Hyde Park Blvd

I write about Citroen more than I should.  Innovative and maddening, beautiful and disappointing.  But this is a great ad done by someone who knows a lot about the cars DNA — and how to make a great video.  Bon apetit!

It’s about time that we showed some love for Burt Reynolds in his prime.  The clip here, from Robert Aldrich’s The Longest Yard has got it all — the clothes, the attitude, the mistreated woman in orange gauze, a Citroen SM (how many car chases include — or destroy — a SM?), the intercuts to Burt stirring the stick shift.

And it’s the only opening scene of a good watch, for God’s sake.  Thanks to the post on Sunsetgun based on Kim Morgan’s Garage article.

My son fell victim to a father who droned on about certain cars, mostly small, that displayed the virtues of good engineering and design.

In particular was the product of a manifest, from Citroen and Boulanger, for a small, durable, inexpensive car, one that could ‘traverse a plowed field without breaking any of a basket of eggs in the front seat.’ That car, the Toute Petit Voiture (TPV), was eventually known as the 2CV

Here’s his phone photo of a nicely maintained model with characteristic canvas top. Designed in the late 30s, the 2CV was still technically advanced when it came to market in 1949. Citroen manufactured the beautiful machine until 1990.