Citroen GS Pallas
Here's another great daily driver option you don't see too often.
It's the midsize car Citroen made if the DS was too big for you & the 2CV too small.
It has a flat four air cooled 1220cc motor & a hydro-pneumatic suspension.
Other than the size, what I find attractive on this model is that there are no other complex systems to fail.
No power steering, no electric windows, no hydro assisted gear shift mechanism.....
Kinda simple like a French Karman Ghia. Less stuff to bust.
Being the Pallas, this one has the full luxury interior & sound deadening too.
My personal car I have done lotsa work to it:
Ball joint, alignment, clutch, hydropneumatic leaks repaired, tuning, timing belts, valve adjustment, wheel bearings, & more things I'm sure.
I really like working on these little cars & I have actually owned 5 of them over the years.
They are all different, but I think this one comes closest to how the designers imagined they would be.
Not all of them are supple. Even if you replace the spheres, some ride a bit jouncy.
I think the pistons in the suspension units start seizing.
Anyway, this is the plushest riding one I have driven.
Some of the motors don't rev well.
They turn a fairly high RPM on the freeway, & if you have a dog the engine just drones.
This one is super smooth & revs easily. The word singer comes to mind.
On the freeway note, the early cars are geared horribly.
made for driving not much above 60 mph in the French countryside. It's tough to actually use one on an American highway.
The later GS have much better gearing, but they are not legal in California.
Being a 1975 this one can be registered here with no smog.
Ah......
I actually bought & imported a whole other GS from Holland just to get the taller transaxle.
By the time I paid for the importing & spent the time to swap 2 gearboxes I was pretty commited .
The outcome was fantastic though. This California legal Pallas now has freeway gears in it.
Cool ! I drive it on the freeway all the time now.
Phew.
Nice paint, It's a refin in the original color & it beads up when it rains
Interesting dash with a rotating Cyclos eye speedo that glows amber when the key is on.
It changes color as the speed changes too. I should make a video of that !
Here's an idea of the amber, but I didn't get the lighting quite right for the camera
Super plush Pallas interior, although the drivers seat is showing some age.
No tears yet, but the fabric is getting so thin you can see through to the foam underneath a bit.
Comfy back cabin
Clean enough under the hood.
So what's the price ?
Always difficult to say.
I did not import this one. A collector in Monterey did, & I won it on eBay for $6850
Let's assume that was market value as many people were bidding on it.
I then spent a serious amount of shop time on it to dial it in.
If you had bought the thing on eBay, you would probably have had to do most of that work to make it an enjoyable drive.
If you added the work I did to the car & the adventure of getting that 79 transaxle in it , that would have easily doubled the purchase price.
Huh. Silly Rabbit. You could have bought a Miata & been done with it.
How about $8000 ?
That seems reasonable.
How could I sell such a cool car , arguably also the best GS I have ever driven ?
Somehow in the last 4 weeks 5 ( five ! ) new vehicles have been added to my fleet.
It has been raining cars. Great opportunity, but I only have room to park five & I now own Eleven.
Yup. Time to sell some of the good runners & fix up the new acquisitions.
Need a Fulvia Zagato ? I should have one of those up & running by next summer.
If I don't keep it for myself.
Buy 'em while they're hot...........
Off to go get some baguettes in the Citroen...............
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