I was originally going to start this piece with a brief look at just how interesting French cars used to be; like many on the ViaRETRO team and indeed many classic car enthusiasts in general, I have a soft spot for numerous French classics. Then I remembered that our own Dave Leadbetter did this very eloquently a while back in his article on France: Where Did It All Go Wrong (although it was apparently about 100,000 words too short for one reader), which if you haven’t read it before, is well worth a few minutes of your time.
Yet despite this soft spot, I have never owned a French car – indeed, I have only driven a mere handful, most notably my late father’s Citroën GS Pallas back in the 1970’s, which I loved, and a rented Peugeot 607 barge which transported me in luxury but was as detached a driving experience as you could have. Oh, and my former mother-in-law’s Peugeot 305, which we referred to affectionately as “the hairdryer”. Other than these, I can recall very few occasions when I drove a French car.
Indeed, my preference is generally for German and Italian cars, and yet there are several French classics I would consider, most obviously a Citroën DS… there is something about them that marks them out instantly as, well, French – sometimes odd-looking, often innovative, many with a magic carpet quality to their ride, frequently wilfully eccentric, indifferent to what other manufacturers were doing – the motoring equivalent of a Gallic shrug.
This weekend I should have been at Prescott, nestled among the glorious setting of the Cotswold Hills, for the annual La Vie en Bleu/ La Vita Rossa weekend – one half of which is obviously dedicated to Italian cars, the other to French, so I thought it appropriate to make this week’s Prime Find a French classic, something typically French, and I think I’ve found just the croissant.
Among Citroën’s more humble offerings, the 2CV, Dyane and Ami ranges typify what many think of as French. They look different, they are small, they are noisy, they are basic, they roll alarmingly, and did I mention that they look different? And yet, they have a charm about them that is all their own, and they are unmistakably French.
This week’s Gallic classic (that has a ring to it, don’t you think? Say it out loud – “Gallic classic”) is for sale in The Netherlands, and is a 1968 Citroën Ami 6 Break Club Rouge Corsaire, to give it it’s full name; I think I’ll stick to Ami 6 Break, the “Break” bit refers to it being an estate, of course. Rouge Corsaire refers to its colour, which translates as Crimson Pirate, and no, I don’t know what the connection is, though there was a 1952 film starring Burt Lancaster called The Crimson Pirate that was marketed in France as Le Corsaire Rouge. I wouldn’t have thought that an Ami 6 would be much of a pirate’s (highwayman’s?) car….
They don’t make film posters like this any more
The Ami – or “Friend”, if you prefer – was introduced in 1961 as the Ami 6, upgraded to the Ami 8 in 1969 (which was somewhat less controversial in looks, having a fastback rather than reverse notchback rear, as well as being more powerful) and enjoyed a seventeen year production run. Intended to compete with the Renault 4 as a slightly upmarket 2CV but sharing that old warhorse’s underpinnings, I think it’s fair to say that the styling has a Marmite quality to it (for non-UK readers, this is to say you either love it or hate it, Marmite being a very particular type of yeast-extract based spread sold in the UK that has divided opinion for years; me, I don’t mind it).
The saloon in particular has some very awkward-looking lines. It shares the reverse-notchback of the Ford Anglia 105E or indeed the somewhat larger 1963 Mercury Monterey but doesn’t integrate it as well as either in my view. Apparently this was deemed necessary to facilitate more room for the rear seat passengers. The elongated roof-line of the Break makes the car look much smoother, almost conventional, especially in profile.
The front… well, in rectangular headlamp mode, it actually looks quite cross. Interestingly, the Ami – together with the Ford Taunus P3 – was the first car to utilise headlamps that weren’t round. Indeed, in the USA, round headlights were obligatory up until 1975.  Having said that, I think it looks a lot less angry – and better – with the twin headlamp set-up that “our” car has – they make it look just mildly irritated; you may differ on this, of course.
As an interesting aside, the original intention regarding the headlights was to integrate them into the front wings as shown in the models below. However, “the Service des Mines (the French automobile regulatory authority) insisted that the lights be raised due to concerns about how well they would illuminate the road and as a result, they were elevated and the front wings were redesigned to accommodate them. The bonnet was also redesigned to incorporate the ‘aesthetically challenged’ dip that gave the car so much of its character” (from citroenet.org.uk). Michael S. Lund wrote a more detailed piece on the Ami 6 for ViaRETRO here.
So we come to our Prime Find. Originally bought by an owner in the Ardeche, it moved to The Netherlands in 1999, and the new owner spent much of the next few years restoring the car. According to the advert the car is in excellent shape, with its “Crimson Pirate” paintwork and a “beautiful original interior” in grey with beige carpets – it does look good in the photos below that we have borrowed from the dealer’s website.
It shares the larger 602cc engine from the later 2CV, in the case of our car developing 26bhp, propelling it to a dizzying maximum speed of 68mph or 109km/h. Acceleration from 0-60mph takes a very leisurely 44 seconds; if you really want to burn rubber, you’ll need to find an Ami 8 Break with the more powerful 1015cc flat four. It also has the same cleverly removeable seats as the 2CV, making it unnecessary to fill up the load area with extra picnic chairs or rely on lay-by tables and benches – meaning you wouldn’t have to share picnic space with anyone else, possibly an advantage in these coronavirus times.
To me, the Break looks so much better than the saloon that it’s no surprise that it was the best-selling version of the Ami (of course, it may also have been due to it being more practical) – and the Ami sold well, after an inauspicious start. Total production of the Ami 6 and 8 came to 1,840,396, which isn’t bad by any standards – indeed, for some of its time on the market, the Ami was the best-selling car in France, and of that number, 551,000 – over a quarter – were Ami 6 Breaks, making it the most popular of all the Ami variants.
This particular Ami 6 Break comes with a lot of history, and considering it’s claimed condition, is available for what seems a not unreasonable price of £8,800/€9,950. The dealer is also offering – for a little (undisclosed) extra amount to give the car a service and a new APK (the Dutch equivalent of a TὒV or MoT).
Whoever buys this Ami 6 Break – after a proper inspection, of course – will be buying something as French as a baguette, and in the UK, very uncommon – only 33 Ami 6’s remain on the road here. With a relatively low 98,500km on the clock, it should manage to get to quite a few shows and club meetings yet. I think it’s pretty cool, and it’s relatively low price and simple mechanicals would make it a great entry-level classic for someone looking for something cheap, cheerful (even if it doesn’t look it), basic and different – certainly an interesting alternative to a VW Beetle, for example. And in this internet world, with so many sold, I would imagine parts are not too hard to find in France? If this particular glass of French red might be for you, the link to the dealer’s advert is here.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk