Citroën Radar
Car of the Day #289: 1958 Citroën Radar – Realistic roadster
The Citroën 2CV is brilliant, of course, no disputing that.
But if your name is Robert Radar, the standard 2CV wouldn't cut it. The Belgian inventor had a Citroën garage in Liège, and decided to use the latest body-building craze — fibreglass — for a 2CV-based sports car, first completed in 1956, and two additional cars of the initial series.
Now, it may look a bit silly, but giving the 2CV a lighter, swoopier body with less frontal area does wonders for performance.
Sources say it'd touch 125 km/h (77 mph), which is a small miracle because in 1956 the larger 602-cc engine hadn't been introduced.
A 425-cc engine? Hitting that speed? Not bad at all!
michael banovsky
If you haven’t, read my take on why the Citroën 2CV gave life to the weirdest cars ever built…
It took two years, but by 1958 the Belgian Citroën importer had convinced the powers-that-be to approve a limited series of cars, to be built in a semi-factory effort called the Citroën Radar.
A few items were upgraded, the hood was changed and its windscreen was now a shared part with the rear window from the DS.
Apparently, 50 were planned but 40 were built — or as many as 60 and as few as 20, depending on whom you ask, with the survivors at about five or six today. (This is entirely too few in my opinion. 100,000 Radars would not be enough to satiate my love for this quirky little bar of soap. Anyhow…)
