Have I just FOUND my Citroen SM in a SCRAPYARD?

[@WouterBregman]

This is the exact reason why I like your videos and especially the SM and finding out the history of it. Keep up the good work!

[@michaeltalbot7363]

I'm loving your passion and near infatuation with the SM. I'm so looking forward to seeing it progress.

[@stevedunford7632]

What's more bizarre is that it spent so long in that yard but is still almost complete. You would think it would have been crushed when they realised nobody wanted any parts from it.

[@UPnDOWN]

The guy who owns the business is a bit of a hoarder. I suspect he either thought it would be worth something one day, or just wanted to keep it for his own collection.I think that's why it wasn't broken for bits - he intended to restore it, but realised it was never going to happen.

[@isaaccan3155]

@@UPnDOWNthat happens way too often around Ohio and Michigan because land is cheap.

[@Zadster]

@@UPnDOWN Yay for hoarders! 😀

[@michaelwright2986]

@@UPnDOWN In the days before online auctions, there were lots of antique/second-hand/junk shops, and some of those looked like they were just cover for a hoarding habit.

[@guillaumeromain6694]

I find very interesting to know more about your Sm. I admit I'm a bit of a nerd myself, always wanting to know about dates. So there you are. I love your videos and dedication

[@bondbug73]

Yeah I agree with you on your photographic discoveries. Some very good investigative work. I think you should do a SM video with the Ohio registration in the video title on the chance someone knew or owned this car.

[@UPnDOWN]

Could do!

[@grahameelton1899]

My mother worked as secretary to the UK GM for Citroen in the 70’s. I used to go to the head office and workshop in Slough. The SM blew me away as a lad.. still does 63 years later. We got tickets to watch them race at Brands Hatch back then. The SM was majestic, faster round anything along the straights but challenged round the bends. Brilliant fun. Truly love the car. Built in celebration of Citroen buying Maserati I recall ( probably wrong). Recently saw one in London. Beautiful car. Well done.

[@andrewwilkin1923]

Don't apologise, this car is your passion and I'm enjoying all the videos about it. Look forward to seeing it on the road.

[@handbrakebob]

Fabulous! I am also a Google Maps/Earth geek. Over the years I’ve spent many happy hours snooping on the world.

[@timfagan816]

When you say "snooping" you mean to see if your exs house still has the same curtains on street view, or has she moved. 😂

[@isaaccan3155]

What a coincidence, I was built in December 72, born 9 months later. I grew up in NW Ohio. My girlfriend I. The 90’s bought a car from Brims. And I’ve walked their huge salvage yard buying parts for a Audi 5000.

[@UPnDOWN]

You probably walked past it!

[@neilwilliams6716]

I thoroughly enjoyed the video, i also enjoy finding the history of my old vehicles. Also, your SM is the same age as me. We were both born in December 1972 😊

[@Tagora2664]

It's nice to know I'm not the only sad case who does this sort of thing. I spent ages trying to find where my Tagora had lived with its previous two owners. Both were a bit unusual and the details weren't quite spot on so that made it harder. I was so pleased when I figured it out and could use Google to see where it had been. Utterly pointless, but it made me smile, so I completely get it. 😁

[@peterh1386]

Please don't apologise for being enthusiastic!

[@oojimmyflip]

Dam right.

[@georgH]

"it's just a prop" man, you got me there 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Really, I started following your in the last few months on your BX series. Great Citroen videos, enjoy them a lot!

[@tomwinch9107]

Impressive hunting! 2 steps towards Kenton in the 2014 street view gives a slightly more distinctive side window profile (to my eyes) and 3 steps the other way gives a view of the rear that looks 'SM like' As for before 2014, there's a lot of white cars there! Having a likely image from above I could imagine image matching software could try to find likely candidates in older satellite images. The aspect ratio (length to width ratio) of the SM could be quite unique. And as you have buildings in the satellite view that you can tell if they are unchanged they can be used to check the satellite images are at the same scale - with a fixed scale the length can be used as well as the aspect ratio to only find white cars that are the same length as your SM ... Good luck if you continue the hunt!

[@HowardLeVert]

I enjoyed that bit of detective work! I'm a big fan of the online OS maps at the National Library of Scotland for following changes in a locality.

[@christapp3244]

never apologise for having passion for something, love the never ending story of this car

[@Invisibleman7]

I agree with you Kitch, that’s definitely your SM, that I didn’t know you have. Top detective work.

[@NikEastwood161]

check the wayback machine which, if the scrapyard had a website it might have been listed for sale.

[@UPnDOWN]

The what?!

[@Ragnar8504]

@@UPnDOWN The Internet Wayback Machine. a.k.a Web Archive. It's a gigantic archive that collected entire web sites at various points in time and lets you browse them as if they were still online.

[@vanpastel]

I've checked and the earliest archived version of Brim's Imports website is from 2020.

[@sh4dowchas3r]

@@vanpastel( hopefully this won't diasppear this time - thanks youtube). they had a different web address before the current one that seemed to get abandoned somewhere areound 2013 for a few years. I had a look through and they do have a rebuildable cars section with plenty of pics of cars in the yard. I've not yet seen anything that looks like an SM mind

[@UPnDOWN]

Oh wow, that's pretty useful! Shame it only goes back to 2020...

[@100SteveB]

Another very useful tool on Google Earth Pro is the measuring tool - so you could measure the car you see from above and see if the length matches your SM. Even zoomed right in I find it to be very accurate. The ruler tool is on the tool bar. About the 3rd icon to the right of the historical image tool button.

[@dwarfshortage244]

It got me when the laptop was revealed to be just a prop, that was class. I spend a lot of my free time looking through old maps of the Black Country, nothing better than an independent history research project. This was a great video, no apology necessary!

[@Yossarian-uj9dh]

No need to apologise. I sometimes go on Google Earth and look at the places I used to work and see if I can spot my old cars in the car parks!

[@charliemansonUK]

Yay! Google Earth stalking random places is an awesome hobby

[@daler2577]

You're doing an SM Friday I'm surprised Ian hasn't done a Berlingo Thursday😅

[@74HC04]

A while ago I found one of my current cars at its old address in the UK on Google Earth (not difficult as I knew the address from some paperwork). It looks like it lived on the driveway of a rather well cared-for house, adding to my pre-existing impression that it was looked after. I was nearly as enthusiastic to experience this carchiology as you were, Rich 🙂 I love to find out about my car's 'story' (good or bad), too!

[@IfInDoubt..]

Had a play about with a couple of screenshots on street view, cleaning them up - most definitely your SM there

[@davidflamee]

Diligent detective work pays off. I love it.

[@petetrundell5454]

Just an idea. The aerial view is badly pixilated but there may be a way to confirm if it's an SM by checking the relative proportions of rear window, roof, windscreen and bonnet. Scale it up and compare them against your car.

[@neildaniel8232]

If you go to the 2018 Satellite view you can see it beside the main building, presumably waiting to be picked up for shipping to the UK. The data is dated 12/07/2018 so if your SM was shipped after then it has a big possibility it was snapped just before leaving.

[@jfv65]

From now on we could call you OsInt Kitsch 😉 (open source intelligence)

[@deanstevenson6527]

2:42 Much Love from the other side of the Semi Sphere. 🥝✔️Viva la Citroën 🍋😂

[@CaSuMog]

With my car, a 3.0 from San Diego, it is much easier. First owner bought her new in 1973, sold her to me in 1999, for 2500 Dollars, thats it ;-)

[@Cameron-b9w]

Back in 2014, I traced a Renault 5L with Google map/earth. The friend who gave me the coordinates from his map app couldn't believe it. I've been tracing the base spec 5s down for years. I might also know the uk reg numbers 😂

[@janataman9196]

You´re really an enthusiastic nerd, but a very lovely one.. ^^

[@aslandama]

Great discovery, a pity the scrapyard guys didn't get back to you, maybe pester them again?

[@johnmoruzzi7236]

Why would they care ? Look how many cars they deal with ! Even the motorbike importers who shipped it aren’t bothered about it…..

[@Messerschmittkr200]

For confirming the satellite views, perhaps it would help to find a satellite view of another SM somewhere else (an enthusiast or specialty shop or something) and then snip and compare. The resolutions should match. I found a really early DS in a scrap yard using the same method though it was white with a black roof so it was pretty easy to spot. The shop had just crushed the car a few weeks prior to me finding it on Google 😢

[@romac9516]

Geeks unite! Thanks for another brilliant update sir. While watching this I was creating a Gloucester to Oxford rail line in nimby rails, the game for nerds.

[@angelsone-five7912]

Well done, persistence paid off.

[@gazonatrike7005]

Top nerdery, but it means I have to up my game to find my motor's history. It only hid in Letchworth for 40 years.

[@PaddyWV]

Solidarity with your map nerdy-ness. Ever since I received an RAC Road Atlas for Christmas aged 10 I have been a fan and Google Maps and Earth are just frabjous joy Will look out the Pro now!

[@MrButtonpresser]

If you have the scale of the satellite photo, can you use that to approximate the size of the white car? Perhaps then use it to measure the length and width, then the distance between the windscreen and the rear window, bonnet, etc. I hear you have an actual SM to use as a reference. If you don't have a scale, is there another object in the image that is of a known dimension, then use that as the scale. I applaud your efforts! I have done similar things when trying to locate particular spots on WW1 battlefields.

[@uwekall6281]

Nice piece of detective work there 😂

[@kidcowdy1231]

Have you tried uploading the photos to chat gpt and asking it to try and enhance the image.

[@markhollinshead5795]

epic vid i really enjoyed it

[@tobymcnicol922]

impressive detection. expect a tap on shoulder from MI5..... What youre doing isnt geekery or somesuch - its curation. chapeau!

[@isaaccan3155]

That’s pretty cool.

[@johnniek72]

Love it!! ❤❤

[@Canalsman]

Your car can be seen very clearly on the Google Earth image dated 07/04/2012! I'm using Google Earth app (not Pro) on Android and I can zoom in further than you could...

[@Mr_Spegru]

what a story!

[@adamadamson7519]

The Clousta, Twatt signs are in Shetland where iam from :)

[@lesterlesabre4326]

No matter how much you might get frustrated with it - please don't send it back!

[@ThreeCoos]

I wonder if an AI program of some sort could clean up the partial image of the car behind the fence? I just tried this Google map method and found a photo of my Nissan 300zx which I bought in 2008.....result! Thank you .

[@gillscorner794]

Think of it the other way, is there any other car that looks like that from above, and how many SMs survive in the US?

[@MrManBuzz]

I'm surprised the car seems to be complete and unmolested despite how long it was in the scrap yard. Wonder if the owner took a liking to it or something.

[@UPnDOWN]

The guy who owns the business is a bit of a hoarder. I suspect he either thought it would be worth something one day, or just wanted to keep it for his own collection.I think that's why it wasn't broken for bits - he intended to restore it, but realised it was never going to happen.

[@MrManBuzz]

@@UPnDOWN Yeah I know the type. Hoard a huge pile of cars. Does absolutely nothing with them, let's them rot away but categorically refuses to sell them. I really don't have kind words for those kinds of people. At least the SM eventually escaped that purgatory.

[@UPnDOWN]

I think they'd have been happy to sell it tbh! I reckon they were holding out for more $$$

[@ghc1966]

If you know the distance between two points on the aerial view then you could use this to estimate the length of what you think is the SM?

[@revinobable]

There is a reaction video to this that convincingly demonstrates that it might very well be an SM on the sat photo.. Look for "Reaction to Have I just FOUND my Citroen SM in a SCRAPYARD?"

[@UPnDOWN]

Brilliant, thank you!

[@PenryMMJ]

Careful with that laptop Kitch. You don't want to ding the door of your otherwise immaculate car 😁

[@martinfletcher8275]

Oi, stop tellin' us you got one and fix it so we can go back to watching hubnut make bad choices....

[@UPnDOWN]

What if I told you you could do both...?!

[@comcarclub]

Why on Google Earth would you think you need to apologise?! I think I speak for many when I say I enjoy the sleuthing aspect of this. Finding your car in old photos on Street View is friggin' exhilarating. I found mine once, but it was already mine at the time 😄.

[@UPnDOWN]

It was more of a joke really, I don't actually remember apologising!

[@josephmewse2903]

Hehe i used to live just down the road from Twatt

[@josephmewse2903]

Also, if you know the time and the place... You can see, on google earth pro, a early twenties version of me rolling a joint next to the skip out back of the workshop where i worked back in the early 2000s

[@stevenbrown3151]

For some reason youtube on my laptop dubbed this to French, which was unexpected and amusing

[@carlreading9916]

You need the "enhance" program like they use in all the best spy movies ;-)

[@Idylla-le-schnouck]

maybe this is convincing ;-) kzbin.info/www/bejne/f56snGWGoraSa5o

[@Canalsman]

The Kenton Times is the local paper. Maybe the car was advertised in that...

[@UPnDOWN]

Maybe, but how would I even go about finding out?!

[@Canalsman]

@UPnDOWN Worth enquiring if they have archive copies of their paper. You could perhaps give them a potential story of how a rare car that spent x years in Kenton, Ohio, ended up in the south of England to be restored. It might be a story they'd like to run and may motivate them to make enquiries and dig through their archives on your behalf... Send them a link to the video perhaps.

[@wollywotsit]

Can you pay for higher resolution images from people like airbus. Not sure if they hold historical data

[@davefrench3608]

Kitch, aka Hercule Poirot

[@conesuela1]

Don't apologise for being sad and a loser. You're in good company here!

[@lesklower7281]

There is nothing wrong with chasing the History of a special car like the Citroen SM and ai least you have an idea of were your SM came from and there is nothing about doing research on your SM

[@Idylla-le-schnouck]

I wasn't conviced until I overlayed a top-view drawing of an SM over the image and it was a match: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f56snGWGoraSa5o

[@stephenkeen1384]

Does CarFax say anything?

[@UPnDOWN]

Not heard of that before

[@Joolz777]

😎😎😎😎🌶👍👍👍

[@mikes747]

Why were you looking for an SM? Do you own one or something......

[@uwekall6281]

Noooo, can't be... really?😂