BON RETOUR, MON AMI ANDRÉ

I’ve owned more than 50 cars and driven many times that number in a lifetime rich in automotive excess, so I didn’t expect the reunion with one of them to be so emotional. But it was.

Mon ami ‘Andre’ and I had shared a lot more than a 40,000km spider’s web of roads criss-crossing Europe, from the Norwegian Arctic Circle to Berlin and Lisbon to Istanbul, over a period of nearly 12 months in the early 1970s. André? Well, André Citroen of course, the man who changed the nature of motoring. But I’m going too fast.

I had never considered owning a Citroen before the new GS model was launched in 1970 and was immediately voted European Car of the Year.

I was rallycrossing Minis at the time, so I was a fan of front wheel drive cars because of their packaging and handling, but I was secretly a besotted, but impecunious Aston Martin enthusiast. Okay, it’s a stretch, but the GS with its fastback styling reminded me of a downsized DB4!

Being a young motoring writer with a deep-seated automotive passion I could also justify my Citroen selection. When launched, it was the most aerodynamic and advanced small car you could buy; its self-levelling hydro-pneumatic suspension set a new level of ride comfort and incorporated industry-leading anti-dive geometry and inboard disc brakes, while