Citroën: This 2CV8 packs a brawny 285 hp 🎥
OPTICAL DREAM With his 2CV8, a Bernese garage owner has brought together French and American car construction in an unusual way. AutoSprintCH took the original one-off out on the track. When the Flückiger-Döschwo gets going, passers-by on the side of the road and its builder are delighted. Hannes Flückiger's Döschwo is anything but an ordinary 2CV. At first glance [...]
When the Flückiger-Döschwo gets going, passers-by at the roadside and its builder are delighted.
Hannes Flückiger's Döschwo is anything but an ordinary 2CV. At first glance, the vehicle looks confusingly similar to the French original from the 1950s to the 1980s. But a second glance reveals the width and length of the car - and then the thick cheeks over the rear wheels and the sporty wheels. No, this can't be a duck!
Parts from a Buick Skylark Custom
Garagist Flückiger had the idea for his 2CV8 in the mid-1980s, when a 2CV near his father's garage suffered an accident, leaving it ready for the scrap he had built. The young automotive engineer found a chassis for his new vehicle in the demolition trade: the platform, axles and engine of a 1970 Buick Skylark Custom. The fact that he had a huge amount of work ahead of him for the fusion of the two different cars becomes clear when comparing a few technical data.
Fusion of different models
The 2CV6 of the early 1980s is 3.83 meters long and has a wheelbase of 2.40 meters. For the Buick, the corresponding figures are 5.14 meters and 2.95 meters.
The front-wheel-drive Döschwo has a two-cylinder boxer engine with 602 cc displacement and 29 hp, while the Skylark drives the rear wheels with its 5724-cc V8 and 285 SAE hp. In terms of maximum torque, it's 4.0 vs. 51.8 mkp, which equates to 40 and 508 Nm in today's units.
Shorten chassis, increase body size
After extremely elaborate bodywork, the hybrid finally received road approval in 1990. Officially, the 2CV8, as the builder called his creation, was a Buick Skylark Custom with special bodywork - including a Flückiger Auswil-type roll bar.
Hannes Flückiger: "The vehicle is definitely controversial. At the Döschwo meeting, it's a somewhat offbeat oddity; for V8 fans, it's not a real Yank sled."
Familiar V8 bubbling at the start
However, looks and technology are only one aspect. You can't wait to see how the car drives. The fact that it starts to rain shortly before the test drive doesn't impress Hannes Flückiger: "No problem. The car is tight, and we have three small windshield wipers."
The big engine starts up with the familiar V8 bubbling, and the nose notices that the exhaust gases are still emitted unfiltered into the environment. Strapped into the sports seats, you catch sight of a dashboard of your own making, and the selector lever of the 3-speed automatic transmission is also completely unfamiliar.
The steering takes some getting used to
But there is plenty of thrust, and because there is no diff lock, the rear remains tame even on wet surfaces. The smooth and only rudimentarily precise steering takes some getting used to.
Hannes Flückiger: "Top 200 is possible. The fabric roof has been specially stiffened for this purpose. For drag racing events abroad, we have a second powertrain on the shelf: an even bigger V8 engine with considerably more power for sprinting the quarter mile."
Now, carmaker Flückiger is looking forward to February 2020, when his 2CV8 is expected to achieve veteran status.
