The DS19 was announced at the 1955 Motor Show and although the ‘D’ is now one of the strengths of the Club, in 1955 it came near to bringing about the demise of the Club. At the time the Light 15 was selling for £971.00 and the DS19 was introduced at £1,630.00, which put it beyond the financial reach of many a Traction owner, and created a huge gap between the DS19 and the 2CV at £557. Therefore, quite a number of members did not make the transition from the Traction Avant to the ‘D’ and were at least temporarily lost to the marque, but clearly a sufficient number did and the Club survived this period. The coming of the cheaper ID19 in 1958 was too late to have much effect on the situation.
However, the Citroën Company took over Panhard in 1958, subsequent to a commercial agreement in 1955 and the Panhard Dyna of the time began to be sold through the Citroën network in the UK. This prompted the Club to extend Club membership to Panhard owners, and consequently the Panhard went some way to bridging the gap between the 2CV and the DS and quite a number of Light 15 owners turned to Panhard models. The PL17 and 24CT were well catered for in the magazine for several years.
In December 1957, Joe Judt joined the Club Committee as Competitions Secretary and served continuously until retiring in 2003. He had terms as Chairman and as editor produced over 200 issues of the Citroënian. Joe was elected Club President in 1984, a post he held until he passed away in April, 2016, aged 94.
A Rally took place at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in 1958. This was to become a regular venue for Annual Rallies in later years.
The production of the 2CV ceased at Slough in 1959, due to lack of sales, and was replaced by the fibreglass bodied uniquely British Bijou which did little better and was taken off the market in 1964 with only 207 having been produced.
The 1960’s saw a gradual resurgence of the Club. D Models were coming on to the second hand market at more affordable prices. At this time it was common for owners to carry out their own maintenance and repairs and the technical assistance and advice provided by the club was invaluable. It was still a challenge for the enthusiast to tackle the intricacies of the hydraulics. A trail of red fluid was an indicator that a D had passed by. At a dinner dance it was reported that a member would not be attending as he was suffering from red ‘flu’, which was prevalent at the time. It later transpired that it was his DS which was unwell, suffering a loss of red fluid. Things were to improve considerably with the introduction of non-hygroscopic LHM in 1966.
The first Regional Section of the Club had been formed in 1955 in Scotland, but only seems to have lasted a few months. The Northern Section was formed in July 1962 and must qualify as the oldest of the current Sections, and throughout its history has remained the most consistently supported. The Midlands Section began in March, 1963 after an abortive attempt to get it off the ground 12 months earlier and they subsequently organised a number of popular autumn rallies at the Three Counties Showground at Malvern and Ragley Hall, Warwickshire.
April 1963 saw the first of the weekday evening social and technical meetings in central London, which were successfully held at various venues until the 1980s when attendance fell off due to a variety of reasons. In September of the same year the first Annual Summer Rally was held at Beaulieu, which was to set the pattern for all future rallies.
The Annual Dinner Dance, initially held at various resorts on the South Coast, had been a regular and popular feature of the Club year since the earliest days and remained so until the mid-eighties, when a lessening of support brought them to an end, although our Scottish Section continue with the tradition until this day.
The 1960s also saw a number of visits to the Citroën Training School at Slough, which were well attended and for the more adventurous there were trips by air to the Paris Motor Show and Brussels.
David Conway, joined the Committee in 1964 and will this year complete 55 years of service to the Club. David also started the first of our regular monthly columns in the Citroënian devoted to the different models in September, 1964. This was ‘Two Horse Topics’ – the third horse was to be added later following the arrival of the 2CV6.
In 1965 Citroën UK imported a one-off batch of 150 right-hand drive 2CVs, one of which was promptly ‘booked’ by the Club to form the subject of our first Car Raffle. Tickets were limited to 800 at £1.00 each. The Raffle was drawn at the Beaulieu Annual Summer Rally, which attracted an attendance of 95 cars. At the end of 1966 the Ami 6 Estate was introduced and an example was duly raffled at the next year’s Rally, followed for the next four years by lower range ‘D’ models. One of which was won by the Wild family, which Nigel still has in his possession. Nigel was a young lad at the time taking his ‘O’ levels, but it no doubt served as an initial inspiration for our D-Info Spécial columnist.
As a direct result of our Rallies at Beaulieu, and as he was also a confirmed Citroën enthusiast owning a series of D Safaris, Lord Montagu consented to become our President in February, 1966 and remained so until 1984 when he thought that he was not able to contribute enough to justify the position. However, he maintained an interest in the club and when I met him on several subsequent occasions and he talked fondly of the marque.
The writer joined the Club in 1965 after writing off his Standard 8 on black ice and deciding he wanted something with more character. By chance a nearby neighbour who I did not know had a Light 15 which took my eye. So I knocked on his door and it did not take long for him to convince me that a Light 15 was for me. I quickly found one advertised locally for £87.10s and snapped it up. My cousin had a Panhard PL17 at the time and was already a CCC member so it also did not take me long to join the club. Subsequently, having made the mistake of attending too many meetings I was elected to the Standing Committee in 1967 and began ‘Light l5 Corner’ the same year, which I continued for 11 years, until being coerced by Joe Judt into becoming Hon. Editor for the next five years.
By 1968, Club membership had reached the 2,000 mark and 174 Citroëns attended at the Annual Rally. The Dyane 6 was introduced to the UK at the end of 1968 to further swell our membership potential.
This article is being produced in monthly instalments for
the Citroënian by long term member Brian Drummond
