> There was another 4WD 2CV, well sort of, in the late 1970s...the
> Mehari 4x4, with its plastic open body, which did not have 2
engines
> (only one, with 29 HP). These are also quite rare. Whether one
> could fit the Mehari 4x4 drivetrain to a 2CV, I don't know.
Perhaps I can shed some light on these beasts: I nearly bought on in
1998, shortly before moving to the US. The car in question was
ex-Irish Army, and had been used as a radio car. It still had its
field service gauges showing hours since last service, and one other
I can't remember the function of.
It has a real 4wd system - that is, selectable 2- or 4wd, high and
low ranges in both 2 and 4wd, and a locking transfer case. They're
slower than the standard 602cc 2CV due to the low weight, but the
fibreglass body helps to offset this a bit. Top speed's around
65mph, 70 downhill with a tail wind.
Off-road performance is surprisingly capable. The excellent 2CV
suspension coupled with the dual-range 4wd system and low weight
means that the Mehari can get in and out of some extremely sticky
places.
Distinguishing a 4wd Mehari from a 2wd is easy: the spare is
hood-mounted on the 4wd, but stored inside the car on the 2wd
versions. The 4wd cars also appear to have three gear levers
sprouting from the dash: the one with the red knob is the 2/4wd
selector, grey is high/low range, and black is the regular gear
shift. The case lock lever sits between the seats. And I hope I'm
remembering correctly :)
The main customers for the 4wd version were the Greek army; the Irish
army only actually had about 4 whereas the Greeks had a couple of
hundred. Most of the rest were sold off to private customers,
presumably as beach buggies or similar.
While I can't speak directly on converting a 2wd Mehari to 4wd, I do
seem to remember that it involves some chassis and body modification
which is non-trivial. Further, converting a 2CV chassis to a mehari
one requires cutting approximately a foot or so of the rear of the
chassis off and buying or fabricating the tubular steel frame that
the Mehari body panels attach to, so it's also a non-trivial job
unless you're doing a chassis swap with a good donor car.
I'm genuinely sorry I never got the chance to buy the little beast.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue 16 Jan 2001 - 04:43:15 UTC