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Family
commitments
meant that I was only able to attend the Rally on
the Sunday which was also Father's Day. I left home
in Hampshire in glorious sunshine with the
thermometer in the XM
indicating 24 C. I headed north towards Peterborough
and as soon as I left the M25 and got on to the A1,
it clouded over and started to rain. The temperature
dropped the further north I went. The 150 miles/240
km was covered in just under two hours; the XM
proving to be an indefatigable high speed cruiser. I
passed a number of Citroëns en route - none of them
displaying the Club sticker - until, about 10
miles/16 km south of Peterborough I espied Roy
Renshaw, leading light of the GS
Section in his GSA, followed by a CX 22 TRS
and another GSA. I then entered the East Of England
Showground and followed the signs to the Rally. By
this time, the temperature was down to 9 C and it
was tipping it down with rain. Oh! the joys of an
English summer... I parked in the XM parking area
and the chap in the XM in front told me that most of
the XMs were parked elsewhere - I followed him and
parked next to him. Imagine my surprise when he
turned out to be Brian
Faulkner with whom I have been corresponding
by e-mail for quite some time. A brave man is Brian
- driving around in one of the earliest XMs to be
imported into Britain.
My light cotton,
short sleeved shirt was inappropriate attire so out
came the Barbour and cap, on went the Hunters and
off I squelched to meet old friends and
acquaintances, make new friends, marvel at the
machinery on display, examine the stands, etc. First
port of call was the Information Centre to say hello
to Brian Drummond and Derek Pearson and then I
trotted off to see David Conway's stand where I
splashed out on a copy of Olivier de Serre's `Tous
les modèles Citroën' and Fabien Sabatès `Les
Prestigieuses Citroën'. Back to the car to put them
in the boot and then off, camera around neck to take
some pictures. One advantage of the rain was that
all the cars looked lovely - even those with faded
paintwork - which is why second hand car dealers
love such climatic conditions.
En route to the
SeMantics display I bumped into the Rally
Co-ordinator, Nigel Wild. `Oltcit' said I, speaking
in Romanian. `Come with me' said he, speaking in
English.
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Then I
took some photos of the sole Dyna Panhard to
be seen and trudged off to look at the D
Series cars. Only oneSlough
built ID which already features on my
site but I took some more photos of this car
- interior shots, tail lights - things that
are quite different from their Paris built
contemporaries - and spoke to the owner
whose name escapes me. My old friendClaude
Westbrook 's car was there but no sign
of him.
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Also
there, was a hideous fluorescent green and
gold Safari (D Break).
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While
talking of such hideous things, there was a
CX, badged DX, with a ghastly modified front
end, converting the car into something that
looked as if a Mazda 626 had been tail-ended
by a CX.
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If I
upset the owners of these two cars with
these comments, please feel free to vent
your ire and justify your lack of good taste
- I will happily publish your comments in my
column or on this site - provided that they
are not too offensive.
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