The Full English

An English-built Citroën meets English wine as we enter a slightly bizarre parallel universe.

- Sam Skelton

Bread. Cheese. Flamboyant clothing. Philosophy. Vineyards. Wine. The Citroën DS. If it sounds like I’m describing the average Boursin advert, you’d be forgiven for thinking so. After all, everything I’ve listed above is stereotypically French, and the combination of them all as per the photographs is one of the most comprehensive suggestions of Francophilia it’s possible to make, yes?

Mais non. Because I’m in the English Midlands, not the Ardennes. And the car I’m driving was made in Berkshire. This scene is therefore as English as fish and chips on Whitby seafront, while a beefeater waving a St George Flag whistles God Save The Queen.

57EKX is a Slough-built Citroën ID19 – markedly different inside and out from the equivalent car produced in Paris. A redesigned front number plate plinth, Citroën badge to the bonnet, conventional parking brake and Lucas rear lights were obvious changes, but it was to the lower-spec ID model that Citroën made the greatest changes. In France, this was a pared-down DS, but in Britain its pricing put it alongside Humbers and Rovers and thus the trim had to reflect that.

The Slough ID therefore got DS hubcaps, leather seats, and a somewhat incongruous wooden dash in the style of the previous Slough Tractions. And this very overt British take on the theme is why my classic road test of a DS is technically not in a DS – but in the ID which shared its shell and elements of its drivetrain. I want my experience not to be French…