My Citroen 2CVs
Continuing my fascination with Citroën 2CVs the French peoples car
What happened next?
In early 1988...
...for some inconceivable reason I decided that I would go for a more modern car (the 2CV had been launched in 1948). I settled on a lovely blue Mini Metro named Mille. Busby was sold and I even sold my boot extension to a member of the Kursaal Flyers. Yes, it was all a big mistake. Millie had the optional garden pond in the passenger footwell and collapsing suspension. Not a good move. Within a year I had purchased my second 2CV, a lovely black and maroon Charleston (B179YFC) quickly named Maigret. Maigret rapidly clocked up the miles, travelling all over the country and then transporting my girlfriend (now wife) and I around France for our first European holiday. It was a great trip despite needing a replacement amortisseur avant when visiting Carcassonne and I achieved one of my ambitions, driving around the Arc de Triomphe – even if it was a Sunday! When we got married in 1991 we both traded in our cars (the other being a Mini Mayfair) and purchased a Citroen AX.
At that point I thought that would be the end of my involvement with 2CVs and I let my 2CVGB membership lapse. Things picked up again when in 1996 we purchased our ‘forever home’ and it had a garage into which my Vauxhall Cavalier company car wouldn’t fit. My lovely wife suggested that we could perhaps purchase a refurbished 2CV from Frome 2CV and that’s exactly what we did in early 1997.
If I remember correctly I visited the garage in February whilst in the south west for work and saw the ‘donor’ vehicle which was a black/maroon Charleston – 1 owner from new (A290VOJ). It was to be resprayed, placed on a galvanised chassis, running gear and engine refurbished, MoT’d with retread Colway tyres all for £2499. I travelled down from South Yorkshire to collect the newly named Albert in late April. The drive back up the M5, M42 and M1 was in horrendous monsoon rain and I got very wet feet – I did being to wonder if I’d done the right thing.
Finally tucked up in his new home he dried out and I got to work on fettling a few things to get him how I wanted him. Over the following 27 years he had electronic ignition, Matts replacement roof, aluminium old style grille, klaxon horn, Vietnamese stainless bumpers (very good value), boot extension, yearly servicing from 2CV experts (most recently Jonathan Holmes of Peak 2CV) and lots of polishing. I exhibited him at local car shows, went on picnics, trips to Registers Day, the Buxton National, 2CV race meetings and embarrassed my two daughters – a lot. When they were young they liked travelling in ‘daddy’s special car’, as teenagers didn’t want to be seen anywhere near it and now in their mid 20s thought it ‘cool’.
In 1998 he appeared in the local newspaper motoring supplement feature ‘Drive My Favourite Car’, lots of colour images and some good publicity for 2CVGB (images in the gallery).
Albert provided transport at three weddings and was very much part of the family. I couldn’t disagree with Jonathan Holmes when he pointed out at every MoT time – I wasn’t using him enough. Jonathan really knows his stuff and the car had never run better with his expertise. It always makes me laugh to think that unbeknown to me (and him!) we had met before when his Dad Tony had brought him along to Hallam Globetrotters events in the 1980s as a very young man. It really is a small world.
I has always admired Jonathan’s 1972 AK400 2CV van and mentioned to him that I had long hankered after one myself. From a family point of view I’d always considered it very unlikely as it only had the two seats.
In August 2023 Jonathan contacted me to see if I might be interested to know that one of his customers with a good looking AK400 was considering selling. I looked at the images and thought there was no harm in going to view it – travelling up to Pontefract in West Yorkshire one evening. I immediately fell for Pastis the AK400, he was in extremely good condition, having had a thorough restoration in 2012. The owner prior to Leo the vendor had been the 2CVGB Van Registrar and that gave me a great deal of confidence in the quality of the vehicle. Leo had also carried out a full rewire and cared for the van very well.
I went home (trying not to get too giddy) to talk with the family. After some initial reticence it was agreed that if I really wanted to I could make an offer. My offer was accepted and I set about arranging for Jonathan to sell Albert for me. Thankfully, everything came together and Albert was sold to a chap from Barnsley who is clearly going to cherish him as much as we did. I went off to Pontefract to collect Pastis at the beginning of October.
Having only had a brief test drive previously, I began to get quite used to left hand drive on that journey and a friend that was following me (having taken me to collect the van) was well impressed with the ability to keep up with modern traffic. I had some great waves and thumbs up on that journey and had to drive past Hillsborough football ground where a game was a about to start and had a number of positive comments through the open window whilst sat in traffic. That happy reaction hasn’t stopped since…
I have really enjoyed getting used to Pastis – although the driving position isn’t the most comfortable and I think that a van is more noisy than a car (the van tub resonates more) but it’s great fun. My garage had to be rearranged to get him in and I had to be creative on bike storage. A trip over to Cheshire for racing at Oulton Park with my co-driver Martin, is the longest journey I’ve made thus far. I attended a couple of car shows in 2024 where I got a lot of interest, and Drive It Day at Crich tramway museum was fun. I’ve added a high-level brake light and will add some of the indicator repeaters to the top rear of the body as I think that the standard lights in traffic are a little low. At least this option is using van lights as fitted to other vehicles of the same type – looking at web images it seems that a number of owners have used the same solution, and the wiring loom has connectors ready for this purpose.