A classic case
DAVE SELBY tackles the Beaujolais Run in one of the most basic cars on the road - a lowered and lightened Citroen 2CV with its top removed.

If Citroen can name one of its shiny modern cars the Xsara Picasso, then the powder blue contraption I'm standing over should by rights be called the Citroen Salvador Dali -because it really is surreal.

For what started life as a 2CV, the quintessence of motoring minimalism, has somehow been transformed by owner and 2CV restorer Mark Waghorn into something even Jess. And I'm about to enter my blue-period riding pillion on this air-chilled corrugated espadrille on the Beaujolais Charity Challenge. It's all in aid of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.

Another aspect that's particularly appealing is the reverse format. Instead of a mad dash back from Beaujolais with a case or two of the new vintage, the challenge was to drive to Beaujolais covering the least distance and there to celebrate with fine wine and food in Beaujeu, tour vineyards and generally kick-back. That's the kind of challenge I like.
My hosts were three generations of the Delliere family whose forbears had come to England as merchants in fine French linen and whose company, The White House, had mounted a three-car charity challenge. The idea was for the three generations to re-trace their French roots in three generations of Citroen: a Xsara Picasso, a 1972 DS20 driven by Simon Lynes who runs the well-known London DS emporium Retromobile 2000, and Mark Waghorn's 2CV.

At its launch at the 1948 Paris Salon one reviewer described the 2CV as "the work of a designer who has kissed the lash of austerity with almost masochistic fervour." Mark Waghorn, who runs MWR Motors in Battersea, London, has clearly been more deeply touched, for he has taken a perfectly decent 2CV and transformed it into a beautifully crafted re-creation of a record car created by Pierre Barbot.

Chopped, lightened, lowered and shortened, the Barbot Special broke nine international records in the 350cc class in an epic run in September 1953 at Montlhery. These included 12 hours at 90.9kph and 24 hours at 85kph.
As far as I'm concerned the most pertinent point about that is that it took place in September sunshine and here we are 47 years later, in Calais in freezing drizzle with midnight approaching on November 14.

The White House team has lined up for the Le Mans-style start and we're discussing tactics. Mine is not to step foot in the 2CV. Theirs is for the three Citroens to travel in convoy with the senior Dellieres riding in the Xsara and the rest
of us in the DS, with father John, son Christian and myself taking stints as pillions on the Scholl sandal.

Navigation was going to be an approximate science as OS driver Simon Lynes had decided it would be more authentic to use a classic map showing French roads as they were at the time of the DS's launch in 1955.

Remarkably, we made it to the mid-way check-point at Reims, which is somewhere in France. By then the pillion trio had all taken turns and we'd all been surprised -and deeply disappointed -at the 2CV's turn of speed. At standstill the wind-chill factor was just about bearable, but for every additional 1 mph the hypothermia quotient seemed to square. At 80mph we had long slipped into a state of cryogenic suspension.

Yes, the slippery, streamlined clog was doing a genuine 80mph, for in the strange parallel world of the 2CV we were in the blood and thunder big engined mother with a monster 602cc -in essence what the AC Cobra 427 is to a 289.
What's more, Mark reckoned there was more power on tap, but considered 80mph to be a "comfortable cruising speed." Per-Iease! In fairness to Mark, though, we had earlier enjoyed 45 minutes at a "comfortable cruising speed" - aboard the Shuttle in the Channel Tunnel.

Through the night, forever onwards, through all four seasons -winter, autumn, winter, autumn -we battled on and made it to the finish line at Macon at 9.45, just 15 minutes inside the time , limit. Of course there were other cars on the challenge, but I couldn't tell you about them - we didn't see any. But there was good food, fine wine and great company. We'd done it in 437 miles, only 20 more than the winners.

The Dellieres had returned to their roots and raised much needed money for Great Ormond Street Hospital. In the spirit of Ernest Shackleton, Mark had raised the game to a higher level, raised smiles throughout France, and for his heroic endeavours won the spirit of the rally award.

I returned home in the heated comfort of the DS, while Mark drove solo, happy and secure in the knowledge that by the time he gets back his case of Beaujolais Nouveau will have matured nicely.