ON THE ROAD
READERS CARS
T
his month’s car of the month is the Citroën Dyane, owned by Sofia and bought new in 1974 from the Citroën dealership in Faro by her father Jose Pilar. Sofia loves how the car drives and “wouldn’t sell it for the world”. It has done 71,000km from new and is used as an every day driver. The car was restored last year taking 1 year to complete and painted in dark blue at the bottom to represent the sea and a light blue top to represent the sky.
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The restoration was a total overhaul; engine out, seats reupholstered, wheels refurbished, new brakes, tyres and of course a full respray with the 2 tone blue. The reason for the restoration was for a very special trip from Tavira to Viseu in the north of Portugal for Sofia’s son Guilherme’s wedding, held in July this year. It really was a fabulous occasion for both mother and son. The Citroën Dyane is an economical family car produced by the French automaker Citroën from 1967 to 1983. The Dyane design was directly based on the Citroën 2CV, but had
much more angular features, distinguished by the introduction of a hatchback rear body. A panel van version named the Acadiane was also derived from the Dyane. Nearly 1.45 million Dyanes and some 250,000 Acadianes were made. Although the Dyane was a complete reskin of the 2CV, the body panels are not interchangeable. The 2CV remained on sale as a cheaper, entry level model, and when the Dyane was retired after more than fifteen years, its predecessor, the 2CV, kept soldiering on, outliving its intended successor.
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