Spotted at the CCC Midlands Section Late Summer Rally

12th September 2010 - Stratford upon Avon, UK

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From Andre Pol:

<Text removed at the request of Andre Pol>

From Mike Cottingham, the Present Owner :

Cars History

"The car started its life back in 1974 when the chassis, engine and gearbox were produced and registered with the Dutch authorities, giving it a Dutch identity.

In the late seventies a Dutch Citroen dealer decided that he would like to build three top of the range Citroen DS’s and began to collect all the parts he needed to assemble the cars. The models he chose where a DS Prestige, DS Convertible and a DS 23 Pallas IE.

The Prestige and convertible were duly assembled and are on the roads today. The DS 23 Pallas IE however was never built and remained just a pile of new parts gathering dust. The car changed hands several times in the coming years and one owner did start assembling the car but abandoned it shortly after.

Early in 2008 on my travels looking for my perfect car I got to hear about this project car. I did not know if it was just myths or indeed it did exist. I contacted Citroen Andre & Partners in March 2008 and they tracked down the car for me. I went over to Holland in May 2008 to view the car and was taken to a barn to look at a pile of new parts hanging onto a DS chassis with tape and gravity.

I had a dream for my retirement of owning the best DS I could afford having drove around many Citroens in the 60’s & 70’s that were falling apart around me so I decided with Andre Pol’s help to purchase the car and commission them to complete the car for me, to as close as possible to showroom condition.

Many parts were missing and throughout 2008, 2009 and 2010 Andre had to source the parts from all over the world to fulfill my dream, with parts coming from USA, Kuwait, South Africa, France, Italy, Sweden, Poland and Germany.

Work started on the car in late 2009 and was completed in July 2010 and brought to the UK.

The car would never have been built to such a high standard if it was not for the team at Citroen Andre & Partners. My many thanks go to Andre Pol, Bart Knocken (who assembled the car) & Wils Nieuwhof.

The car is as original as possible with only very minor deviations which are:-

Tracking System. GPS.

Retro Radio.

In cap Ignition Unit.

Rear Chapron Head Rests.

Speedo in Miles.

Now that burning question what is it worth. Well its worth what someone will pay for it.

I paid in access of £120K for my dream but some say I'm mad anyway."

Mike Cottingham