(en Francais au-dessous)

our translation from an article which has been published in “Le Courrier Des Yvelines” on 16. Aug. 2017, and which we discovered recently:

The Association “L’Aventure Peugeot Citroën DS” wants to boost the local automotive heritage

The association, whose mission is to promote the heritage of the three automobile brands, will set up by September 22nd, 2017 in PSA’s premises in Carrières-sous-Poissy, in conjunction with the Poissy tertiary sector.

Relatively little-known, the association “l’ Aventure Automobile in Poissy” (CAAPY) exists in Camères-sous-Poissy since 1984. Volunteers share a common interest in their passion for these vehicles that marked the history of the site of Poissy’s production since 1938. They are in charge of the maintenance of a collection with a hundred vehicles “made in Poissy”, brand names as different as Peugeot, Ford, Mathis, Matford, Donnet, Zedel, Clément or Darracq. These cars will be visible in particular for the public during the weekend of September 16th and 17th 2017 on the occasion of the European Heritage Days.

Even less known is that this association is linked to another, “L’Aventure Peugeot Citroen DS”, chaired by Xavier Peugeot. Its headquarters are in Sochaux, and for a few more days, an office located at PSA headquarters, Avenue de la Grande-Armée, at Paris.

In the context of the grand moving out of automotive group in Poissy and Rueil-Malmaison, this office will be transferred by September 22nd, at the CAAPY facility in Carnères-sous-Poissy.

Free visits with digital tablets

“We are not transferring the association’s headquarters to Carrières-sous-Poissy,”says Xavier Crespin, Executive Director of “L’Aventure Peugeot Citroen DS”. Only the Parisian office with its three employees and his volunteers, moves out.

“The association counts 40 employees, and most of them are located in Sochaux at the Museum Peugeot” he says. This move is accompanied by a desire to capitalize on the work of CAAPY, as part of the priority activities within the framework of entities of L’Aventure Peugeot Citroen DS.

Among these activities the intention is to “make more visible the total number of 1400 vehicles aggregated in the collections from the Peugeot Museum in Sochaux, from the “Conservatoire Citroën” in Aulnay-sous-Bois and and those in Carrières-sous-Poissy… In the museum of Peugeot, we are working on a system of free visits with digital tablets, and we intend to enable the same thing as part of the CAAPY collection.”

According to the director, this solution would relieve the tens of active volunteers from CAAPY and limit costs by hiring of people to work on site.

One consideration currently being investigated into is to propose a a wider range and rearrangement of infrastructure and facilities, including the three existing lifts and the workshop that can accommodate simultaneously four to five vintage vehicles which may require technical maintenance or restoration.

“The goal is not to be able to do all the necessary types of work ourselves”, says Xavier Crespin. “We are rather escorting others, and our intention is to provide support to collectors to connect them to the right type craftsmen (body repairers, painters etc.) as part of our network.”

A Platform for Commercialization and Spare Parts

The CAAPY site could also be be rented for private events of individuals, associations or companies, party night type, seminar, etc.

“We have not certainly not the capacity to welcome 250 people, but about 40: yes.” says Crespin.

The other purpose of these actions is to generate revenue for the Association so that it can ensure a certain degree of independence from the PSA group.

“7.5 Million Euro are needed per year to operate all entities. So we have to find all the possible economic potential offerings to decrease the burden we represent for the PSA Group.”

Campaigns for e.g. crowdfunding restoration projects of a vehicle or a collection of documents, obtaining a formal status of public interest, and the organization of auctions are amongst the options which are being explored.

Within the next three years, “L’Aventure Peugeot Citroen DS” intends to put in place, probably in Poissy, an international platform for historic spare parts provisioning, including remanufacturing of pieces by utilizing some of the PSA Group’s own facilities in Aulnay-sous-Bois and Limoges.

“Our transfer to Careers-sous-Poissy is going to be accompanied by several events” finally promises Xavier Crespin. This will include an annual event, similar to the classic car event for enthusiasts like the one in Sochaux with Peugeot Adventure.”

So far our translation of the article.

It should be annotated that the crowdfunded restoration project had been a proposal by ACI already 10 years ago, in November 2007, towards the Conservatoire. We are happy to see this materialize now and hope that this initiative can be successful.

See also / la version francaise en original:
https://www.pressreader.com/france/le-courrier-des-yvelines-poissy/20170816/281921658154447