KM: 8 735 Kms
YEAR: 07/1971 (AM 1972)
COLOUR: Sable métallisé AC318
MODEL:
DX3 engine of 2,175 cc with Bosch electronic fuel injection, 139 Ch (137 bhp), available from October 1969 to August 1972, replaced by the DX5 of the DS23.
5 speed manual gearbox.
Top speed 188kph.
“Confort” trim level, unusual on this model, the highest level being Pallas.
New features for the 1972 model year:
1. Recessed door handles
2. Foam covered steering wheel
3. Child locks on the back doors
4. Reversing lights
Standard equipment:
1. Halogen headlights
2. Air horn
3. Heated rear widow
4. Triplex laminated windscreen
Price at the time: 26,368 Francs = 4019 Euros (monthly minimum wage at the time – 667 francs = 101 euros)
HISTORY:
My best “barn find”!!
For decades, I searched prospectively in Citroen garages to find autos that met the criteria for the forthcoming museum. In 2000, in a garage near Beziers, a passing customer told me of the existence of an almost new DS, immobilized for ages at a local petrol station, but not able to tell me where. After many phone calls using the Herault phone directory, a garage worker told me that the car was in a petrol station in Bedarieux (beside Beziers).
I then contacted the owner Mr Reynaud, a garage owner for BP. It was indeed his, but it was not for sale or even for viewing. I called him regularly but I always received the same ice-cold refusal.
When the museum opened in 2004, I sent him a detailed letter with a brochure for the museum, but this remained unanswered. I called him, he had received my letter but he was still not interested in selling, although his tone was less definite now. Despite me calling annually, the answer was always the same. Then there was no answer.
In 2016, his daughter called me: she had found my letter and the flyer with the paperwork for the DS. She informed me of the death of her father and that her mother had been taken into care. “Are you still interested?”.
A meeting was arranged. When the garage doors opened, we could see the shapes of the DS under blankets. By removing them, there was a very emotional moment: she found the DS still decorated with the ribbons from her own wedding day, 41 years earlier! The 6th September 1975 was therefore the date the car was last used (photo attached).
I had to wait a further 2 years to arrange the final removal from the garage and start the recommissioning. It drove just like a new DS.
Note that during the cleaning, I found in the glovebox a map drawn by Mr Reynaud leading to the Place Castellane, but in Marseille!