Page 65 - Phonebox Magazine November 2010

I THOUGHT I'D look to the future for a moment and try to predict what we will be calling a classic car when my Daughter gets to my age. She’s five now and I'm in my very, very late twenties... Ha ha... (42) When I look at what unlikely motors have now become a classic, I get stuck on the Citroën 2CV. Who would have believed that it would turn out to be an appreciating classic now, when in the eighties, the only two groups of people who bought them were "Mad" and "Skint". Oh and James Bond.....Later. Try and buy one now and it'd cost you the price of a cruise round the Med' for a month with your Grandparents.
I think the French, in the past, could well have had the future-proof formula in the bag. You only have to try and buy an old-old Citroën now, and you'd see.
My first brush with the brand was my Dad's best chum Alan who has had just about every Citroën going for the past 30-odd years. I remember him turning up with his wild turning headlights, comfy chairs, cut off rear wheel arches, suspension that puffed the car up on ignition, rounded door panels, funny coloured interiors, sort of brown and orange, oh and great steering wheels with one spoke... Mad, but fascinating.
Then, my Mum bought a Citroën deux chaveaux, or 2CV, a red one. Now that was a cool car. Again mad suspension, a roll back vinyl roof, which my folks used to poke an umbrella out of, like it needed to look a tad more eccentric. A gearstick that stuck out of the dash board, removable seats, frog headlights, and the engine out of a Kenwood Chef. Turns out they made nearly four million of them over 42 years. Their main purpose was to get the French peasants off of their horses. Cunning plan, and beautifully well thought out, just not quite so beautifully executed. (Opinion). The roof was particularly high to allow you to wear your hat, fluffy suspension cushioned your eggs across the field on your way to market and at 78mpg, your average French farmer would afford to not only to buy one for the price of a couple of old nags, but to use it for work and pleasure without breaking the bank.
Voilà!
The 2CV incidentally was about half as much to buy at the time as a Volkswagen Beetle.
Even James Bond had one...
In 1981, a bright yellow 2CV was driven ruggedly by James Bond in the film For Your Eyes Only.
Citroën launched a special edition 2CV “007” to coincide with the 2CV product placement in the film, it was fitted with the standard flat- two engine, producing, as the name would suggest, two horse power, painted in yellow with “007” on the front doors and fake bullet hole stickers up the sides. Priceless now, I've been looking about to try and buy one. Not a chance! Now that would have been the right way to look like James Bond...
Anyway, some years later, I finally bought a wrecked grey 2CV of my own from a farm- barn in Clifton Reynes, took it away and had it reconditioned and sprayed sunshine yellow, with a brand new red PVC roof. And then incidentally, bought a Sinclair C5 off of Robin Smith in Sherrington and had that sprayed the same sunshine colour too. Twins! Ha Ha... What a great car that was, excellent for Milton Keynes roads, you get massive tilt on the roundabouts at anything over 20mph and no need to slow down for speed bumps, kerbs ... fields. To be fair, you’d only be going at max 30mph anyway. I gave the car to my office manager at the time “Ron”. Ron didn’t share my enthusiasm for the
Deux Chevaux nor indeed any enthusiasm for turning up to work, and so this was the ideal car for him. He declared war on it from day one and really did try everything to blow it up, burn it down, crash it, he even filled it with Diesel one day, but it still survived... Happy days. The car, needless to say survived longer at the firm than Ron did and eventually became the company runabout, until one day I hit a cattle grid just a tad too fast and the engine and gearbox broke loose, the chair-back snapped and both the back number plate and the front bumper came adrift. I guess it figured it looked like a clown’s car, so best behave like one. The rhubarb and custard 2CV was no more. As for the Sinclair C5, it had it's first and only outing at Newport Carnival that year, and was then stolen from out of the back of my
metallic blue 1967 super stretched 7.8 litre V8 Cadillac Hearse in the night... odd how they only took the C5, and left the hearse...
But back to my point; what could we possibly call a future classic car? And who decides what that is? I'd love to hear your opinion, and of course your thinking behind that, and I'd also like to feature your thoughts in my next article. Your name in lights! Yay...
Email me or post in to The Phonebox, take a mo, write for a while and treat me to a slice of your thinking. I'd be glad to hear from you.
Paul Kitchen. Motor Broker and Motor Writer. www.cmcvs.co.uk
Spot the Classic car...It’s Completely Obvious!
Picture by David Purvis, Local Artist. View at www.olneyart.co.uk
HULA ANIMAL RESCUE WINTER WARMER
SUNDAY 14 NOVEMBER From 1pm-3.30pm
at
South Midlands Animal Sanctuary
Glebe Farm, Salford Road, Aspley Guise MK17 8HZ Between M1 J.13 & Woburn Sands (Nr.Aspley Guise rail station)
**
CHILDREN’S TOYS, BOOKS & CLOTHES FOR CHRISTMAS
**
! See the rescued pets awaiting adoption
! Feed the farm animals
! Fun & Games for the Children
! Find a Bargain in the Charity Bazaar and Children’s Corner ! Home made refreshments
! Admission Adults: £2 Accompanied Children: Free Bring your dogs & friends for a great afternoon - for a good cause
ALL PROCEEDS FOR THE CARE & WELFARE OF HULA’s RESCUED ANIMALS
Enquiries: 01908 584000
Website: www.hularescue.org Email: hularescue@tiscali.co.uk Registered Charity 1094115
Phonebox Magazine 65
Future-Proof Classic cars...