7-15-08

Antique French Cars “Race” on Walpole Streets

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

            Who needs the Tour de France? Walpole got its own French Gran Prix Monday evening as two revelers at Burdick’s annual Bastille Day festival leapt into their perfectly matched Citroen 2CVs and competed for three laps—in opposite directions—around the town common.

            Francophiles David Howard of Walpole and Dr. Mark Anagnostopulos of Brattleboro both came for dinner in their French wheels, tiny, underpowered Citroens aged around 40, depending on which parts you are considering.  Howard is an architect, and Anagnostopulos is a psychologist. Commonly known as the “deux chaveaux” (doo shav??), the nickname for their cars is based on the French phrase for two horsepower, the car’s rating for tax purposes.

            “They have about 14 horsepower,” said Howard Tuesday morning, “but you can soup them up to about 16 horsepower if you work at it.  In short, they’re incapable of breaking the speed limit.”

            But that didn’t stifle Monday’s competition.  With roars of the tiny engines—hardly more than the power plants of self-respecting John Deere lawn tractors—the two men rolled out of the Burdick’s parking lot to the cheers of fifty or so spectators.  Howard piloted his wife’s wine red ’66 model, trimmed in black, with Anagnostopulos close behind in his sky blue ’70 model. They headed around the corner in the same direction, but 10 minutes later Howard reappeared from the direction he departed and Anagnostopulos appeared driving through the Burdick’s lot from the other direction!

            Turned out they had agreed to circle the common in opposite directions, adding hilarity to the racket of the engines and cheers of the confused spectators.

            After a dizzying series of laps, loops and laughs, Anagnostopulos was declared the winner.

            The Citroen 2CV is one of the most iconic of cars. According to Wikipedia, “the 2CV is described in Drive On!: A Social History of the Motor Car by longtime CAR magazine columnist LJK Setright as 'The most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car.' It was designed for low cost, simplicity, versatility, reliability, and off-road driving. For this it had a light, easily serviceable engine, extremely soft suspension, high clearance, and, for oversized loads, a car-wide canvas sunroof. Between 1948 and 1990 3,872,583 2CVs were produced, plus 1,246,306 camionettes (small 2CV trucks).”

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