Seattle Citroën
Road & Rallye Motors
NEW 6/2024
Photo provided by Richard Bonfond
GUGLIEMO ZACCURI
Road & Rallye Motors was a Citroën dealer in Costa Mesa, California that was in operation from 1964 to 1981. The business was owned by a man named Guglielmo M. Zaccuri, known as “Memo” to almost everyone.
NOTE: Much of the content of this article was provided by Richard Bonfond and appeared in his book, What a Ride – Growing up with Citroën in North America.
MEMO
Guglielmo M. Zaccuri, aka Memo, was born on February 5, 1926 in Bova Marina, on Italy’s southern-most tip. In his 20’s, Memo moved to Bern, Switzerland where he got a job working on Vespas. While in Switzerland, he met a woman named Gabrielle and they were married in 1956.
Memo and Gabrielle moved to the USA in late 1959 where Memo got a job working in the city of Detroit. But they were unsatisfied with their Detroit experience, so Memo and Gabrielle decided that they needed a change. At one point, the couple took a side job to deliver a car to Palm Springs and this trip was the spark that caused them to ultimately leave Detroit for sunny southern California. Once in California, they made the city of Lakewood their home (a suburb of Los Angeles).
BIRTH OF ROAD & RALLYE MOTORS
Once they had settled in the Los Angeles area, Memo found a job working at a local auto repair shop, but it was not long before he started up his own business with a bit of financial help from his father-in-law.
By 1964, Memo had a new business up and running under the name of Road & Rallye Motors, initially located at 141 E. 16th in Costa Mesa, California. It was also 1964 when Road & Rallye Motors first appeared in the Citroën dealer directory, which suggests that Memo had been in discussions with Citroën a bit earlier, perhaps in 1963.
For the first few years, Road & Rallye was listed as a “service only” dealer by Citroën, but by the time the 1968 dealer list was published, the “service only” tag was removed, indicating that they were now a full-fledged dealer.
In their early years, Road & Rallye Motors flew way under the radar when it came to advertising and media coverage. Evan after quite a bit of searching, I never found any substantial Road & Rallye content in newspapers, magazines, or in car-related newsletters. The only advertising I found for Road & Rallye Motors were a few of those “group” ads where several of the Southern California Citroën dealers were listed (I think that these ads were organized by Citroën Cars Corporation).
.png)
LA Times, Mar 1967
Richard Bonfond
ALFA ROMEO AND OTHER EXOTIC CARS
At some point, Road & Rallye Motors took on Alfa Romeo* as well as Citroën. But due to their extremely limited media presence, I am not sure when they picked up the Alfa marque. I did however find that they were listed as a factory authorized Alfa Service Center in 1970 and continued to work on Alfas until they closed their doors. They never advertised much for Alfa.
* I think they were an authorized Alfa Romeo service center and not a full Alfa dealership.
Southern California Auto Show Flyer, 1970
Road & Rallye Motors also performed service on other exotic cars. For example, if you look closely at the photos at the end of this article, you can spot two Ferrari Daytonas, a Fiat 600 sedan, a Studebaker Avanti, a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Jaguar MKII, and others. Richard Bonfond says that there never was a shortage of interesting cars for Memo to work on.
Richard Bonfond
MEMO (IN A CAST) AND SEVERAL OF HIS MECHANICS IN THE MID-1970's
THE SM
Road & Rallye was chosen by Citroën to offer the SM model, something Citroën only offered to some of their existing dealerships. As soon as SM’s started showing up in 1972, Road and Rallye suddenly discovered advertising. They ran SM ads regularly, almost daily! I find this very strange since for the previous 8 or so years that they were in business, they almost never advertised at all.
LA Times, May 1972
ROAD & RALLYE DID NOT ADVERTISE AT ALL UNTIL THE SM ARRIVED
Just before the SM arrived in the USA, Memo moved his business to his final location on Pomona Avenue in 1971. I think this move was so he could have a better showroom facility to showcase the SM. It is noted that Citroën was trying to only offer the SM model to dealers with professional looking showrooms.
END OF THE ROAD
Road & Rallye Motors had been working on Citroëns for about 10 years and were a full-fledged Citroën dealer for about 6 years when in 1973, Citroën made the decision to exit the North American market. Road & Rally advertisements were showing up in the LA Times newspaper as late as December of 1981, but the business closed shortly after these last ads were placed. In those last few years, they were servicing Citroëns, Alfas, and other exotics, but were also buying/selling used cars of various marques.
There is no data available indicating how many Citroëns were ultimately sold by Road & Rallye Motors, but since it was one of the less famous Citroën dealers in southern California, it is likely that the numbers were pretty meager – perhaps a couple of cars a month. Note that according to a 1981 US Trade Commission report, Citroën was averaging about 1000 cars a year across the entire USA. Citroën’s best year for sales was 1972 when they sold 1821 cars.
Richard Bonfond indicates that he briefly worked at Road and Rallye Motors in the mid-1970’s, a few years after new Citroëns were no longer being sold. Richard noted that Memo was a great guy and became a good friend.
Guglielmo M. Zaccuri (Memo) passed away on January 26, 2013 at the age of 86.
LOCATIONS
Road & Rallye Motors had three locations:
141 E. 16th, Costa Mesa CA (1964-1965)
This is Road & Rallye’s first location and it looks like it only lasted a year. This building is in an industrial area of Costa Mesa, off the main road, so it can’t easily be seen from the street. It looks like this building is now part of a boat yard.
Goggle Earth
ROAD AND RALLYE'S FIRST LOCATION
705 Ohms Way, Costa Mesa (1966 – 1971)
By 1966 they had moved to a location on Ohms way, a few blocks away from their original address. Real estate records show that this building was built in 1965, so it was new, or almost new, when Road & Rally moved in. This building had a 6-bay repair area with a small attached office.
Road & Rallye stayed in this location for about 5 years, but in preparation for the arrival of the SM, they needed a better showroom and so they moved out in 1971.
The building at 705 Ohms Way still exists and currently houses an auto repair shop, called Ford’s Automotive Services.
Richard Bonfond
ROAD & RALLYE MOTORS IN 1971
705 OHMS WAY IN RECENT YEARS
1609 Pomona Ave, Costa Mesa, CA (1971 -1981)
Road & Rallye Motors moved to this location in 1971, just before the SM landed on North American shores. This building had a proper showroom with a large glass windows facing Pomona Avenue. In the back of the building, there was a parking lot and service bays.
Road & Rallye remained in this building until the business was permanently shut down in late 1981, (although the building was initially offered for sale a year earlier, in mid-1980).
There have been a variety of businesses operating out of this location after Road and Rallye closed. The original building was highly modified in 2017 and is no longer in the automotive trade.
Richard Bonfond
ROAD & RALLYE MOTORS IN THE MID-1970's
Google Street View , 2024
1609 POMONA AVE IN 2024, UNRECOGNIZEABLE FROM WHEN IT WAS ROAD & RALLYE MOTORS!
Google Earth , 2023
BACK SIDE OF 1609 POMONA AVE, SHOWING WHERE ROAD & RALLYE'S SERVICE BAYS WERE LOCATED
Google Maps