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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 the hideous fluorescent green and gold Safari (D Break) that
features in theChamber
of Horrors on my site so I took another couple of photos to hopefully
prove the point to the doubters that this car is grotesque.
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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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