Your classic: Citroën 2CV Spot

| 20 Mar 2025

Please jump into my time machine and let’s travel back together to the beginning of 1976.

A Paris Salon was scheduled that year, and many manufacturers were to show their latest inventions and introduce previously unseen cars.

Citroën at that time was facing headwinds and didn’t have any new models to display, but it nonetheless felt a need to exhibit something.

So the company’s directors turned to those assembling the 2CVs and asked: “Can you please make something special to show in Paris?”

The special-edition Citroën 2CV Spot inspired this brightly coloured rebuild

At the time, the Citroën 2CV was only available in French blue, white or red, so in short order the 2CV Spot was born.

With a budget of next to nothing, Citroën’s workers went about creating an eye-catching, cheerful car for the motor show – and they succeeded really quite well.

The model received a two-tone, orange-and-white colour scheme outside and in, bright enough to make it feel as if the sun was shining even on the cloudiest day.

And, for comfort, two separate chairs replaced the bench seat.

The Citroën 2CV was in need of restoration and was turned into a Spot version at a colleague’s home workshop in Ostend, Belgium

It’s a car that makes everyone happy: the person driving, the passengers and those who see it drive past.

We once hired a Citroën 2CV Spot, by accident and at extra cost, because all the other cars were rented out, and I fell in love.

We have owned many examples of the 2CV in the past and I loved them, including one that rusted away after too many trips to salty Zeeland.

I decided that, if we were ever to get another, it would have to be a colourful Spot.

The Citroën 2CV Spot’s two-tone, orange-and-white colour scheme continues inside

My husband was working in the Dutch military, but was sometimes based in Ostend, Belgium, and his chief of staff happened to restore 2CVs in his spare time.

He had one car in need of restoration, and my husband decided that it could be transformed into a Spot as a present for my birthday, which at the time was some months away.

A price was agreed, and my husband and his colleague worked on the car together, including conducting all of the necessary research online.

The Citroën 2CV Spot got two separate chairs, rather than the standard car’s bench seat

It turns out that two different types of Spot were made: one for the French market, with brown Bakelite mountings for the speedometer and all the switches, while the other was for export, with a black dashboard.

Also of note were the newly introduced headlights, which had been round on all Citroën 2CVs up to that point, but which were square for this new model.

The export Spots were equipped with the 28.5bhp 602cc engine, which became the engine of choice for 2CVs and lasted until the end of production.

Prior to that, the 435cc engine had been the standard unit.

Citroën’s 602cc flat-twin engine, here looking like new, made its debut in the 2CV Spot

Unfortunately my husband’s noble plan to have the car ready for my birthday didn’t quite come to fruition.

The project wasn’t finished in time, but I did receive a nice set of work-in-progress photographs as a present, which at last explained why he had been spending so much time away from home, apparently working late into the evening.

That day we also took a trip over to the workshop in Ostend to have a look at the newborn Citroën 2CV Spot, and we were able to start the fully restored engine for the first time.

The cheerful Citroën 2CV Spot, unveiled at the 1976 Paris Salon, captured Heleen Krieger’s imagination

Neighbours of my husband’s colleague had also taken an interest in the Citroën once the freshly painted bodywork had been put together with the chassis: it was a beautiful moment in time as the carefully prepared parts were transforming into a car.

Explaining that this 2CV was being restored for a Dutch couple helped them to make sense of the choice of colour scheme, too.

It took 10 months to restore every single element of the Citroën 2CV, although that wasn’t a full-time undertaking.

The Citroën 2CV Spot brightens everyone’s day

The end result has been worth every minute, and the work has provided great insight into historic techniques, which are very straightforward.

A 2CV would be an ideal introduction for a budding DiY mechanic.

By Christmas we had the car imported into The Netherlands and registered for the road, so my husband had some numberplates printed and put them under the Christmas tree.

A year had passed by, but from that point on it was endless sunny days!

The amount of head-turns, waves, thumbs-up and smiles from those who hear and see our bright-orange Citroën 2CV Spot are uncountable, and long may that continue.

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