Richard Bonfond is a renowned member of the North American Citroën scene. Son of Belgian garage owner and Citroën specialist Albert Bonfond the family moved to the USA in 1956 where Albert ended up working for Citroën Cars Corporation. Richard had little choice but to develop an interest in the marque and he too worked for Citroën in four countries: SA Automobiles Citroën in France, Citroën BELUX in Belgium, Citroën Cars Corporation in the USA and Citroën Cars Limited in the UK. Being fluent in both French and English was an undoubted advantage.

I first ‘met’ Richard via the internet when I was researching Citroën’s activities in the USA and Canada for this website and he proved to be a mine of information coupled with interesting, amusing and revealing anecdotes about the company. Subsequently we have met up several times for real and he is as charming as his internet persona suggested.

Many years ago, Richard told me that he was contemplating writing the definitive history of Citroën in North America and over the subsequent years, we batted ideas across each other. It soon became obvious that his preference was for something other than a definitive history – mainly because very little source documentation survived the closing of North American operations in 1977. Instead, he decided to write an autobiography. I continued to try to persuade him to turn it into a history and I even went as far as rejigging a manuscript he had sent me. But I soon realised that this book would be rather slim and nowhere near as readable as ‘What A Ride!’ – precisely because it is full of interesting, amusing and revealing anecdotes about his interesting life, the company and North American enthusiasts.

The book was designed by another friend of ours, Chris Sanchez and everyone I know who has purchased it is delighted with the results.

So very strongly recommended