On days when the weather cooperates Jim Hillesheim will find himself behind the wheel of his 1963 Citroen 2CV.

Up and down the Kansas highways and city streets he’ll go, shifting gears using a shaft that sticks out of the black and maroon vehicle’s dash.

Jim Hillesheim, who lives just outside Clinton, is particularly fond of his 1963 Citroen 2CV, a French car with Art Deco lines.

Throughout the drive, Hillesheim said he’ll notice a change come over the people he passes.

“It’s what I call a good humor car,” he said. “It brings smiles to peoples’ faces and that’s fun to see. It just kind of brightens things up. People will be looking down and scowling and they’ll see the car and their facial expression changes.”

The motor is a two-cylinder, pancake-like design that gets the Citroen going.

Hillesheim said he’s owned this particular Citroen since 1998. His first, which he owned since the late 70s, was lost in a 1994 garage fire that also claimed several other vehicles including a 1954 Porsche Cabriolet.

“It was a major loss and after that I eventually rebuilt the garage and slowly started to build it back up again, but one thing was missing,” he said. “I didn’t have my little French car anymore and I had to do something about that.”

A Southern California native, 82-year-old Hillesheim said he first noticed cars growing up in North Hollywood after World War II.

Richard Gwin/Journal World-Photo Jim Hillesheim, who lives just outside Clinton is particularly found of his 1063 Citroen 2CV a french car with lines making it look like car from the art deco days.

As the war came to an end and Hillesheim entered into his teenage years, factories that had been repurposed to support the military were able to resume their pre-war business, he said.

“The manufacturers were starting to make cars again, and cars were coming in from overseas,” he said. “I started to see cars out on the highway that were quite different, and I became completely fascinated by what the Europeans were doing with their cars.”

Richard Gwin/Journal World-Photo Jim Hillesheim, who lives just outside Clinton is particularly found of his 1063 Citroen 2CV a french car with lines making it look like car from the art deco days.

Hillesheim said he became infatuated with the culture and surrounded himself with every facet. Drag strips, hot rods, imported cars, the works.

Around that same time, running slightly afoul of the law, Hillesheim said he dropped out of high school and became a full-time mechanic. For years he was afforded the opportunity to work on cars, save money and buy a few of his own.

“I did that for seven years and decided I didn’t want to be a mechanic all my life,” he said. “I went back to school and ended up in an academic career.”

In 1968 Hillesheim moved to Lawrence, where he taught education, humanities and western civilization at Kansas University until he retired in 2008.

All the while, Hillesheim said he kept his interest in cars and motorcycles, always maintaining a workshop at his home.

Two former colleagues, professors Susan Twombly and Ray Hiner, both described Hillesheim as a philosophical man, interested in the classic thinkers, from Aristotle to Nietzsche. And his work at the university reflected his mentality.

“He always had a sort of rag-tag group of students,” Twombly said. “But they did very good research. He had very high standards and his students often won dissertation prizes.”

“He was intrigued by ideas and he liked to examine them and think through their implications to education,” Hiner said. “And in that sense he’s probably a deeper thinker than many people who work in education.”

Hillesheim’s philosophical approach also applies to his vehicles. Quick as he may be to discuss a car or motorcycle’s functionality or aesthetic appeal, he’ll also delve into the history behind its design and the people for which a vehicle was intended.

Relating back to his good humor car, Hillesheim said the Citroens were initially developed by the French to be a car of the people, just as the Germans introduced the Volkswagen or the English introduced the Mini.

“It had to have a suspension that was good enough that a French rural farmer could throw their collection of eggs in the trunk of the car and ride around over rough fields and rural roads and be gentle enough not to break the eggs,” he said.

The Citroens were developed in the late 1930s and kept in production for the next 50 years with “virtually little change,” Hillesheim said. The movement drastically impacted history and the industries of mass production and engineering, among many others.

Hillesheim continues to contemplate the intricacies of motor vehicles. His garage holds cars and motorcycles produced by Fiat, Toyota, Suzuki, Alpha Romeo, Mazda, Kawasaki, Moto Guzzi and Bultaco, all of which hold a certain sentimental and historical value.

Shying away from the word “collector,” Hillesheim said he takes a great deal of pleasure from driving, restoring and maintaining his vehicles.

On sunny days Hillesheim said he’ll take any number of his cars or motorcycles out and hit the road. Sometimes he’ll go a step further to share them with the world.

This year, Marshall Miller, founder and chairman of Kansas City’s Art of the Car Concourse, phoned Hillesheim to invite him and his Citroen to the event, held Sunday.

Although the Citroen may not hold as much monetary value as some other vehicles, it’s a treasure to have in the show, Miller said.

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful vehicle,” Miller said. “It’s got a terrific design, all the little detail elements that the French built into the grill and hubcaps and seats and dash and steering wheel are unique.”

That uniqueness is something both Hillesheim and Miller treasure, they agree. And preserving the vehicle is akin to saving part of the past.

“What Jim is doing is maintaining a piece of history, and when he no longer wants it it’s going to someone else in good condition,” Miller said. “Someone who can preserve that piece of French history.”

For the time being, however, Hillesheim said he has no interest in giving up his Citroen. It’s a piece of art, he’ll say, its creation and existence something worth considering.

“Just like people buy a piece of sculpture or walk around the KU campus to view a sculpture on display, I’ll open the garage, pull up a chair and contemplate my little Citroen,” he said.