
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