Weird Wankel, even weirder numbering

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Ah – the Citroën M35. That weird Wankel, sold only to selected customers to test them under everyday circumstances. It was no success and the 500 planned cars never materialized, with whole ranges of numbers skipped to make things seem credible. All in all just 267 M35s were put on the road with number 473 being the last one. That particular car was fully restored a while ago and we had the opportunity to reunite it with the No.1 shown here with the sporty lady - on Montlhery? It resides in Citroën’s Conservatoire these days.

The Conservatoire is a fascinating place with the M35 bumper-to-bumper with plenty of other prototypes and a Crosière Jaune six-wheeler. We parked its sister car next to it, made the picture and that was it. Or wasn’t it? Well, we couldn’t withstand to check the chassis plate on old number one, only to find out it was actually number 4 that was being conserved here. The Conservatoire’s mechanic that lead us around just winked. He knew! You’ll have to love that French mentality.

(picture Jeroen Booij archive)

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