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An oval room for a beauty queen.
In the vast entrance hall, a C6, Citroën's new standard
bearer, reigns supreme. The Marque's new flagship
vehicle is offset by a ring of jewels: an antique
prototype 2 CV from 1939, a right hand drive Traction
Avant from 1952, dubbed the Light Fifteen and
manufactured in Slough and two DSs. The first
is a 1961 model with daffodil yellow bodywork that took
pride of place last year at the event organised to mark
the 50th anniversary of this unrivalled car at the Cité
des sciences et de l'industrie technology museum in
Paris. The other DS, from 1967, is a doorless
model, which enables visitors to sit inside the dream
machine and imagine they're taking off. The
enchantment continues with the C Airdream concept car,
star of the 2002 Paris Motor Show. Behind the vehicles,
a wall of screens shows old films and commercials.
Propelled into the future by its heritage, Citroën is a
living legend. The Art of Citroën, showing until
mid March 2007 at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu,
two hours' drive south west of London, is a regal
showcase of design and innovation.
The commemoration of the living legend of Citroën is a
key attraction for the museum's 400,000 annual visitors.
This highly original institution seems to have come
straight out of a typical English picture book.
Nestled in the New Forest national park, a stone's
throw from Bournemouth and Southampton, the Beaulieu
estate has maintained its timeless English style.
Dominated by the Victorian Gothic architecture of
Palace House, the ruins of a 13th century abbey lie in
the rolling English garden. The abbey was founded
in 1204 when King John, brother of Richard the
Lionheart, carved a portion from William the Conqueror's
New Hunting Forest and gave it to a brotherhood of
Cistercian monks. In 1538, the Beaulieu Estate was
purchased by the Montagu family. More than four and a
half centuries later, the Montagus are still living
there. In 1952, the historical property gained an
unlikely addition: the Montagu Motor Museum, a memorial
to Britain’s motoring achievements. Lord Montagu
of Beaulieu intended the museum as a homage to his
father, a motoring pioneer in Britain. A tad
eccentric? The family estate is anything but
Citizen Kane’s impregnable Xanadu. Here, visitors
are welcome.
In the space of a generation, the museum acquired such
renown inside and outside Britain that in 1972 it was
awarded the title of National Motor Museum. The
permanent collection deserves the honour, with thousands
of documents and objects related to this largely Anglo
American industry, as well as 250 vehicles. The vintage
collection includes cars that have gone down in history,
including world record breakers like the 1920 Sunbeam
350HP, the 1929 Golden Arrow and the 1964 Bluebird.
This consuming passion is expressed with
diligence, like the meticulous reconstruction of a
typical English garage from the 1930s. Keen to
keep up with the times, the Beaulieu museum constantly
adds to the collection. During the temporary Citroën
exhibition, a 1997 ZX Rallye Raid from the permanent
collection made way for the Xsara WRC in which Sebastien
Loeb won his second consecutive drivers' world
championship title in 2005. Coordinated by the Citroën
UK subsidiary, which designed a competition and
coomunications exercise at the museum, the exhibition is
one of Citroën Heritage's main projects for this year.
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu is the Patron of the
Citroën Car Club.
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