2013 – 45 =1968. That should help put some of these publicity shots for Citroen’s then-new Mehari into context. Hopefully. If not, just enjoy a glimpse back to another era. And of some pretty girls.
The Mehari (not the girls) had a body made out of rugged ABS plastic sitting on the the 2cv/Dyane 6 chassis. Total weight: some 1300 lbs. And what’s in the crates? Geese?
Its air-cooled 602 cc boxer twin driving the front wheels was adequate given its light weight, and the softest riding Jeep-mobile on the planet made chores like this effortless and comfortable. These farm girls have undoubtedly been working hard all day putting up hay, but with the Mehari’s plush ride , you’d never know looking at them. What is it about a hay stack and a girl….?
The farm girls might be preoccupied with their chores, but the city girls of 1968 are just having fun; or looking for some.
Where’s the water? The Mehari did make an excellent beach-mobile, and was a common sight on the French Riviera. I’m assuming the budget wasn’t big enough to actually shoot there.
So these last few were obviously shot on a golf course. Which gives the Mehari an opportunity to show off another of its many talents as a golf cart.
1968-
Vietnam War, Apollo 7, Nixon/Agnew nominated, MLK Jr. shot by racist asshole, Andy Warhol shot by radical feminist, Congress repeals gold standard, powerful tornadoes rip through Iowa, One Life to Live soap opera debuts, Zodiac Killer, etc.
If it wasn’t for Led Zeppelin and Citroen farm girls, 1968 would have been a completely shitty year.
Sounds like another verse to “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
And lets not forget the `68 Democratic convention riots in Chicago , the Soviet tanks ending the “Prague Spring” in Czechoslovakia and the student protests in France among other events.
ABS (Acrylic Butyl Styrene) is a great plastic, as long as you make Bell 500 telephones from it that live their lives inside. But take it outside, especially the French Riviera, and the minutes-left-to-play gauge spins wildly out of control since UV (ultraviolet radiation) is the kryptonite of ABS. My guess is that the body panels for the Mihari were vacuum-formed from ABS sheet. Tooling cost would have been almost zippo. About equal to their functional life.
There are some simple, clever design solutions on this vehicle.
For example, notice how the side mirror is mounted to the windshield frame to allow it to be used with the glass folded forward; a simple flick of the wrist allows th mirror to adapt to either position. The polar opposite of a pet peeve I have with the current Wrangler, where the mirrors have to be unbolted and reinstalled if the doors are removed (unless one wishes to go without them, which I wouldn’t recommend).
Also note how in the photos of the green and red car, that mirror is not rotated to the correct position. Major photographer boo-boo.
It is correct on the green one isn’t it? When the screen was folded up it would have pointed to the rear. Or is it all upside down because I’m in the Southern Hemisphere lol!
I can understand an obsession with French women, but French cars? Not so much.
You left the door wide open for a crack about the fact that French cars and women both look good and are extremely elegant, but are fussy about maintenance.
However, I refuse to take the hook.
Oh, wait…perhaps I just did. 🙂
I first saw this vehicle in the French movie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_gendarme_et_les_extra-terrestres
It was very funny to a 10-year-old me. And being a petrolhead even then I remembered this funny trucklet very well.
A good one ?
Take at least $ 15K with you.
Or they’ll laugh at you.
A whole cottage industry is busy around the Citroën 2CV.
Today you can buy a reproduction chassis, which is galvanised.
Engine upgrades, the whole lot.
And these Tupperware Ducks are really great, if you have a restored one with a galvanised chassis.
I mean, how many cars do you know of you can actually hose – down completely to clean?
Here’s a movie about the last production line of the 2CV in Portugal
Looks like the middle ages in car manufacturing
The last “hand made” car!
Bespoke for the masses.
I bought a nice Mehari sales brochure earlier this year – it didn’t feature any girls, pretty or otherwise – I’ve been short-changed!! Mind you, it’s a late 70s brochure, so maybe that was why…
Remarkably I must be one of the few readers of this site who has actually sat on one. It was a crappy car at the time (early 80s) and it was considered a useless car: not useful for farming services (you couldn’t load anything real back), not useful for the city (try to drive that under the Mediterranian sun, with a black canopy) and just barely useful when near the sea – however, bearing in mind that you drive little when on vacations as everything is near…
At the time I rode it (1982) it was full of cracks at the back and it was full of dirt, as you couldn’t actually remove all the dirt from the plastic.
Once this said, I’d love to have one!
Another car I’ve neither seen(in metal or in magazines) thanks.When it comes to French cars there’s only 2 I want a Citroen DS and a Facel Vega.
I think I recall, as a teen, seeing one of these cars in both a Bond movie (Moonraker?) and some French soft porn film (Emmanuelle?) on Cinemax.
Speaking of Citroens, the current episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s Web Series features a 1950 2CV that looks fantastic but keeps stalling in NYC traffic.
http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com
I picture the gals with the geese running a really flashy, “2001”-style pate factory.
On the production Mehari, the mirrors are located on the fixed part of the window frame, so no adjusting needed when flat folding. Great car, yes the body isn’t fond of the sun, but a coat of paint will stop it from cracking. The payload is 400kgs, not bad for a 535kg plastic car. They were expensive from new, rather rare, and yes now sought after.
I got to ride around in one of these up in Saratoga Springs a couple weeks ago. Feels like driving around in a kiddie pool in the best way possible.
The Mehari (not the girls) had a body made out of rugged ABS plastic
The girls, of course, are made out of Unobtanium.
Love how the hood is held shut with leather straps and buckles. Like a pre-war steamer-trunk.
“Citroen — because a Matra-Simca just isn’t weird enough for you!”
There are many of these in Uruguay
But not plastic, the SouthAmerican ones are fibreglass. And a lot heavier.