Last Deux Chevaux Rolls Off Line : Auto: The Citroen company bade a quiet adieu to a 42-year-old automotive legend--the 2CV.

It was a quiet adieu to an automotive legend today when the last Citroen Deux Chevaux--France’s funny-looking four-wheeled friend to millions--rolled off the factory line after 42 years in production.

In a last indignity to the car associated with France, the finale took place in Portugal, where Citroen moved production after shutting down its Levallois assembly line near Paris.

There were no public ceremonies at the Mangualde factory, “just a little get-together for the workers who have been making them,” said a Citroen Lusitania spokesman, Teixeira de Abreu.

But Citroen fans worldwide will mourn the demise of the turtle-shaped Deux Chevaux--named literally for the “two horses,” or horsepower produced by its chugging air-cooled engine.

It was officially designated the 2CV and came with open-flap side windows, mattress-like suspension and scrawny tires. More than 3.86 million have been sold since its launch at the 1948 Paris Auto show for $650.

Including a van, more comfortable Ami and Dyane versions, and even a four-wheel-drive derivative, more than 7 million Deux Chevaux have hit the roads. Thousands of fans have set up about 300 owners clubs worldwide.

The car has been in James Bond films and has been flown hanging from a hot air balloon. It has set world altitude and depth records for a car--climbing to 17,180 feet on Bolivia’s Mt. Chacaltaya in 1953 and going down a salt mine in France’s Lorraine region.

Two Frenchmen, Jacques Seguela and Jean-Claude Baudot, made an 87,000-mile round-the-world trip in a 2CV and once substituted crushed bananas for oil to keep a gearbox working as it crossed a South American desert.

Citroen’s high-tech AX compact will substitute for the 2CV at the Mangualde plant. But, according to Gavin Green, chief editor of Britain’s Car Magazine, “no car will replace it--there’s no successor in sight. It’s the end of an era.”

He says most owners have an emotional relationship with their 2CV that, like the Volkswagen Beetle and the Mini, has become a motoring legend.

“It’s different but sensible,” two-time Deux Chevaux owner Green said. “And for an old car it’s still quite advanced--it has direct ignition, independent suspension and inboard brakes . . . things that some sports car makers are still making a song and dance about.”