Gremlins come as standard equipment with a Deux Chevaux. Mostly they are relatively benign and I have encountered enough to forge a co-existence and still make forward progress. This one had defeated both me and Connor and proceeded to twist my tail the following morning by allowing me to start the engine with jump-leads from the friendly Bulgarian, who was running a car wash enterprise in the hotel parking lot. He wasn't going to let me off totally scot free and she wasn't revving quite correctly, so I removed the top of the carburetor and inspected it for dirt or water. Nothing really suspicious presented itself, so I put it back together and low and behold she ran perfectly. The Gremlin allowed us to drive into London all the way to Jacky's friend's house. I wasn't confident enough to risk the motorway, so we drove round the old South Circular, weaving in and out of what were the old villages that merged into South London.
Jacky and I were parting company for the three weeks we allocated for staying in the UK. I was off to my son's new house in Windsor and see my grand-children, Jacky to The West Country to visit friends. Aimile had been running perfectly, so I decided to risk the motorway and duly arrived without any dramas. The following day saw me heading north to Shropshire and my daughter's new house in the grounds of Shrewsbury school. Both families had moved during covid and this was my first chance to visit them. Again Aimile behaved impeccably. Although heartily relieved not to break down, I was beginning to wonder how long my luck would hold and what were our prospects for the return trip.
Since I decided to buy a Deux Cheveux I had been reading articles and watching you-tube videos on care maintenance and general exploits of crazy people who have a soft spot for these ugly ducklings. There is one that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the small band who specialise in fixing and restoring 2CVs. He happens to live in Shropshire albeit 70 miles away on a farm in Hereford. Peter Sparrow has been not only fixing and restoring, but racing tuning 2CVs, and produced the famous one used in the James Bond film complete with hugely powerful BMW motor-bike engine. Peter has prepared cars for round the world trips and Paris to Peking rallies and apart from being aghast, that I had not brought Aimile to him before setting off across Europe, was happy to take a look. Very early on a Wednesday morning JR and I scraped the ice off Aimile and set off for Hereford. Previously Aimile's heater had been up to keeping us warm and toasty over the Alps, but he was struggling and we were getting colder. Google maps helped us locate Peter's farm buildings, which he works from, surrounded by rows of what look like big mole hills (2CVs under tarpaulins and referred to as stock).
Aimile promptly expired and refused to start. It was like she had got us to A&E and now she was in Peter's hands. After a tour of the workshop and an insight into all the wonderful things Peter could do with a 2CV, we got a lift into Hereford for the day. There were numerous phone calls backwards and forwards as Peter and his assistant Max started to exorcise Aimile's gremlins. It seems some of after-market spares that have been coming from China, although cheap, have not been of the same standard as the Citroen originals. JR and I went from one cafe to a pub to a cafe in an attempt to keep warm and kill six hours. When Max picked us up to return us to the workshop, they had a whole bag of gremlins rounded up, sorted and Aimile was purring sweetly. Peter was happy that she was in the best condition to make the return trip successfully. We set off into what was now a dark and stormy night, to return the 70 miles to JR's. It was difficult to appreciate how much difference Peter's work had made as the conditions were so poor, but since then Aimile starts properly every time, runs more smoothly and develops more umph going up the drags on the motorway that would previously have slowed her down. Altogether She is now perkier and much more well behaved. At first I was a little sad that the frissant of uncertainty has gone. I'm am now day-dreaming of getting one of Peter's " improved " engines. What could I do with another 20bhp
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