Reading some of the splendid stories about people's A-series in this area of the site made me realise that, after over a year of stalking the boards I have not yet formally introduced the love of my life: my white 1985 Special.

This little car is known in our house as "Snowy", "the Snail" or "Snowy the Snail". I don't usually name my cars (apart from a truly dreadful Fiat Tipo that I once had, which we named something that I dare not commit to writing) but the kids decided on the name for this one, and it's stuck. Snowy has been my daily drive for the last 18 months. He lives outside, on our driveway in all weathers, and never complains.

Snowy was built in Paris, and spent the early part of its life near Banbury, owned by a Mr Brand of Hook Norton. The early servicing was all done at the same garage, in Brackley. I have this information because previous owners kept the servicing and spares details in an A4 file, which has been passed from owner to owner down the years. This file even contains the original owners manual and the original Citroen Service maintenance guide.

I haven't found the first bill of sale, but there are details and clues regarding subsequent purchases. One is a receipt from 1989, when it changed hands for £2375, and went to work for a Mr Holmes of Salisbury. I also have a couple of the classifieds that have been used to advertise it. Here's one from 1999 (spot the mistake):

On this occasion the car was bought by a Miss Burke, a nurse from Salisbury. She was the owner who sold the car to me.

Fortunately, Miss Burke seems to have been a rather caring type (she was a nurse, it turns out!) and she looked after Snowy well. Servicing was done by Jeff Colmer (Totally 2CV), who did a number of rather mammoth bits of work, including one session (recorded on an undated receipt, but I'm guessing it was 2000) where he removed the bodyshell, replaced the bulkhead, replaced the brake pipes with cupronickel, replaced n/s track-rod end and put the car onto a galvanised chassis... along with loads of other stuff. The car has had its sills replaced too, and I'm guessing that Jeff did these as well, because they've been done well. Other than that there are little welded patches on the floor, and strong patches at the rear seatbelt anchors, which have been done properly.

After that, the car enjoyed something of a semi-retirement. Miss Burke's beauty went to live with her boyfriend, a soldier who was a communications expert stationed at an enormous army base near Leicester. From what I know, Snowy spent 18 months or so simply ferrying soldiers around the huge barracks, from bar to NAAFI to bed to parade ground, or something like that.

In 2002 the British army was moving en masse to Kuwait. By this time Miss Burke was a military nurse, and her boyfriend was off to set up the communications between Whitehall and Kuwait/Iraq, in readiness for 2003's edition of the Great Game. Snowy was deemed surplus to requirements. The Autotrader ad (which I have somewhere but can't find) rather cryptically states that "new posting forces sale", and Snowy was put up for sale for £400. At the time I was going through a fairly rough period at work, and was hankering after another A-series (having spent 7 years without) for a bit of cheap fun. I went to see the car, and immediately realised that I'd found a good one, in spite of it having been touched up in tiny places with what looked like radiator paint. There was remarkably little rust, but the clutch was slipping and the coil was cracked (car conked out when warm)... but that was about it. My drive back from Leicester to Birmingham with the roof down on that warm August Friday night was a total blast! Even breaking down at 10.15pm at Five Ways roundabout in Brum (top of Broad Street ie heaving with fuelled-up Friday-night party people) and having to push the car off the roundabout whilst being honked by knobhead-packed Imprezas didn't bother me... imagine how many 20-somethings shouted "w****r!" at me though!! I just laughed, and they left me alone.

I farted around with the car for a few weeks, and then other things in life got in the way. The Mrs. presented us with a new baby and I got myself a new job, which paid pretty well but which demanded loads of my time. So Snowy went to sleep in my dad's garage... between 2002 and 2009. Eventually though, my interest in the soul-crushing well-paid job waned and I chucked it in. I waved bye-bye to the posh company car, and I was faced with the prospect of buying another vehicle. Ugh! The idea of wasting money on a depreciating box of boredom filled me with dread.

Faced with an uncertain future, my dad reminded me that there was a knackered car in his garage and he thought it was time I bloody well got my finger out and got rid of it. I realised that maybe I had an alternative to buying a crap modern car, so I got my long-neglected toolkit out, and took it into dad's garage to see if the cobweb-ridden car was salvageable. I found a mouse's nest in the engine bay, made out of the bonnet wadding and most of one of the dump tubes. Stripped out the bits that I knew were on their ways out. Bought a new coil, a new clutch and a Diginition from Roy. Fitted them... and the car started 3rd time!! Didn't even put any new petrol in... and I never looked back!! I had the rear sweeps replaced by Peter Cross in Droitwich, who got the car MOT'd, and then swapped the worn-out white roof for a smart anthracite one (again from Roy).

Since then the car has not gone wrong once. I've used it daily for the last 18 months. Not a groan or problem at all! Haven't even changed the brake fluid (must be at least 9 years old!) and it stops on a sixpence. Thanks to this website, I've learned more about A-series fixing and fettling in the past year than I learned in the 28 years that elapsed since I bought my first 2cv. And one or two of the site's users have very generously helped me out with parts that have enabled me to replace less-than-perfect bits. Thank you.

The rear end still needs a bit of attention: there's a rusty seam underneath the back of the bootwell, and the underside is looking a bit surface rusty after the winter, so I'll take it off the road for a couple of weeks this spring to get those issues sorted... and I might change the rear wings and rear doors too, if I ever get my finger out and respray the pristine doors and wings that I got off ebay for next to nowt. Otherwise, the car is rock solid. The bonnet hinge, air vent and windscreen surround are perfect, the arches are perfect, and the engine is very peppy: happily flies along at 75.

I have no plans to part with Snowy. As a daily driver, doing little 10 mile errands and weekend blasts on the back lanes and A-roads of Worcestershire it really is the perfect car. I love driving it, and can see no reason to get rid of it. And anyway, the kids and Mrs. won't let me: they love it too!

But is it the white one I used to see parked on a driveway between Hagley and Oldswinford*?

* I might mean Pedmore, I've forgotten where everything is!

Nice write-up, Smiffy

Damn, they look good in white...

I do like your wheels a lot!

No, it's not that one. A-series are a little thin on the ground round here. All I've seen lately has been a beige one up near Halesowen, a D*lly in Stourbridge, a red Special in Kidderminster, and a smart custom D*lly in Worcester. There's also a rumour going around that there's a blue Ami in the Longbridge area...

Nice write up mate! i like your wheels too!

I like a car with an actual history, that's great.

'Bout bleedin' time Smiffy. Now we want to see all the things you do to it as and when you do them. I've always thought white to be the bravest colour on a 2cv as it hides nothing. Those new doors sound interesting too, yet again though too far away for me to paint them for you.

There's also a lagoon blue one on the A449 between Hartlebury and Ombersley. There used to be a lovely P-reg van in beige with signwriting which was in Hartlebury but I think its long gone. There were 3 at ma and pa's for a while too

There was another white one in or around Haggles then, it was a few years back now though. It's just when I saw you were from there and remembered that one, I put 2 and 2 together!

Thats a great story.....

.....only thing is, whay is it called "snowy" ?