You see, Franzouse owns a 1981 Citroën Méhari, which appears to be France's answer to the Volkswagen Type 181 (aka Thing).


He writes:
I was home for the holidays, which allowed me to open grandma's garage where i store my summer drive, which is also my very own PCH, a citroen mehari. As promised here are the pics, wiith the uber awesome Tshirt. Warning,my dad took these pictures after a 3 hour family dinner and the pictures are, slightly blurry.
Basically it's a 2CV citroen with a plastic shell on top, and it's a thrilling ride only the Jalops would understand.
Mine is an 81' with a larger 980cc (sic) engine developping like 50 bhp. I replaced the tranny (where i'm from, old 2CV transmissions are easy to find) but I didn't document it.


We figure any old French car is going to be hell (even in France), and adding an oddball plastic body and all manner of weird accessories cranks up the garage temperature to something approaching the surface temperature of the planet Venus. But does Franzouse belong in the pantheon of past PCHPC madman honorees, luminaries such as DCulberson, Belvedere Adrian, SeanKHotay, Junkman, or BrendanSF?

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Yes, once, long ago, I did write about the sheer radness of Citro n's mini-Jeeplet, which totally kicks the poo out of the DAF 66 YA. It's beefier, tougher-looking, was actually briefly sold in the US of A, and was available with four wheel drive. The plastic-bodied Mehari was also the basis for the mighty FAF, and featured very little to none, er actually, none in the way of variator-type technology. 2CV-Mehari-FAF? That's a lineage that can't be touched, son. Don't make me drop the 2CV Safari on you.

Two boxer twins, one driving each axle? Those DAF Dakar trucks you love so much are merely ripping off something the parents of the FAF were doing years before. Hey, Jonny. How're your knees doing? Oh wait, I think you've just been cut off at them. Face! – Davey G. Johnson

Mehari [Citro net]

Related:
DAF vs. FAF: Nailing Shut Davey G's Coffin; The DAF 66 YA [Internal]

Yes, Mister Loverman, I see your DAFamino and raise you a FAFamino. The only thing better than a Dutch two-cylinder ElCo with a beefed-up moped transmission is a French two-cylinder ElCo from the nation that gave us the Mobylette in the first place. Plus, open-topped goodness! Take that! – Davey G. Johnson

Citro n FAF [Wikipedia]

Related: You Knew This Was Coming: The DAFamino!; Screw DAF! It's about FAF!; More El Caminos [Internal]

Okay, so the Loverman's DAF fixation is righteously awesome (although some of us are secretly wondering if dude fell in love with a Dutch prostitute/coke mule). Regardless, the rest of us shall not front. But all DAFs aside for the moment, often overlooked in the scheme of wacky shit Citro n has pulled over the years is the FAF, which stands for Facile Fabriquer and Facile Finance. Which means it should probably have been called the FAF et FAF. Do not ask us, as we are only slightly French, and Alsatian French at that, so we might be German. Europe was a messy place in the 19th century.

Regardless, the thing was based on the goddamn Deux-Mofuggin'-Chevaux and featured a boxy steel body that sort of made it resemble a non-plastic Mehari drawn up by whatever's the Gallic equivalent of a third-grader somewhere in a two-room schoolhouse's detention room on the outskirts of Marsailles. Resultantly, miraculously and thusly, said design was rather immediately constructed of surplus building materials. We have never, ever seen one in person. But we hope to. We really, really hope to. – Davey G. Johnson

FAF [CitCity]

Related:
What's More Forgotten than the Thing or the Moke? The Mehari! [Internal]