1299cc GSA Pallas

Unique, quirky, fun, comfortable, brilliant.

I have fond memories of my GSA: it had brakes that put parachutes to shame, the ability to corner like a batmobile and the sort of collar up, twenty-something coolness that you could only get from France.
On the open road the steering was both light and direct, but with no power steering the moment you found a space to park you needed to be youthful and strong to turn the wheel.
Inside it was as comfortable as your family's favourite, most comfortable sofa and even the doors were lined with fabric from a boudoir. A usefully placed handbrake in the form of a garden spade handle fitted neatly into the dashboard and Citroën's utterly unique satellite switchgear lay a perfect reach from the wheel.
It's slippery shape looked amazing in a world where most cars were styled on a house brick and it's all alloy engine sounded sweeter and more refined than the rattle-raspy flat4 found in Volkswagen's beetle.
The huge headlights that dominated the nose, lit up more road than most other cars could grouped together and because the suspension was self-levelling the lights always pointed at the road ahead.
I miss the GSA and sometimes when I'm at a garage and I catch a whiff of engine oil on a hot exhaust, I'm transported back to my twenties and those times I had driving this car with real soul.

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