The first car I owned ... a Citroen ID 19 bought from Luke Lisser in 1975 for a princely sum of R 450 ! That car started my romance with citroens untill they were no longer available in SA .. I owned the ID 19 SC 86 ... a white club SC 1354 ...a cream Club station wagon SC 77 ( still got the number plate ) and finally a Blue club station wagon in CT .. My first holiday in the car ... Marius Neethling ( nuts ) went down to CT with me .. The treacherous Port nolloth road it sneered at .. Then the Rutted and potholed Steinkopf road it laughed at ... all you heard was thudding below you as you sailed along leaving a trail of dust and flying stones in your wake .. it had this armchair comfort way of slowly pitching and rolling as it dealt with that bad road ,, by the time we reached the steinkopf settlement where the tar road started Marius had to get out and puke .. he got seasick from the pitch and roll motion !!
yes Yvette !! the car that looked like an Iron you mentioned well here it is !!
excuse the state of the picture .. it is the only remaing one .. I lost a lot of pictures in a house fire .. thanx goodness I am now scanning and saving ....
Sandy
I can still remember your car!!
Charmain
:) Sandy
Yes, thats the one. You need to keep it safe. That photo is a classic! So was the car!
Yvette
..then Sandy you should enjoy this picture of my current car, a 1972 DS23 that I use each day.
Nice. It's a french car and I've been taught to say nothing nice about that.....
the house looks a lot like somewhere I know in Kraaifontein........sorry
Leon .. Im sooo green with envy ..
no actually the house is in Edgemead a lovely suburb situated between Monte Vista and Bothasig and Panorama.
Barb why were you taught to say nothing nice about French cars, I'm curious.
Just a few facts about the Citroen DS/ID range made from 1955 to 1975.
This car was voted as the best product of the 20th Century, the third best car in the world in the 20th century and the best car in Europe in the 20th century.
Citroens can become an addiction. Look at those lines, undreamt of softest suspension in the world. A car that was 40 years ahead of its time and even today still stands out completely from any modern car.
There is a large very active Citroen Club in Cape Town (please note Sandy) that meet at least once a month. This Saturday we're off to the Whale Festival in Hermanus.
Leon , would love to be able to relive the romance of that car .. never forget it .. my sucession of clubs .. one sedan and two sation wagons also have good memories , altough nowhere near the old ID 19 .. in a class of its own .. unfortunately i have grown beyond tinkering , ( too damm busy ) and at their age they would require tinkering ... and garaging .. I remember when my company gave me a car , I hung onto my blue club station wagon for about a year ... only drove it on weekends .. but again , no garaging .. i could see her looking sad .. so sold her to someone who could do full justice and care ... then again if i was suddenly Lotto rich .. yes I would indulge myself ... I have returned to french cars again .. currenlty driving a brand new Renault CLIO 3 beautiful blue colour and she drives and handles like a dream.. and is ultra reliable .. faultless from delivery ..
yes at one stage french cars developed a bad name .. but then all makes at some stage had bad names .. even BMW , in the 70's they were regarded as quirky ... so yes every time i see one on the road ,, my heart sighs , but I keep myself fixed on the reality .. enjoy the moment of nostalgia with no regrets ....
Agreed DS's in particular were regarded by the general motoring public as quirky, despite the fact that they were actually quite reliable if serviced and maintained regularly, and therein lies the rub.
I am fortunate that my car is sorted out quite nicely, I do small jobs on the car from time to time and I have a good mechanic who does major repair work when required. The DS is also garaged over night. Eventually one day I suppose I will have to let go of her. In the meantime I enjoy each moment I drive her.
Another one of my strykyster at rest .. this pic taken at Bapsfontein in Gauteng .. took Ian and Pauline there for the day ...
yes these cars have the nickname 'strykyster' amongst the Afrikaans speaking community. Sandy were there any other DS/ID's in OMD in our days. I never saw one in all my time there and in fact I am surprised that anyone on OMD would have owned a DS because of the fear of the hydraulics packing up miles from nowhere.
Leon Quite a few .. luke lissers one i bought .. and he bought a new one .. If i remember about 6 or so were owned in O'mund .. even mr Dyason bought an older one from somebody else in O'mund and had years of pleasure from it ... we used to use old Johhny Britz from Britz motors in Obs for servicing .. he knew all the quirks and preventative tricks ...
absolutely amazing Sandy, as I say I never saw a single Cit in OMD in the entire 12 years I was there. I used to go to the garages where my Impala was garaged quite often to service/clean/startup/check tyres/fiddle etc and never saw a single Cit. I was always on the lookout for Cits seeing as my late Dad had so many of them. He even had a 'light 15' before his ID/DS's. Goodness me so there right under my nose were all these Cits, wierd. The attached pic is of me and my two sisters in late 50's eating ice cream in front of my dad's 1948 Cit Light 15 ('Traction Avant' in France)
PS Leon my hydraulics never packed up ... in fact as you said well maintained the systems were bulletproof .. if ever a gas sphere went while in OM I would phone johnny and he would send up a pair of recons ( always a pair front or back ) .. I would replace and next time in CT if it was regassable i would get my deposit back .. in fact on my clubs i did a fair amount of work on hydraulics myself ( eg dicky height corrector ) .. the secret was be fearless .. hydraulics are hydraulics and i was not even schooled in it ...
you mention Johny Britz. He also did all servicing and repairs for all my dad's Cits. In fact he also serviced my Chev Impala when the previous owner owned the car. Mr Britz put me on to the owner of the Chev when I mentioned I wanted to buy a car for long distance (OMD to CT) travel. That's how I came to own the Chev.
What about the clubs ?? ... ther were a good amount " floating" around now i remeber the 61 model Ronnie Dyason had .. he bought it from a man surname .. Wessels .. aah Boeps Wessels and .. Boeps bought a new DS as well .. when town was opened there were a couple of DS / Pallas "floating" around .. I rememeber Sakkie van Jarrsveld ( wingnut )from Town electrical ahd one .. Deep metallic brown .. Luke Lisser had also DS same colour ... My da had a club .. i had a few clubs . there was a guy forget his name had a brown DS but it had some chassis problems ( rust) and the back wheels splayed out like a beetle .. only thing holding the equation together wa most probably the anti roll bar ....
as you say hydraulics is hydraulics. Contrary to popular myth the DS/GS/CX hydraulic systems are extremely robust. This has been proven by the countless rally's that have been won by Cits over the years. The early pre 1968 red fluid cars were problematic because the red LHS fluid was hygroscopic and therefore corrosion was a problem, also the early sphere diaphragms pre 1959 were also troublesome, but once Cits switched over to green fluid (LHM) virtually all the problems were solved. {Psst...I hope you and I are not going to get into trouble for wandering off topic (OMD) here}
crazy...I must have been asleep. This may have been after I left in Dec 82.
That was 70's Leon ... I left 1980 ... they were all there there right under your nose .. Ouch !! fearless hydraulic travellers ...
1980........Sandy could you give me a brief overview of what you have been up to for the last 28 years.
Leon.
Lots Leon absolute lots ,,, an interseting life .. out of the electrical trade gravitated into production management in the same factory i stared out as an electrician ... actually too much too say here ... one day a get together and long chat .. . in meantime observe my postings ... past and present .. easy go onto profile and look up postings of profile ...