No. 473, history of the youngest M35
13 Aug 2012
No. 473 is the last M35 built, according to Citroën it rolled out of the Rennes la Janais factory on March 12, 1971. Shortly afterwards he was delivered to a doctor in Metz, department 57 Moselle. He drove it for two years, the oil card states that it had driven 59,945 km on January 29, '73, when I bought it it had approximately 63,000 km on the odometer. So he probably drove until mid-'73.
After the M35s were taken back, they often remained at dealers, were donated to museums, destroyed or stored at the test center in La Ferté Vidame. The latter probably happened with this one. Later, dealers were given a second chance to obtain a copy, which was then transported to the dealer in Saintes department 17 Charente-Maritime. The proof of this was still partly on the windshield, the pasted transport note from Transport Citroën Celia. the other part was with the papers. I left the part on the windshield during the restoration (as well as the Gauloise butts from the first owner that were still in the ashtray). I digitally merged the two parts. The key label was also still included.
In '88 the car was found by the collector and taken from Sainter to the Northern Netherlands, where it stood until 2007.
Afterwards it ended up with 16 other M35s at another collector in the Northern Netherlands. In 2010, 14 more moved to me, including No.473.
Why chose this copy for myself? Because it was certainly not the most beautiful or best. There were a few reasons for this, including the fact that among the 16 M35s, this one kept attracting me, something that happens sometimes with a car. When I looked into it further, it turned out to be the very last one (the number was previously not immediately readable because the stickers were not on the screens), which of course added extra value for me. When the collector picked him up from Saintes, he did so for once with his brother.....Sander. And then it turned out that No. 473 and I are almost the same age, about a two month difference in his favor.
An attempt was made to trace the first owner, the doctor from Metz, through the Conservatoire and the former director of the branch where the M35 was most likely delivered. Unfortunately that did not work out. We also tried to find out more history at the dealer in Saintes, unfortunately the garage was taken over a number of years ago, so knowledge about the history was lost. What turned out to be a nice detail during the preparations for the restoration was that the missing right armrest was never mounted. The door panel is pre-drilled, but there is no impression of the support. Probably the supports had run out and the production of M35s was therefore stopped....
This is a photo of one of the first rides I took after tackling the technique. Martijn van Well makes it during the AVN meeting in Oud-Leusden in September 2010.