HI, I'M SIM, PLEASED TO MEET YOU!
My story, and how i came upon my barnfind
I'll start off this tribe by writing something about myself, my hobbies and my cars. I'm a Belgian guy living in The Netherlands. Beside cars, my main interests are photography and graphic design. I'm one of the ClubFrance social media ambassadors, and their in-house photographer.
I've loved cars since I was a kid. I remember being driven around in my dad's Citroën 2CV and Citroën BX, and learning how to drive in my mom's ZX and my dad's Peugeots. As you can imagine, I was kind of predestined to get a Frenchie as my first car: a dark blue Peugeot 206. Looking for a way to cover up the horrible condition of the paintwork, I covered the car in a rally livery, inspired by the 206 WRC. OZ racing wheels, WRC spoiler and additional high beam lights finished the look.
It is thanks to this car that I found myself frequenting the ClubFrance forum. Their "every French car enthousiast is welcome" policy appealed to me. A few months later I volunteered to be the ClubFrance photographer at their main event "Franse AutoDag 2015". It was in the month before this event that I remembered a dark Citroën DS sitting in the garage of my dad's cousin when I was little. Of course I wanted this classic to attend the event, so I contacted her.
Sadly, they responded with the news that the DS hadn't ran in a few years, and didn't start anymore. I was always welcome if I wanted to take a look at it.
My DSpecial in the garage of my fathers's cousin
Despite it being dirty, dusty and not running, I fell in love...
After the 2015 Franse AutoDag I was promoted to ClubFrance photographer and social media ambassador, as well as marketeer for the 2016 edition. That's why it took a few months before I had the time to go look at that DS. February 2016 was the first time I saw that car in over 15 years. The owners informed me that it had been 8 years since it had driven for the last time, but it worked fine when they had parked it. Despite it being dusty, dirty and not running, I fell in love. We agreed on a (relatively) small family price, and a date in april to pick up the car.
That's one very dusty engine bay!
Not just 8, but 18 years of not running
When I picked up the car in april, they gave me some more "fun facts". Its last drive wasn't 8 years ago, but 18 years ago, for my aunts wedding. We did get it running fairly easy though, and put it on a trailer for transport.
In future posts I will zoom in on little parts of the buying, transporting and renovation process. I hope I didn't bore you guys with this first story,! I'll try to keep it shorter in the future
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Comments (5)
Awsome car. Looking forward to updates on it's revival.
Grab that car with a big baguette. Don't let it go and remember., its an automotive icon. 👍👍
I certainly won't let it go Stephen! It's been in the family since the early 90’s and has been used by my aunt and uncle for their marriage
Good luck. It'll be good to see an unusual car (for us British) like this being restored.
Thanks Duncan. Where I'm from in Belgium they're quite rare as well. In Holland (where I live now) they're not as rare. These silly Dutch people have imported loads of DS's from France...