GALLIC STAR

FROM BEING A ROPEY RUNNER, TO A WRITE OFF, TO A SHOW WINNER THIS CITROEN HAS HAD A DRAMATIC LIFE -

People buy unusual cars for all sorts of reasons, so what happened in this case? "My family is actually Italian, but my father always had French cars," says Ramon Mocellin with a wry smile. "I think that's where it came from. He had a Peugeot 404 and then a Renault 16.

My uncle also had a 16, as did my grandfather! "He (Dad) defected and had a Saab after that. He said the Saab was wonderful, his first car with air-conditioning, but the gearbox was agricultural." The Citroen we're gazing at is a 1974 DS23 Pallas five-speed manual in exceptional cosmetic condition.

So good in fact, Unique Cars mag had no hesitation in nominating it for the major award at last October's Australian National Show & Shine in Euroa, Victoria.

Looking at it now, it's hard to believe the Citroen was at one stage a write-off.

Ramon's story with the car starts back in 2010. "I was looking for a classic car," he says, "and went to a couple of shows and got a bit enthused. But I didn't have much luck buying - other people beat me to some of the cars I wanted." Then the Pallas presented itself through what he calls "some dodgy ad somewhere on a noticeboard". Even that proved a trial.

"He was the second owner and said he wanted to sell, but seemed a bit reluctant. However, there was a house renovation of some sort that needed money and in the end he sold it to me."

Apparently it wasn't in great condition, but it did run. The paint was the worse for wear and the cloth interior was in a state Ramon describes as showing more foam than fabric. He also had a strong suspicion that there was a fair bit of rust.

With thoughts of eventually doing it up, he simply drove it around for a while, until the timetable was taken out of his hands. "It was going okay," he says. "Then someone rear-ended me and totally smashed the back. It was written off.

"By then I was attached to it and so decided to fix it up."