FRENCH CAR SHOW 2015 BRISBANE CITROEN CITROEN DS SM
PEOPLE passion Bay Club fuels amateur Domaine French Citroen car enthusiasts use an excuse to go.
PHOTO KATY RADDATZ - THE CHRONICLE San Francisco Region Citroën Club hosts a convoy Citgroen Traction Before arriving in Los Angeles, and on the way to Boston SHOWN Françoise Mauray-Clyman with a Citroen which was the only car his father ever owned - she and her Citroen are part of the family of the SF Citroen less club area.
PHOTO KATY RADDATZ - THE CHRONICLE San Francisco Region Citroën Club hosts a convoy Citgroen Traction Before arriving in Los Angeles, and on the way to Boston SHOWN Françoise Mauray-Clyman with Citroën more.
PHOTO KATY RADDATZ - THE CHRONICLE San Francisco Region Citroën Club hosts a convoy of Citgroen Traction Before arriving in Los Angeles, and on the way to Boston SHOWN Couple peering Citroen ZCV 1987 are Silvia and Marcel Bonaventura Verges, SF This small Citroen, a two-cylinder model, owned by a member of the club SF Citroen region, and not on the lower bottom disk.
PHOTO KATY RADDATZ - THE CHRONICLE San Francisco Region Citroën Club hosts a convoy Citgroen Traction Before arriving in Los Angeles, and on the way to Boston SHOWN Couple peering Citroen ZCV 1987 more.
When Cherilyn Widell married John Kennedy in 1988, she also hoisted in the family treasure a 1955 Citroen.
The Traction Avant had not run in years Family, and his body - a ding here, a rust spot - it displays 33 years of wear as a badge of honor.
Widell could not be happier with his parents' wedding gift to her.
The car has always represented the family and the community.
Widell and husband moved to San Francisco in the 1980s behind the car followed a few years later and has introduced a new community Presidio resident is a member of the San Francisco Citroën Car Club a group of 220 free thinkers around the bay area for which the pipe is more than getting from point a to point B in their X factor, pushups, make every trip a joy.
Members share a high level of individuality, says club president Alain Brie old cars are unique Their uniqueness is what attracted people who bought cars.
Their uniqueness also spelled an end to the US Although very popular in Europe, Citroën has never really found his niche with the Americans Avants Traction Line were produced 1934-1957, but they differed very little their 1930 original seems to think old gangster cars.
Later model Citroens, including the popular DS series which began production in 1955, were lined stylish vehicles, low to the ground as opposed to large, gourmet American muscle cars in preferred fuel.
Sales have suffered, and after 30 years of export, PSA Peugeot stopped deliveries to the United States in 1972.
They were too eccentric for most people, said Brie, a resident of San Jose who emigrated from France in 1971. Their forms are not accepted by the American public they thought the cars looked like frogs or flying saucers.
Widell never believed that to be the case, she does not remember being without Family, or the model of the family's father, Wilbert Widell, bought the car for the six-week tour of his family Europe in 1955, he planned to sell it later, but the family fell in love with her and sent home in Haddonfield, NJ instead.
They shipped, and it became a family icon, said Cherilyn Widell, who was 2 at the time of the trip to Europe.
For a time, he was also a Haddonfield icon Everyone in town knew who it belonged to.
Black Family was always present in Haddonfield High football games, rallies and other school events It was the car that took Miller Bethlyn the youngest of five children Widell, to church on her wedding day Most children Widell learned to drive in it.
The Widell plan a passing knowledge of six weeks with the car has evolved into a 47-year love story.
It is a fun car is not a museum piece, said Cherilyn Widell It's not perfect, but the goal is to make a part of my life and not put it on a pedestal.
Time has changed America's perception of the Citroen, as evidenced Sunday turnout for the 2002 Yankee Tracbar thanks Rally America Citroën clubs San Francisco and Sacramento hosted a convoy of 30 Traction Avant in France and other European countries at a reception at the Presidio.
The cars run from Los Angeles to Boston in honor of U S veterans of the World War that helped liberate France Over 300 amateurs and 70 Citroen cars from all over the Bay Area celebrated the event.
Brie fields often complimented on his 1970 DS21, most of the younger crowd not yet born when Citroens stopped coming to America.
Brie said it was just a matter of other automakers are catching up Citroën innovations in the world a large number of today's models, from American to Japanese to other European cars, has adopted a number futuristic features introduced by Citroen 1950s to 70 - wraparound xenon almost nonexistent rear bumper that conforms to the aerodynamic shape of the rear.
More important were revolutionary genius ideas cars The Traction Avant, for example, were the first production cars to provide front-wheel drive their agile steering ability makes them the preferred mode of transportation of French gangster French cops do wanting to be left behind literally bought fleets of their own.
Their popularity extended to a wide range of people, Nazi dignitaries artists.
The club holds monthly meetings, but members have never been known to sit around a table to discuss the agenda It is those who do, and what they do best is to conduct meetings are actually trips to wineries, museums and picnics in the countryside.
When we meet, it's more of a social event, said Tony Hayes Inson Valey who dons period costumes, such as the 1930 costume or uniform of World War I Navy during rallies.
During the meetings, up to 20 Traction Avants form a convoy on highways and byways as members show off their goods, ensuring their previously misunderstood cars are considered.
We get a lot of stares, Member Dennis Bayer 53, said.
Bayer, a photographer from Sausalito, starts a lot of photos during meetings that sends many Rene Trufeil, the French farmer aged 82 who he bought his 1953 Traction Avant in 1973, Ecole Normale.
Bayer was a student in Holland when he was visiting the Dordogne region in southwest France when he glimpsed for the first of a Traction Avant on the side of the road, he had to have one right away, despite its status starving- student.
A local led to Trufeil, which separates from the car to 300 Bayer borrowed from the father of his girlfriend then.
After Bayer returned and had the car shipped to the United States, he has forgotten the farmer until he found the sales slip in 1994 and his wife, Aggie, was to visit Dordogne, so he called on Trufeil a whim and found him still on the farm.
Trufeil invited the couple over the course of their visit, and families have been friends since the Bayers returned for two more visits and planning another trip next year The Bayers also hosted the Trufeils granddaughter, Isabelle Meynot, and his girlfriend for two weeks in August
We were driving in the car that I bought from his grandfather 28 years ago, Bayer said I bought this car eight years before his birth.
Bayer added a 1972 DS19 there five years, he had no idea of the size of a Citroens role play in his life when he discovered that day fateful September in 1973.
He became a very competent mechanic Citroën, although it knows nothing about fixing other cars, he twice rebuilt the engine of his Traction Avant and is more than willing to help other club members with problems their Citroen.
Superior Citroën fixer may be had for around 5 000 to 20 000 but some models like the 39 Convertible, up to 100,000.
Bayer has developed friendships around the world because of the cars is a member of the Club of England and was adopted as an honorary member of the French club.
There is an international community like this, he said.
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