Rendezvous 2024 – Saratoga Springs, NY — Report

by George Dyke….

The weather was perfect for the 3 days that Rendezvous was held, (June 14 – 16) once again encompassing Fathers’ Day weekend.

Many attendees traveled on the Thursday to spend the night and relax at Saratoga Springs before partaking of the official activities that commence on Friday.

On Thursday I drove my 1982 Visa II Super X formerly owned by the late John Mazmanian who passed away in January 2011. It had not been to Rendezvous since 2011, when I drove it there as part of a tribute celebration of John’s life.

Dubbed “the Mazmobile” by attendees that remember John, it is a rather special car because one year John went in it to attend Rendezvous one weekend ahead of the event only to discover his error.  He drove all the way home then returned in the Visa the next weekend!

The “getting there” story for this year goes to Ben Boyle and his wife Elaine who experienced a 2CV meltdown on the the New York State Thruway.

According to Ben the car was left in gear while they were at a rest stop and the starter motor activated sending the car forward, Ben managed to pull it out of gear, but by then smoke was emanating from from the engine bay. Ben’s friend Rich Child was traveling with them in a Dyane that Ben had loaned him for the trip. He managed to get the hood open so the growing flames could be extinguished, but not before a few of his arm hairs were singed. The following pics show the extend of the damage.

All three managed to fit into the Dyane for the balance of the trip while the 2CV got towed to Trinity Citroën (Dave Burnham’s location). Ben feels that the 2CV can be repaired, and hopes that he can save it from being an insurance write-off.

Once again the Courtyard Marriott served as the home base for many attendees, but all Rendezvous activities occurred elsewhere.

A group of folks got an early start to the activities going to a dinner hosed by Dale Martin on Thursday evening at Chianti, a lovely Italian restaurant in town.

The official Rendezvous agenda commenced with the Ice Cream Social held from 2 – 4 pm once again at the Kaleidoscope Cafe just east of Saratoga Springs.
Friday evening saw a new socializing venue with pizza party at VFW Post 420 at 190 Excelsior Ave. in Saratoga Springs.

View a full photo gallery of the Rendezvous weekend here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBwpvj

Saturday was the main show field — again at Lakeside Farms near Balston Spa. It was an impressive showing of not just Citroën models, but Peugeot, Simca, Matra, Renault, a couple of VW Beetles and a stunning Jaguar XK120.

There was a surprisingly low number of just 4 Traction Avants this year, but each one was impressive!

• Ian Stokes from Vermont showed probably the oldest and most original Traction in North America — from 1936!
• Larry Lewis (who traveled to Rendezvous with me) debuted his freshly restored 1949 11BL.
• Gary Kelly from Fun Cars of Georgia came all the way from Jackson, Georgia in an impressive 15-6.
• Richard Boudrias from Montreal showed his Traction 15-6H equipped with air-conditioning!

Speaking of air-conditioning, Theodore Kazadzis of Fayetteville, GA also travelled from Georgia in a 71 DS 21 Pallas ie completely restored in Bordauex, France, he attended with last year but this year he showed the electric air-conditioning that he installed.

The star of the show from a Citroën standpoint was an actually running 1971 Ami M35 Prototype recently imported from Europe and owned by Bruce Ehrman. It is an extremely rare coupé derived from the Ami 8, and equipped with a longitudinally mounted single rotor 498 cc Wankel engine and a hydropneumatic suspension. The bodies were produced by Heuliez from 1969 to 1971. The M35 was an experimental vehicle and was not officially sold – rather it was supplied to loyal Citroën customers to get their comments on its usability through a take-back program, but some customers managed to keep their cars. Bruce sourced one last year to add to his collection.

Of course, an assortment of spare parts, T-shirts and other items were readily available in the vendors’ tent.

Notably Dave Burnham was present again as a vendor with an announcement of parts that wanted to liquidate having sold his business to Trinity Paint. Trinity CEO John Choquette was present to talk with folks about the acquisition, which has been seamless. Mechanical repairs are still done at Dave Burnham’s old shop in Delanson NY with Dave still in a consulting role. They have quite a few Citroëns in both the repair and restoration queues.

We all enjoyed a hearty BBQ dinner on Saturday night while bidding on an array of silent auction item donations.

When it came time for presentations, 2 special awards featuring at line drawing by Lance Hellman of the very first Rendezvous held at Cummington Farms, MA, that Lance actually attended, were handed out to Dave Burnham for is years of exceptional Citroen repairs and restorations and to David Cossitt-Levy for his 7 years of spearheading the organization of Rendezvous (from 2016 to 2023).

Rendezvous Best in Show winners were also announced;

Category	Owner	Year	Make	Model
C2 / Traction Avant	Gary Kelly	1953	Citroën	Traction Avant 15/6
ID / DS	Fernando Alva Miras	1970	Citroën	DS21 Safari Pallas
2CV / Truckette	Manny Barreiros	1956	Citroën	Truckette
SM	Michael Moss	1972	Citroën	SM
CX / CXA	Kevin Royer	1976	Citroën	CX, series 1
Ami / Dyane / Mehari / Visa	Jeanne Bosch	1969	Citroën	Ami
GS / GSA / XM / Xantia / C6 / H-Van	David MacLean	1977	Citroën	GSX2
Other French	Brewster Pettus	1975	Matra	Bagheera
Non-French	George Crouse	1953	Jaguar	XK120 coupe
Show Favorite	Bruce Ehrmann	1971	Citroën	M35 birotor prototype

While David Cossitt-Levey stepped away from the stress of Rendezvous organization this year, his SM wasn’t going to make his weekend hassle-free. On Sunday morning when he went to start his car at the Courtyard Marriott the accelerator cable broke and it had to be towed to Trinity Citroen for a new one to be fitted.

At Sunday morning’s breakfast at a different VFW (this one at American Legion Post 70 in Saratoga Springs and catered by Lakeside Farms) we bid farewell to friends until next year.

Thanks go to this year’s Chauffeurs; Bill Blaufuss, Jon Chomitz, Michaela Hellman, Tim Kinnel, Christoper (Toaph) Westfall and all the volunteers who made it such a great event!