What we drove
THE Conservatoire’s workshop isn’t just busy with customer cars, but it also keeps Citroen’s own collection in working order. Around a quarter of the cars in the hall are ‘good to go’ at any time, with most of the others – specialised motorsport vehicles aside – needing a few days’ notice to recommission.
To show the varied nature of what’s available, Citroen wheeled out some of its own classics for us to try. We start with the oldest model available – a Traction Avant, which does an amazing job of disguising its age. Once you get beyond the slightly daunting gearbox and slow steering – not helped by a wheel the size of a Roman shield – you’re left with a car that feels 50 to 60 years old, not the thick end of 90.
The same can be said for the SM – a stunning seventies two-seater with Maserati power that was killed by the fuel crisis when barely 13,000 examples had been produced. Its control weights take some getting used to – light steering that’s strongly assisted around the straight ahead, a brake pedal that feels rock solid and a gated five-speed manual gearbox that you need to approach with caution. But even within the confines of the industrial-estate roads that surround the Conservatoire, this feels like a car built for longdistance cruising, the orange velour seats still plush and squishy, the V6 engine delightfully lazy in its power delivery.
The 2CV4 ‘Spot’, on the other hand, has perhaps not aged so gracefully. This mid-seventies special edition’s frustrations start with the paradox of that name when combined with a striped interior that makes you feel like you’re sitting inside a giant boiled sweet. Then there’s the performance – the 435cc motor produces 26bhp and needs almost 7,000rpm to get there, so even in a car weighing barely half a tonne, progress is painfully slow. We’re convinced that the more potent 2CV6 would have been a worthy upgrade – and a spin in a barebones Mehari equipped with that engine confirms our theory.
The most recent vehicle on offer to us is a BX – a pristine 19 Digit, a limited edition that took the 104bhp engine from the GT but included an electronic dashboard and an onboard computer. The tech displays date the experience, but the drive is ludicrously civilised; the five-speed manual gearbox is slick, the squidgy seats are comfy and the BX’s ability to float over deep road scars is otherworldly. Just what you’d expect from a Citroen, in fact.