When I finished police college in 1976 my dad bought me a second hand Citroen DS. It was known for its aerodynamic futuristic body design and innovative technology, including a hydro pneumatic self levelling suspension. Also nicknamed “shark” or “babel mouth” as a result of its sharp shaped front.
It had excellent comfort, ride quality, handling, and braking ability and was named the most beautiful car of all time by Classic & Sports Car magazine. The DS also came third in the 1999 Car of the Century competition. Despite all this, I sold the car after about one year for the following reasons. It had smoke belting out from the dashboard every time I drove, because the rings were shot and a complete overall was long overdue on the engine. As a teenager I found the car too slow and big and something which grandpa should have owned.
I was a fortunate young man and my next car I received was also almost a free gift, this time from Chris, my brother in law. I paid him a measly sum for a 1963 model Renault R10 which had its engine in the rear boot. To me this was a real car! Chris being a car fanatic like no other, we changed the little car’s engine into a mean little piece of dynamite. We fitted a three quarter racing camshaft, twin double Weber carburetors, stainless steel banana branch exhausts and some other unknown magic which caused much excitement when driving the little white bullet.
Photo by Paul Horn
The car was quick, although the engine size was only 1100cc. Very fast from zero to a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. It could also reach much higher speeds but being a very light car in the front (no engine there) it lost some stability at high speed and specially on a windy day. To solve this problem I put a fifty kilogram sandbag into the front baggage compartment.
The R10 couldn’t idle like a normal car as it was running too cold, and when stopping at intersections I had to pull the manual choke slightly to prevent the engine from cutting out. The banana exhaust gave the the car a distinct beat which said beat me if you dare!
My friend Mauro and I used to drive around the city and had a lot of fun racing other cars from intersection to intersection. The Renault looked so innocent! Plain white with biscuit thin tires. When a car pulled up next to us we used to rev the R10 once or twice and the challenge was usually on immediately. What a surprising look of disbelief we got at the next intersection when the challenger arrived a few seconds later. We rarely lost a challenge and even left in our dust the BMW and Datsun SSS cars which in the seventees were the cars to beat.
Mauro and I spray painted the little R10 and his Mini in my backyard. We knew very little about this but by watching Chris painting cars we soon learnt the basics and sanded down both the cars using lots of physical energy. Chris had professional spray guns which we took turns to practice with and the end product made us proud as we had sanded and scrubbed and polished the metal of both cars for many hours.
Years later I traded the Renault in for a Ford Escort GL which also gave me lots of pleasure, but after my Suzuki 50cc my R10 was my most memorable possession.
Photo by Georg Schwalbach
About Bugs
I got my inspiration for this website from the song called “Imagine”, and so I decided to go on this adventure. I have always wanted to put up something like this where my friends and I could express our memories and dreams for the future. Share them with us, because if many people dream the same dream it will certainly come true.
Bugs, don’t remember your cars, as at the time I knew you, I was very young. Your story of your cars made me smile and think back to some dodgy cars I owned when I first moved to Australia. I got my license in SA, but couldn’t afford a car. When I moved here, it was a different story. I had to share my two cars I got with my brother Afdero. The first was a small, 1960 Toyota Glide, who I named Christine, as I am sure this car was possessed. When I wanted to drive the car and didn’t want my brother to leave me stranded, the car wouldn’t start if he wanted to take it. That in the end, blew its auto gearbox and Afdero found the dodgiest mechanic to fix it and landed up with a manual gearbox and sounded like a vw beetle when he drove it. He had to double shift the gears, so we sold it. I then got a Ford XA station wagon which I gave to my brother and he blew the engine up. Yes our first cars gave us good memories. Later on I had a v6 Ford XD with a second phase cam, and an Ford v8,351 XW. Both those cars I so wanted to race them down the quarter mile as they were as fast as lightening. Unfortunately they were both gas guzzlers so I sold them. I must admit, I do love my present drive. Its such a pleasure to drive.
Hi Maureen. I remember you and your brother Afdero. Mauro and I visited you guys on our motorbikes in Prestbury if I’m not mistaken. Seems you drove some real big tanks. Driving v8 cars as a policeman was also a good experience for me and the power under the foot was awesome. Pity they guzzled so much fuel.
that sounds great. We sure had a good time with all these cars! How many hours we spent with our heads under the lid of the engine! There was no need for a mechanic, we did everything ourselves.
Those were the days ….!