The Insanely Cool & Ultra-Rare Citroën 2CV 4×4 Sahara

What do you do when you feel your Ctiroën 2CV is a bit underpowered and traction-limited? You could potentially swap out the engine, or install a complex all-wheel drive transmission, remove a bit of weight (although there’s not much to start with in a 2CV). Or, and that is what Citröen did, you drop in a second engine and gearbox, an extra fuel tank, connect everything together and create what’s essentially a twin-engine continuously all-wheel drive 2CV! Ok, it’s still not a barnstormer of a car, but it does up the wow factor quite a bit! Let’s take a closer look at this ultra-rare and insanely cool workhorse once destined for France’s Northern African colonies.

Two horses

Citroën’s plucky little 2CV was designed to mobilize farmers in post-WWII France. The concept was derived shortly before the war, a time when a lot of people still relied on horses and carriages in the mostly rural country. Owned by Michelin at the time, a survey was conducted to distil what such a car would need to be, and also what it would not need to be. The brief called for something called a TPV, or Toute Petite Voiture, Very Smal Car. The project was conceived and overseen by Pierre-Jules Boulanger, as he was adamant the original parameters were met; a car that could seat four, carry up to 50kg of (farm) goods at speeds up to 50kph, and was capable of navigating farm tracks, unpaved roads and muddy fields if needed.

By 1937, a series of prototype TPVs (see the clip below) were constructed and testing was done to make sure it could do what it was set out to do. Two more years of development were needed before the TPV was ready for production. The result was a very rudimentary vehicle with sheet metal bodywork, hammock-style seats, an ingenious suspension system and a water-cooled flat-twin 2-cylinder engine producing 12bhp in the front. Being front-engined and front wheel drive eliminated the need for a driveshaft, freeing up space in the cabin. The start looked very promising, yet the outbreak of the Second World War saw the TPV project abandoned. For the time being that is…

With Europe in ruins after six years of war, there was a huge need for cheap and reliable transportation. This led to a whole string of cars by various brands to get people moving again; the Fiat 500, the Mini, the Isetta, and so on. Citroën rekindled the TPV project and introduced a number of necessary technical updates. To reduce costs, the aluminium bodywork was redesigned to use steel instead. An air-cooled engine was developed to replace the water-cooled one of the original prototypes, disc breaks were installed in the front, and it was put on radial tyres. By 1948 the car was ready and the first cars were delivered early in 1949. By then the car was named 2CV, which stands for Deux Chevaux, or Two Horses as a nod to tax regulations where cars are taxed based on the power of an engine.

The 2CV was in production for over 40 years, and in that time 3.8 million of them were put on the road. If you were to include all the derivatives of the 2CV, such as the Mehari, Dyane, Ami and Acadiane, that number would grow to 9 million! That makes it the first front-wheel drive car to sell more than a million units after Citroëns earlier Traction Avant. It has gained a cult-like status and is widely regarded as one of the most important cars ever made. One of the most endearing driving characteristics is its strong lean angle while cornering, yet it’s virtually impossible to roll thanks to the ingenious suspension system.

Twice as nice

One of the rarest and most unconventional 2CV variants is the 2CV 4×4 Sahara. While the 2Cv was perfectly capable of tackling rural France, the rugged terrain in France’s many Northern African colonies demanded a bit more power, and ideally; all-wheel drive. The solution was the 2CV 4×4 Sahara, introduced in 1958 and in production until 1971. Such a long period might suggest plenty of them were built, but only 693 (some sources state 694) of them rolled out of Citorëns production plants. That makes it extremely rare, and in today’s day and age, a highly collectable 2CV!

Instead of developing a stronger engine to replace the 12bhp two-cylinder in use at the time, and installing a conventional all-wheel drive system, Citroën went down a different path. The original 425cc powerplant in the front was joined by a second one in the back, which isn’t a very common way to up a car’s power! Next to that, a second gearbox was installed, along with a second separate fuel tank. The gearboxes were connected by a rod, which fortunately means you have single controls for everything. The benefit of this setup is that you maintain continuous drive to all wheels despite one or more slipping in mud or sand, as the transmission is essentially uncoupled.

All this literally doubles the horsepower of the 2CV, which is said to have a top speed of 65kph on a single engine, and 105kph while running both! As it was still quite an early 2CV considering the car was in production until 1990, it comes with suicide-style doors that flip backwards, with a filler neck for the fuel tanks poking out of both. There’s a spare wheel on the bonnet, and it has a ragtop roof. Around the back, an exposed fan pulls heat out of the rear engine bay. On the inside, the simplicity is striking. The fabric seats are very basic, as it was intended to be functional, not luxurious. A two-spoke steering wheel, a gear stick between the front seats, and only one gauge are all you have. Yet, back in the day, it was twice the price of a bog-standard 2CV, resulting in less than 700 being built.

With such low production numbers, and likely an even smaller number of them still around, it should be no surprise this particular type of Deux Chevaux commands quite a premium whenever one comes up for sale. And speaking of which, the 1961 2CV 4×4 Sahara you see in the images is for sale on the French exclusive car auction and sales platform CarJager, where it definitely stands out amongst the Maseratis, Porsches, and Ferraris.

But I think it stands out for the good, as it’s perhaps the coolest 2CV imaginable! Doing some digging through all of the listings reveals a total of 23 Citroëns currently listed, eight of which are 2CVs, which indicates it’s still quite a popular little car! This one has been restored by a specialist in 2019 and is in very good condition. Do be prepared to shell out quite a bit of cash though, as the single 2CV 4×4 Sahara has an asking price of EUR 109,000!

For more information, please visit CarJager.com.

Editorial Note: The information used and images portrayed in this article are sourced from and used with the permission of CarJager.com.