James Walshe, Deputy Editor - 1985 Citroën 2CV

Rolling off Citroën’s Paris production line on 13 July 1985, this 2CV was shipped to Surrey where it was registered new to a Mr Roger White in Cranleigh, who paid £3302. He sold the car six years later to his next-door neighbour, Andrew Fleeson, and then to Barry Annells on December 31, 1996, who fitted an experimental fibreglass roof made by inventor Dan Fletcher. The car was christened ‘Tupperware’.

Powered by a standard 602cc, 2-cylinder air-cooled engine, Tupperware served as faithful family transport and commuter workhorse, dropping the kids at school each day while spending the rest of its forty years regularly travelling Europe – taking the Annells family on holidays to Sweden, Italy and everywhere in between.

James Walshe bought the car seven years ago and in 2022, escaped serious injury in a pile-up on the way home from the Monaco Grand Prix. A plucky Tupperware was rescued from the ferry port at Dunkirk and brought to the NEC Classic Motor Show, where she was restored on stage by former owner Barry, his son and the PC team – later getting a superb paint job by our favourite paint guru, Steve Brown of HB Body (hbbody.com).

In its 40th year serving as a workhorse, the car continues to be James’s daily driver and has just returned from yet another trip to Paris, where James took the car back to the site of the original 2CV factory on the banks of the Seine. Marking 100 years since André Citroën illuminated the entire height of the Eiffel Tower with his name, the full and fascinating story can be read in the May 2025 issue of Practical Classics magazine.