The long wait was worth it. Steffen can now drive his Citroën DS himself again. A long-cherished wish has come true: thanks to an individually adapted sliding board, wheelchair loading aid, accelerator/brake lever and steering wheel knob, he can now go on tour independently. Vintage car conversions are a tricky, albeit very pleasant challenge for the PARAVAN mobility tinkerers.
The "goddess", as the legendary Citröen DS is also known, has generated a great deal of interest in the PARAVAN production halls in recent weeks. Now Steffen, who is dependent on a wheelchair, has been able to take delivery of the legend, which has been individually customized for him. The technicians had to work to the millimetre to fit the Robot 3000 wheelchair loading aid, including an extra narrow wheelchair, into the trunk. But with a few tweaks to the wheel arch, it worked. Now he can go on tour again. In future, the DS enthusiast will be able to drive his active wheelchair up to the vehicle and use a sliding board to transfer without assistance. Once the wheelchair has been locked into the Robot 3000, it can be stowed back in the trunk at the touch of a button. The brake and accelerator are now also operated by hand using a lever.
With a conversion like this, the fascination lies in the finer details. "Goosebumps from top to bottom," says Steffen at the vehicle handover. "Does the arm really go all the way into the trunk, it has to go in there!" he asks in disbelief, "simply amazing." The 1966 Citroën DS was completely restored and rebuilt before being customized. "There isn't a washer on the entire vehicle that isn't new or restored," says Milan Dolinar, restorer from the Citroën DS Manufacture. The paint, for example, dates back to 1958. Exterior color, interior trim, leather, everything was finely coordinated during the restoration.
After the restoration, the goddess came to the PARAVAN mobility park in Aichelau. "A conversion like this is something very special," reports mobility consultant Maurice Möritz. "There is no such thing as an off-the-peg solution in mobility for the disabled anyway, and certainly not when it comes to classic car construction, where imagination, inventiveness and a tinkerer's spirit are required. He discovered the loading solution with the Robot 3000 on the website: "That's what I want," he said. However, the workshop needed to be convinced first, but "it's not possible here," says Steffen. What you're doing here is really a prototype conversion," says Steffen.
Now a suitable folding wheelchair is needed so that everything fits into the custom-made trunk with the robot. "Paravan has built a template with dimensions especially for this," he reports, and then it can go on tour. His first classic car simply had to be a DS. "I'm a fan of Luis de Funes' films and he often drove a DS - for me, DS is Louis de Funes!"
In everyday life, Steffen drives a Mercedes V-Class, also customized by PARAVAN. Twelve years ago, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and has been dependent on a wheelchair ever since. "But you can't let it get you down and you have to learn to live with it," says the entrepreneur. Although getting into the vehicle is exhausting for him, he consciously accepts this effort. "The pursuit of mobility is a strong motivation for people with physical limitations and mobility stands for independence to live my life!" And despite adaptation; the magic of the legendary sheet metal is still there - now barrier-free!