Low Budget Car Race For Citroen 2CV Enthusiasts
- 14 years ago
Well it's not exactly the grand prix. Top speeds are 53 miles an hour, the cars are all Citroen 2CVs, and the most dangerous part is getting sucked into the slipstream of the vehicle ahead. But these racing enthusiasts love it.
It's more like the drone of bees than the roar of racing car engines ... the annual
24-hour Citroen 2CV race gets underway at Snetterton in England.
These cars are seriously unsuitable for racing and have been compared to garden sheds.
But enthusiasts love them - and racing the old Citroens takes a great amount of skill.
Especially when the competition heats up.
Car restorer Paul Robertson says the greatest skill needed to drive these cars is maintaining speed around corners.
[Paul Robertson, Car Restorer]
"When you are driving a car that's the aerodynamics of a brick, having another brick in front of you pushing the air out of the way, really makes a difference. So the fact that you can get a slipstream, it's like following a lorry, you get sucked into the back of a lorry, so easily and you can sit there hardly touching the throttle still doing the same speed you were doing and so that's a good skill."
25 teams raced the 738 laps of the approximately three kilometers circuit -- with the fastest lap recorded at a sizzling 53 miles or 85 kilometers per hour.
[...]
[Mick Story, Car Racer]
"All the cars are theoretically the same although some people managed to get them faster than the others but if you're in competition you're side by side you are always trying to go a bit faster. In one of these things you are on the brink of catastrophe at every corner, its good adrenalin."
Teams comprise two to four drivers who take the wheel for a maximum of three hours at a time.
The hotly contested race was won by Number 3, team Rent Boys Racing, which led most of the way.
And the winners' celebration is slightly more conventional than the action on the track.
It's more like the drone of bees than the roar of racing car engines ... the annual
24-hour Citroen 2CV race gets underway at Snetterton in England.
These cars are seriously unsuitable for racing and have been compared to garden sheds.
But enthusiasts love them - and racing the old Citroens takes a great amount of skill.
Especially when the competition heats up.
Car restorer Paul Robertson says the greatest skill needed to drive these cars is maintaining speed around corners.
[Paul Robertson, Car Restorer]
"When you are driving a car that's the aerodynamics of a brick, having another brick in front of you pushing the air out of the way, really makes a difference. So the fact that you can get a slipstream, it's like following a lorry, you get sucked into the back of a lorry, so easily and you can sit there hardly touching the throttle still doing the same speed you were doing and so that's a good skill."
25 teams raced the 738 laps of the approximately three kilometers circuit -- with the fastest lap recorded at a sizzling 53 miles or 85 kilometers per hour.
[...]
[Mick Story, Car Racer]
"All the cars are theoretically the same although some people managed to get them faster than the others but if you're in competition you're side by side you are always trying to go a bit faster. In one of these things you are on the brink of catastrophe at every corner, its good adrenalin."
Teams comprise two to four drivers who take the wheel for a maximum of three hours at a time.
The hotly contested race was won by Number 3, team Rent Boys Racing, which led most of the way.
And the winners' celebration is slightly more conventional than the action on the track.