1921 Citroën racing car purchased by nearby California collector
On March 4, 2016 we wrote about Citroënvie member Nazar Miszczuk and his passion for pre-war Citroëns. At the time had purchased what looked to be the remains of a Cloverleaf Citroën 5 HP Type C in Monterey, CA. [See: https://citroenvie.com/help-needed-to-identify-citroen-from-the-1920s/]. He had been working on it, determining it was a 1926 C3 Trèfle, and made progress restoring the chassis.
Nazar’s restoration progress to date on his 1926 C3 Trèfle.
Two weeks ago an ad appeared on eBay for another Citroën for sale in Alamo, California. The ad described the car as a 1921 boat tail fastback roadster purchased a couple of years ago by the owner thinking he would have more time than he actually had to restore it. He even posted the original ad that prompted him to purchase it:
“Here is a barn find, 1921 Citroën boat-tail racer, old barn find, car has a 1 liter 4 cylinder engine. It comes from a guy that imported it from Switzerland in 1959, he and his brother bought the car in 1954, car does run and drive but needs restoration. I have the rear fenders.”
When he picked the car up in November of 2014 it was running but he had not started it since. There was a bunch of old documentation from the original import, some Citroën books etc. He still had the rear fenders (in good shape) along with an extra wheel and a box of additional parts plus the title. The metal boat-tail obviously still needed some work.
Nazar couldn’t believe his luck. He bought his C3 trifle hoping to build a racing car from it. Lo-and-behold, here was an original racer in original condition! Exactly where he was going with his Trèfle project. And this one was running, had original documentation and an actual racing history!
The car was about an hours drive away, had a no reserve price and no one was bidding. Nazar phoned the fellow, went over to see it, made an offer and it was accepted. Today he went to pick it up and bring it to its new home!
Nazar says; “This is Citroen model 5HP type 3C that was modified for racing as soon as it left factory in early 1920s. This car spent some time in Switzerland in 1950s and moved to California in early 1980s where it has been every since. It is so humbling just to think that this piece of engineering was there on the racing tracks of France at the dawn of automotive racing… If all goes well, this car will continue its racing journey into its centennial. I am gearing up for local vintage car racing and endurance runs here in Bay Area.”
We can’t wait to see the restoration progress on this one and hopefully Nazar can remain committed to getting his C3 finished as well. Now maybe he can take that back to being the original type three-seat Trèfle (Cloverleaf) with room for a single passenger in the rear.