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French
Engineer and Industrialist André Citroën
(1878-1935) founded one of the major car
construction companies of its era. By 1922
he launched several expeditions across the
world with his automobiles, thus providing
an efficient publicity platform for his
company. By far the most exciting
expedition was the "Crosière Jaune"
aka "Yellow Rally" meant to
persue by car what was known as the
"Silk Road" joining the West and
Asian continents since the Times of Cyrus
the Great. At the end of April 1931, the
expedition reached the outskirts of
Teheran. The news of the arrival of the
European crew composed of Citroën
himself, George-Marie Haardt, and Victor
Poit reached the ears of the then young
crown prince of Persia Mohamed Reza
Pahlavi. The crew was more than eager to
explain to the Crown prince technical
details related to their vehicle and André
Citroën was to take his majesty on a
small tour through the dusty streets of
Teheran.
Left
the movie poster of the expedition; Top
Right, André Citroën's expedition. Below
Right, Citroën drives the Crown Prince of
Persia for a short trip through Tehran.
The
expedition was then to persue its journey
towards Afghanistan and after crossing
Mashad, Herat and Khandahar it reached
Kabul on June 9th 1931.
Western
role models of the late Sixties and early
seventies : Roger Moore and Tony Curtis Copyright
© 2000-2003, The Roger Moore Web Team
in one of the most popular Cult series of
the 1970's "The
Persuaders" aka "Kavoshgaran"
and their Iranian counterparts (also
actors in an Iranian film of the 70's )
In the beginning of the 1970s, Citroën's
successors organised a number of events
involving the "2CV", aka "Deux
Cheveaux" in which young people (18
to 30 years of age ) from France and
Europe followed the route taken by the
"Croisière Jaune" with the
"Paris-Kabul-Paris rally" rally
as well as the "Paris-Persepolis-Paris
rally", and the route of the Croisière
Noire with Raid Afrique.The "Paris-Persepolis-Paris
rally" ( prior to Dakar) was also the
occasion for Citroen to launch a new
colour brand for its "2 CV"
baptized "Jaune Persepolis" aka
"Yellow Persepolis". The
publicity generated by the rally attracted
more than 3800 subscriptions of which the
organizers had to select 1300 people and
500 automobiles. Leaving Paris on the 31st
of July their journey of 13500km was to
make them cross the Mont Blanc Tunnel into
Italy, Tito's Yougoslavia, the Greek
Colonels Greece, a post-Kemal Ataturk
Turkey and into Imperial Iran.
Prior
to the "Paris-Dakar" Rally
Citroen organized the "Paris-Persepolis-Paris"
Rally. Competitors seen here in Paris
shortly before their departure.
The magnificent landscapes, with rocky
barriers colored tuquoise waters enchanted
the participants. In Turkey however some
participants were badly recieved by
children with stones thrown at them
seriously injuring a few drivers forcing
them to abandon the rally. The reception
in Iran was quite different, where warm
smiles and encouragements were to
accompany them through Teheran, Qom,
Tabriz and Shiraz. Persepolis was finally
reached on the 15th of August and the
particpants were to return back to Paris
on the 30th of August 1971.
Interestingly this Rally coincided shortly
earlier with the celebrations of the
Persian monarchy, held in Persepolis in
October of the same year
Authors note:
Darius
KADIVAR is a film critic and multimedia
documentalist living in France
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