My GS/GSA Connection

"Why is someone so enthousiast to sit for hours and hours behind the screen of a computer, to build a homepage, about a car who was taken out of production over fiveteen years ago, and did not exactly had a very good reputation...?"
People have asked me this question hundred's of times... Well, let me try to explain....

At first there is me, I was in the mid seventies, in a small town called Delfzijl, located in the very North of The Netherlands. My father, a devoted Citroënist, drove a Citroën GS at the time. From the very beginning I was fascinated by cars. I really can't remember why. What I do recall is that I was asthonished, seeing my father's GS start. If you start a GS, you don't start it and drive away... A GS starts, lifts itself and then drives away. In those early years this was surely a sign to me that a GS was not an ordinary car, but much more than that.

The car my father drove at the time was a 1972 GS Club Service (photo). It's colour was white. He bought it in 1974 and drove it untill 1978. When he sold it, it had only driven 80.000 kilometers. This type GS was one of the types only a few where sold off (Break Service Vitree). Although the car was technically in a good shape, it was heavily rusting, due to continious exposure to seawater. At the time my father was Captain on a coaster and he took the car with him on his journeys.

In 1981 my father bought his GSA. It was a brand new Club Break, colour beige. The car was extremely well maintained and we drove only 62.200 kilometers with it. In 1988 my father decided it was better to buy a diesel, due to the increase of kilometers he drove. So the GSA was traded on a 1985 BX 19 Diesel.

As the years went by, I grew up, and got my driving license some years ago. Then the issue of a car came up. Well...my first car was surpricingly not a GS/GSA! The reason was that I was a student at the time and therefor money was tight. It was diffcult to obtain a good GS, so I bought a BX instead.

But on a good day in the year 2000 I became the owner of a GSA Special. I kept my BX alongside it. A while after that I got a new job and had to cover more kilometers. So I went out and bought a BX19TGD Break, a Diesel. The old BX was scrapped by myself.

Shortly after I came across a at first sight excellent GSA Pallas C-Matic. It had only covered 53.000 kilometers and the interiour looked as new. To cut things short, the body didn't. It had been previously owned by an old man who stopped driving. It was sitting in the parking lot behind the local Citroën Dealer. But it failed its anual test and was now waiting for the scrapyard. I stood up and did what i had to do, buy it. For some 50 Euros I know owned two GSAs. My plan was to use the body of the special and the engine and gearbox aswell as interiour of the Pallas to rebuild one good GSA. So I started scrapping the Pallas and started worked on the Special.

That was when I came across my third GSA. A beautifull X3 from 1984, which i fell in love with at first site. I couldn't resist the temptation of this GSA, so I bought this too. I know was the proud owner of three GSAs. Of which only one in road condition. Since cars don't pay for themselves I decided to sell the Special and scrapp the Pallas so that I had two cars left, my BX and my GSA X3. Some time later I came across a Xantia diesel, I sold the BX and bought the Xantia.

For my father; he too drives Xantia nowadays. A very nice car to drive with good looks and very reliable too, but it is not a GS/GSA. The years have gone by since I started my GS/GSA hobby and it became more than a hobby, sometimes it is a passion. Citroën Enthousiasts know what I am talking about, it's a feeling that can't be described. For me the Citroën GS/GSA is the most beautifull car in the world, despite it's problems. Personally I would never buy any other car than a Citroën.

Today the Citroën GS and GSA have become semi-classical cars. Not many cars are left. In The Netherlands, for example there are less then fivehunderd running, of originally more than hundred-and-tenthousand sold. This is exactly the reason why I made this homepage. The GS and GSA are undervalued by a lot of people. Nowadays most of the attention of citroën enthousiasts goes out to the ID/DS, 2CV, Traction Avant and CX types, who of course are special cars. But, this is not completely fair to the GS/GSA. The car also was a car who was ahead of it's time, when it was made. Luckely more and more people start to realize that. As clubs evolve in France, Germany, Italy and England. The Dutch GS/GSA Club was already founded in 1988. Therefor this homepage, the GS/GSA deserve to be remembered as extraordinary cars, who where not like any other car that was produced at the time. Concluding; an original Citroën!

Mattijs Kemmink, 1998-2004