Hello ACI Delegates,
As requested in the last AGM (Annual General Meeting), a more frequent update should happen.
I just freshly returned from the „Mobile World Congress (MWC)“ in Barcelona, world’s largest and most important telecoms fair. Stronger than ever, OEM’s (=automobile manufacturers) and their suppliers have been looking into the “Connected Vehicle” and also see business opportunities to arise – and the European premiere of the semi-autonomous “Volvo S90” happened to be at the MWC, not at an Automotive show!
Amongst other features, the S90 now can be opened with a smartphone, additionally to the traditional ways of opening a car, and can transfer this “digital key” to other trusted people. In the city of Gothenburg/Sweden a trial for fully autonomous cars will start from next year.
Also, companies see assets in the vehicle which they’d like to monetize – eg. temperature sensors in 10.000 vehicles can deliver a more accurate information about the current weather situation in a country than any traditional weather service.
We came across a potential “hydropneumatics” evolution – comfort via connectivity. A continuous monitor of the road surface by using sensors in eg. suspension, powertrain etc. aggregates data about potholes, speed bumps etc.. This information is not only relevant for the car itself, but it can be sent from the connected car into the cloud and then fed back to other cars behind. This means following cars know that 80..50..20..10m ahead a pothole is upcoming and thus the car can “prepare the suspension” to anticipate the pothole resp. raise the comfort level (more info: http://www.niradynamics.se/products/rsi). We are curious to see whether this or a similar technology will be implemented in tomorrow’s Citroën…!
By the way- for those of you who are interested to read some “food for thoughts” about tomorrow’s automotive market observations and trends, one recommendation is to read the blog articles from Roger Lanctot:
https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/1648721?trk=prof-sm
ACI Visit to Finland
During the AGM 2016, our French ACI delegate Philippe Lasson suggested that we should be more visible in other countries. In this context, I had the chance to meet with the chairman of the 2CV club in Finland which I visited a couple of days ago. As you know, the Finland 2CV scene is very active and the “APUA HELP” booklet is very well known and has many readers. (“APUA” is the Finnish word for “HELP”). Please help to get this list growing – many Citroën repair shops cannot help any longer on breakdowns etc. – so any volunteer which can help others is warmly welcomed. (see separate email). Thanks to Jari Tolonen [mailto:setikka@gmail.com] and his sister for a great evening spent together in Oulu – and of course, Jari and the club welcomes other 2CV travelers to Finland!
ICCCR 2016 Newsletter
The latest newsletter #7 from the ICCCR team Netherlands has arrived a few days ago. We hope that you all have received this. If not – please subscribe yourself at http://icccr2016.com/en/ to stay updated on the latest proceedings.
Next opportunity to meet with the organizers is at “Technoclassica 2016”, 6-10 Apr 2016, Essen/Germany, world’s largest historic vehicle show (www.siha.de/tce_uk.php). The ICCCR team will expose as part of the “Citroën-Strasse” club presentation (Hall 9.1).
Afterwards, the Citromobile event (7-8 May 2016, www.citromobile.nl) in Haarlemmermeer near Amsterdam will be the next big event where the ICCCR crew will be visible.
125 Years of Panhard
In the context of the Technoclassica 2016” (6-10 Apr 2016, Essen/Germany), it should be mentioned that the main subject of Citroën-Strasse will be a special exhibition related to 125 Years of Panhard. Certainly a highlight will be the 1892 built “Panhard & Levassor P2D” which the company director René Panhard had gifted to his son Hippolyte. The P2D was world’s first mass-produced vehicle, and the first to implement the order of “radiator->engine->passenger area” which is still applied to the vast majority of cars built today. A X45 Torpédo „Sans Soupape“ (1925), a 1950 Dyna X (with aluminium body on a steel chassis), a 1955 Dyna Z1 (full aluminium) and a Panhard 24ct (last produced Panhard vehicle) will complement this unique exhibition.
A few free VIP entry tickets are available for the ACI Delegates who want to visit the show – first come, first serve – so please contact the German ACI Delegates when you arrive (email: info@amicale-citroen.de).
Other News
For those of you who like to do adventure trips in a 2CV in Southern Americas / Paraguay, here is an opportunity to ride in either a two-engined 2CV 4×4, a Charleston or a trip-converted AK350. Please contact Walter Schäffer, walter@2cv-tours.de
For those who’d rather love to stay “local” in the Alsace, we received some info from Thierry Habersetzer which we’d like to forward to you:
We are fond of old Citroens, and opened last year our fully equipped guest house in Alsace (Eastern France). This leads us to regularly welcome Citroen fans, visiting our region or on their way to a classic car event in France, Switzerland or Italy.
We have two 2cvs, recently adopted a 1947 Traction Avant and we would welcome your members looking for a Citroen-friendly accommodation where they could relax and enjoy our home-made pastries while their treasure is safely parked in our garage for the night !
More details on
http://www.sawdays.co.uk/france/alsace/bas-rhin/bluets-et-brimbelles
(we have not tested this location ourselves and thus cannot comment on the offering)
Updates from the ACI Delegates
We’d like to thank our Iranian ACI Delegate, Houtan Arefi, who shared some of the pictures of the “DS Automobiles” store opening ceremony in Teheran. To quote his email:
On 25.01.2016 my club had a Citroën DS on first DS brand celebration and representation in Iran. Sadly I can`t send a rare car for this celebration because their place was small and we can`t park classic Citroen`s on street on hard Tehran`s traffic.
Mr. Yves Bonnefont CEO of DS Brand was there and we had a good and interesting discussion about Citroen historic and new cars also about DS and Peugeot brands. Ambassador of France in Iran was another guest also some of Important Iranian Motorcycle and Automobile Federation persons.
I attached some pics from this celebration, Hope you enjoy. In all together picture first person from right side is me, third person from right side is Mr. Esfandiari famous championships driver in Iran and Alfa Romeo collector.
Best Regards
Arefi
Great to see this engagement – well done!
We’d love to see more of those engagements to be spread amongst the Delegates, yet there is rather little feedback from you.
Thus, we encourage you to update us about some highlights from your country over the year.
Also we kindly ask you to please send us your national 2015 ACI Report as soon as possible, latest until 25-March-2016.
Thank you!
Updates from the Board
We have now appointed a number of functions:
- Laurent Moret de Rocheprise (France) -> Treasurer (like last period),
- Guido Wilhelm (Italy) -> Secretary (taken over from Morten P H Ruud),
- Manfred Buchgeher (Austria) -> Spare Parts,
- Dejan Orovic (Slovenia) -> Delegate Coach,
- Willem Klein Lankhorst (NL) -> Member at Large,
- Stephan Joest (Germany) -> President (like last period).
and the BM have already started to work on their tasks. We will keep you updated about proceedings over time.
So far for now.
Best Regards on behalf of the Board
///Stephan Joest, ACI.
info@amicale-citroen-internationale.org