At the Shetlands Vintage Car Club event this past June, an assortment of what appeared to be 2CV derivatives showed up. Citroënvie member Pierre Cambillard was there and took these photos.
Now the question is; What are they?
Of the seven, three are Lomax:
The Lomax is a design is slightly reminiscent of the Morgan Three Wheeler of the 1930s. It was introduced in 1982 by the Lomax Motor Co. of Willoughton, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. It was designed by Nigel Whall. In the late 1980s production was transferred to the Mumford Motor Co. of Gigg Mill, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, where it was produced until the early 1990s. From then it was built at Cradley Motor Works in Cradley Heath, West Midlands. By 2009 the car was still being produced by Cradley Motor Works in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.
The car consists of a fibreglass body mounted on an un-modified 2CV or Dyane floorpan and engine. Later a steel tube chassis was introduced. The original 1982 prototype had a bespoke four-wheel chassis which was specially constructed, and of shorter wheelbase than the donor car, a Citroën Ami. Early “three-wheeler” variants were actually four-wheelers, with two rear wheels closely paired as in some Heinkel bubble cars of the 1960s. Later versions were genuine trikes, three wheels with two wheels in front and one at the back, this allowed to benefit from the (lower) 3-wheel UK road-tax. A four-wheel variant followed later, using an unmodified 2CV chassis.
The taller white car with black fenders is a Deauville Canard, which utilizes a custom fiberglass body mounted on a 2CV chassis and running gear. Designed by Mike Richards and produced by Deauville Cars Limited (based in Bognor Regis, West Sussex) between 2001 and 2013. Its name pays homage to the 1930s-style aesthetics of the French seaside resort town of Deauville, while “Canard” (French for duck) nods to the classic German/Dutch nickname for the 2CV, the “Ente” or “Eend”.
The dark green vehicle on the far end is a Pembleton Brooklands. The Pembleton Motor Company was founded by former British National Hill Climb Champion Phil Gregory in 1999. He first started designing a three-wheeled cyclecar in the 1990s purely out of curiosity, as the ferry from the UK to Dún Laoghaire in Ireland was free for motorcycles and three-wheelers and he wanted to see if he could create something suitable. This interest quickly turned into a passion, and he was able to roll his decades of experience developing and building his own championship-winning hill climb motorcycles into the new venture.
In 1999 he decided to make it official, founding the Pembleton Motor Company and offering kits and turnkey three-wheelers. He soon developed a four-wheeled cyclecar due to popular demand, called the Pembleton Brooklands, that used the same classic early-20th century design cues as its three-wheeled sibling.
The Pembleton Brooklands shown here is the four-wheeled version of the earlier Pembleton three-wheeler design, powered by a 2CV engine and on a 2CV frame.
The blue car on the other end is a mystery…..
The closest resemblance we could find is that of a Lomax, but typically on the Lomax the engine exposed on each side and the front grill is smaller.
This photo found on French Pinterest of what is stated to be a Lomax 424 comes close, but still with a smaller grill, the glass windshield deflectors do not appear to be the same.
We were only able to find one other picture of it, taken on a ferry crossing to the Shetlands where shows the 2CV grill, the front turn signal mounted lower and the fenders in the front are wider to accommodate much wider tires mounted on what looks to be wider 2CV rims.
So we are puzzled as to whether this is home-built or a customization of the Lomax. Whatever it is, clearly a lot of effort was put into it’s creation.
The light green vehicle is not based on a 2CV. It is a Blackjack Guzzi powered by an 1100cc Moto Guzzi transverse V-twin motorcycle engine. Blackjack cars, founded by Richard Oakes in 1996, was a manufacturer of three-wheeled kit cars based in Helston, Cornwall, England. The company’s first car, the Blackjack Avion, was produced from 1996 until 2004, replaced by the VW Beetle-engined Blackjack Zero. In 2008 a lighter variant of the Zero known as the Blackjack Guzzi was introduced, the name derived from the Moto Guzzi motorcycle engine that powers it. Blackjack Zero kits have been unavailable since June 2013.
The yellow car is also not based on a 2CV. It is a Magenta 1100, a British fiberglass kit car created by Steve Johnson in the 1970s and typically based upon BMC ADO16 donor running gear (such as the Austin/MG 1100).
At first glance it bears from the front at least, a resemblance to the Drewgard Roadster, a kit creation by UK 2CV specialist Andrew Gardner, known for his patented kingpin-to-sealed balljoint conversion kit (eliminating the need to replace kingpins) and his track rod conversion kit (tightening up the steering).
More info on the Drewgard Roadster and the conversion kits can be found at: https://www.totalkitcar.com/2016/10/20/2cv-specialist-produces-new-kit/
While the rear of the Magenta 1100 in the Shetlands seems to taper and hold a single third third wheel, a rear view of the Drewgard Roaadster shows it to have two rear wheels.
So while not all seven cars at the Shetlands event are based on the 2CV, they are an interesting assortment nonetheless.