We continue our time travel in the museum from where we left off, in the late seventies. When Simca faded away, initially became Talbot, yet disappeared completely just a few years later. Hard times for Peugeot, but lucky number 205 changed everything for the better.
The following images are posted in order of the vehicles’ year of first registration, same recipe as in part one.
1978 Citroën Dyane 6.
Citroën Visa Club (Visa Mk1, September 1978-March 1981).
1980 Simca 1100 Fourgonnette VF2.
1977-1984 Matra-Simca/Talbot-Matra Rancho.
1981 Peugeot 104 hatchback.
Peugeot 305 GLX, post-1982 facelift.
1984 Citroën CX 20 Pallas rally raid car, fully desert-proof.
1984 Talbot-Matra Murena 2.2 S.
1985 Talbot Samba LS. The Samba was based on the Peugeot 104.
1985 Peugeot 309 GR, the Simca/Talbot Horizon successor.
1985 Citroën BX Sport. With factory exterior and body panels, FYI.
1986 Citroën CX 25 GTi Automatic. Slammed car avant la lettre.
1987 Peugeot 205 XE 1.1 Accent.
1988 Peugeot 205 rallye…
…sitting on the deck of a contemporary Peugeot J9 car transporter.
1989 Peugeot 309 GTI.
1990 Peugeot 505 Turbo Injection.
1990 Peugeot 205 1.9 GTI, from all sides.
We’re still driving in the fast lane, a 1993 Peugeot 405 Mi 16 Le Mans.
1995 Citroën Xantia VSX. I just had to include a Xantia, you know.
1996 Peugeot 106 rallye. A dedicated, street legal amusement ride.
Back to comfort mode, a 2000 Peugeot 406 3.0 V6. A desirable D-segment car in its days (think Ford Mondeo, VW Passat and Opel Vectra).
2002 Peugeot 406 Coupé, an instant classic.
2006 Citroën C6 3.0 V6 Exclusive. The last of the Big Citroën Road Gliders.
The tour de France ends in the year 2010 with this Peugeot 407 Coupé. The 07-models weren’t Peugeot’s finest, to put it mildly. What an improvement the subsequent 08-era was and still is.
And those were two main dishes. Desserts will be served soon, in the same restaurant. There’s nothing Gallic on the menu though.
Very interesting to see the differences between an auto museum/collection overseas vs. one here in America.
In retrospect, it’s a real shame there wasn’t a commercial variant of the four-door Horizon as part of the original program to both replace the Simca 1100 van, provide a better platform for the Rancho than the already-old 1100, and offer a more-optimized base for the Dodge Rampage than the coupe was.
I’ve seen some absolutely stunning-looking station wagons in France, too bad none of them showed up here.
The Murena is just too cool
Absolutely awesome work Johannes, merci! I could spend all day, appreciating this collection.
As I’ve mentioned before, similarity in exterior design details, between the Peugeot 309, and the Dodge Shadow two-door coupe.
Not sure if I can fit dessert, as I may have already over-indulged. I am bulging at the seams.
Just to select any of the lovelies at random, I love Opron’s outre orginal Visa with that truffler’s nose. Car is a fascinating little sculpture, how to make a very small car arty. And in opposite vein, love all and any Pug 205, because it’s how to make a very small car pretty.
Love also how little it was that Citroen trusted their CX aircon (had a rep as never being very good), so for desert rally running, just fit about 5 domestic house fans, and voila – le climatisation! (And then, in my experience of car electrique de France, a brief breeze followed by a fusey burning smell and an unscheduled small fire, but I digress).
Actually, maybe I will have small selection of sweets after all, as that final 407 coupe de gargoyle is repeating on me to ill effect. Peugeot didn’t just lose direction in that era, they turned hard right into the rubbish dump and went way off road.
I might have to have a bit of Stellantis.
Regarding the Visa, let’s not forget it was also the base material for creating the cockroach of all fourgonnettes, the 1984-2005 Citroën C15.
Johannes – Thanks for this two part tour of what looks like a fine museum. Unlike ones in the USA this museum’s cars are real ones that were used every day by real people and each and every car seems to be a very well preserved original in fine condition with correct, factory paint. There are no muscle cars, no Corvettes, no Mustangs, no Chevelles, no Mopar Hemis – just cars that everybody used on a regular basis. Great!
I always bought as many of the French made 1/43 scale Solido models as I could find back in the ’60s through ’80s so I learned to identify a lot of French cars (that I never saw in person). I am weak on the Simcas and those are the least interesting. Many French cars have attractive, even provocative body shapes and I enjoy those. The interiors generally look cheap and plastic and very inferior to the interior design/finish on then contemporary German cars; I’d prefer a VW or Benz.
Here in Wyoming there are plenty of those old American cars I complained about but also there is a Citroen ID 19 sedan that I see often around town. It is owned by an airman at Warren Air Force Base. He was stationed in Belgium and bought the car in the Netherlands (or the other way around) and somehow got it shipped back here. It is as nice as the cars in that museum.
Some cars still had the French plates on them, see Citroën Visa. As if they were driven from France straight into the museum, further up north.
All French brands have always been very well represented in both NL and Belgium. This applies to cars and light commercial vehicles.
I visited Belgium (Flanders) a lot in the seventies. Citroën, Peugeot and Renault panel vans were all over the place.
The cheap plastic interior materials and the poor fit quality (my 1984 Renault LeCar’s door gasket could never seal out the mosquitos of which my previously-owned Datsun 510 was able to dramatize the contrary, as only one example) found on especially the more thrifty French models can be forgiven by the plush upholstery and all around dressiness of even lesser Talbots placed further towards the bottom of their Totem Pole below this Tagora.
Why these aimed at executives top-enders were never blessed with the contemporary V-6 Volvo’s fuel injection will always remain a mystery. Stopping this short did a good job in sealing the fate of the last largest Talbot ever. Perhaps, this is exactly what Peugeot-Citroen had in mind, immediately after having gobbled up Talbot?
What I’d give to have one of these, despite its faults
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Quite the smorgasbord of fascinating cars. I’ve always loved the bigger Peugeots, but that little 104 is very cute. I always remember the 104 as being the most base of base cars – a tiny, slow tin box that was almost always completely worn out, but would somehow keep going forever.
I’m interested by the complete lack of Renaults across both posts, despite a quite comprehensive showing of other French marques. Is there a story behind this?
The story behind is that the museum owner is a dedicated Simca/Talbot, Peugeot and Citroën man. His father started with a Simca dealership, Peugeot and Citroën followed later.
Below an old ad, late sixties (given the 1100 and the 1200 S).
This has to be peak maximum space utilization.
This “décapotable” version just might make a convertible convert out of me.
Ideal ride for Sinterklaas.
I wouldn’t mind seeing one of these, on display:
It’s in part one, link at the bottom.
They still look sooo familiar to me, like these are on the roads still today.
A good thing someone has taken the effort to save these once-common cars.
I especially liked all the Simcas. I mean, where to go to see a good number of them together? They’re right there!
Bit of a memory jogger. I had a Citroen BX GT 16v which did 0-60 in c7.0 secs which was fast in the period. It was the time that you really floor a car without being nabbed by speed cameras or censors and I did frequently in the two months I had it. Unfortunately the engine couldn’t cope and the engine warning light never went off for one thing or another. Plus the torque steer made using the acceleration impossible. I replaced it with a Calibre Turbo, a far better looking and more refined beast.
I took the liberty to take a picture of the brochure that was in the car. While the BX Sport looks as wild as yours, it was rather ‘moderately’ powered: 126 DIN-hp from its 1.9 liter engine.
Great collection of cars, and in the usual CC effect I passed an ’02 406 coupe (yellow with silver bonnet) two days ago, first time I’ve seen one in a while. Not sure I’ve ever seen a 407 coupe, but the length of the frontal overhang is quite, quite spectacular. Love the C6, but it’s the CX 25 GTi that I’d be taking home!