Objects of desire [cars]

I always liked Citroen cars. To that end, my first car was my dream car, a Citroen CX Safari. It was a huge big estate car and brilliant for shagging in the back off. I had CX's for a number of years, four in all. Three of them I managed to write of because I drove like a twat.

Citroen CX Safari

Then some fool talked me into buying what had been the predecessor of the CX, the DS. It was white with a rich red interior and looked great [and it was about fifteen years old when I got it]. It was, and still is, a very well designed car [but it was built like shit]. It first came out in 1959 so you can see how advanced the design was. It had a five speed semi-automatic, column change [very difficult to master]. The usual Citroen self leveling suspension which is hydro-elastic, NOT hydro-pneumatic as most people think. The four glassed in headlights were also a bit of an oddity. The outside two went up and down with the suspension and the bumps in the road, the inside two turned from side to side with the steering. This always caused a problem when driving into my driveway because none of the lights lit the gateway. Something like the 20th Century Fox logo! Also, it didn't have a break pedal. In the place where you would expect to find such a thing was a black rubber thing. It didn't move like a pedal in fact, it didn't move at all. This made breaking very difficult. As the [automatic] clutch, suspension, power steering and breaks ran off the same hydraulic system, you only had to look at this black rubber pad and the breaks would lock on and bring you a screeching, and suspension sinking, halt. The end result was that I could never get used to driving the beast and after a month, got rid of the bloody thing.

Citroen DS

That was my last dealings with Citroen's. I've had various Range Rovers and now some German piece of crap. My lust for french cars [though not the buggers who make them] has been ignited by the recent launch of the new Citroen C6. It's a big, long, sleek car and reminds me so much of the DS [and I want one so bad!]. Apparently, the initial design was an update of the DS. Sadly, Dave won't part with the German shite. I'm working on it!

The design concept for the C6

Citroen C6