Conservatoire Citroën The Private Museum Collection In Paris

It’s amazing what can happen, Jalopy was having a fantastic week in Paris, attending Retromobile twice doesn’t hurt…. But the fun doesn’t stop there.

Thursday night I was walking along Rue de Rivoli towards Rue Sainte-Antoine in Paris heading for a nice Crêperie when I see the unmistakable outline of Practical Classics Sam Glover the other side. I run over for a chat, when he doesn’t take long to invite me to join him as part of the Practical Classics visit to the Conservatoire Citroën, Citroën’s private museum. Now, I’ve been wanting to go to this for many years so wasn’t about to say no.

I had to get up early to get on the Metro to catch a bus at the Gare de l’Est, where Sam and Theo got on. At least I was heading in the right direction, which was north of the City. Beyond the Périphérique, which separates Paris central from the suburbs, we headed to Aulnay-sous-Bois, where the PSA factory remains could be found. On the site in quite a large building is the Conservatoire, which houses much of Citroën’s collection.

It’s a guided visit where you enter the facility in groups. Needless to say, we immediately abandoned the tour and promptly lost Sam. Mind you the views were spectacular.

Citroën Karin Prototype

I was rather taken with the Karin prototype, most likely unique, but what a fantastic looking thing, central driving position and brown.

We’d only just arrived and Sam had immediately disappeared to have a look under Project Y, as he owns the production version, a Romanian Oltcit, which is essentially a re-hash of the Visa. By all accounts its not a bad car either.

Citroën Project Y Prototype

By this time Neil Campbell showed up, now with Jaguar Land Rover Classic, but still obviously one of the team.

All gathered now to admire one of the most overlooked of all Citroëns, the Visa. Based on the Peugeot 104 it could be said it wasn’t really a Citroën, but that’s not quite true. The Project Y was quite a development for Citroën and spawned two differend vehicles, the Visa and the Oltcit. I’d have one.

Citroën DS Predidential Limousine

There were many fantastic cars here, some of which have made appearances at Retromobile in the past. Notably these two monsters which were part of a cars of famous people theme.

The Presidential DS21 was bigger in every way imaginable. Quite spectacular.

If you think that’s fun, imagine turing a Maserati powered SM coupe into a stretched open top 4 door saloon.

The SM stretch is more obvious, but it’s hard to imagine that the really big one started out as a DS! It is based on a DS floorpan, but stretched in every direction, has a second windscreen behind the driver and retains the standard DS engine. I guess it was made for stately progress past crowds of people, not some sort of getaway vehicle…

Citroën Rotary Helicopter & Tractor

Citroën turned their and at more than cars, and I’m not talking about their successful range of vans. What about a Tractor? Helicopter anyone? You can see team PC considering it.

Citroën 2 CV Prototype

There’s a lot to see here with over 400 cars in Citroën’s collection, the 2CV being very well represented, with the 3 lost prototypes that were hidden in a roof void during the war. This car was born in 1939 and was a much cruder version of the one that finally came out, the delay allowing for refinement of the concept.

Citroën 2 CV For Your Eyes Only & Sahara

The James bond – For Your Eyes Only stunt car was there too, this was in reality the only modified Bond car for many years. I don’t mean gadgets, this was a Sidewinder fitted with a 4cyl GS engine doubling the horsepower. The bonnet is slightly longer to accommodate the extra cylinders. Mind you, it was parked next to a rather nice Sahara, the one with two engines. Yes that’s right, they made a twin engined car in the factory.

Citroën Traction Avant

Of course there was going to be lots of Traction Avants to see, one of my favourite of all the Citroëns produced.

But what struck me was just how many there were and the variety of models produced/ it did have quite a long lifespan.

Citroën DS

Many nice examples of the DS were on display, but this one away from the rest gave a really nice view inside. You may have noticed the DS emerging through the wall above it too.

Citroën GS & GSA

Some of my favourite Citroëns are the GS, GSA ranges, with some fantastic examples to be found here as you would expect.

They even had one of the very rare Birotor prototypes, sharing a variation of the M35. It seems obvious now that the GS would have been the perfect vehicle to house such an engine.

Citroën CX

The CX running gear, without it’s unitary body gave a really good view of what was goin on underneath that aerodynamic exterior.

What’s good is that it’s presented next to a yellowy brown example, what could be more 70s than that colour. I hope it makes a comeback.

Citroën AX & BX

As we made our way round wefound newer and newer cars, though these are getting quite old themselves now. When did you last see a really good AX or BX?

Citroën C6 Prototype

There are a couple of concepts that I do like, one of which became the C6 fabulous car, Citroën returning to form with it. I mean, who else can have a concave rear screen and make it look good. The concept was very close to the finished car, which there was one of to the left. Both were stunning.

Citroën Prototypes

There are so many prototypes to see, the Activa, the C10 from 1956 looking a bit like a modernised Messershmitt and the C – Airdream having hints of C4 in a nice looking hatch.

One concept left us all a little confused as it didn’t even have wheels. What on earth it was meant to be was beyond me, but interesting none the less.

The next car we stumbled across looked like a DS, but had something rather unusual under the bonnet. We couldn’t quite work out what the sign next to the car was getting at, but after some investigation it looked like it could be a forced induction V4 2 stroke.

It must have sounded incredible, I wonder what the performance was like. This car was one of the best finds of the day.

Citroën Type G

With any event, or visit to a place like this, there’s always the question: Which one would you like to go home with? The standard answer is the one worth the most so you can sell it and then buy all the things you want. For me, it was impossible, but this left me very impressed. Citroën are very well know for the Type H vans, but I’d never seen a Type G.

They even call it the mini H and I’ sure you can guess, it’s powered by a 602cc engine…… and sits on a 2CV chassis. It was abandoned to produce the 2CV van instead but I think this would have been a huge success, it looks fantastic and I want one. I think this is the only one though….

However, you could imagine Daihatsu producing a small H van and coming up with this.