Citroen DS | Cars that were ahead of their time
The Citroën DS came from a time when the German saloon didn’t rule the roost, and it serves as a reminder today of what we’re missing out on with no truly innovative French saloons on the market.
Citroën threw everything at the DS, giving it inboard powered disc brakes and directional headlights that followed the angle of the steering wheel. Its cleverest innovation was the car’s hydropneumatic suspension that gave the big Citroen a magic carpet ride, which is why the BBC used the DS as a camera car at horse races.
The suspension had many other advantages. It was self-levelling, so the car would remain level even with a heavy load. It also had an adjustable ride height, allowing the DS to tackle uneven road surfaces. Its best party trick was its ability to drive on three wheels.
When on four wheels, the DS handled surprisingly well. Its staggered front and rear track was designed to combat understeer, and it had a fibreglass roof and aluminium bonnet to keep weight low.
Citroën then wrapped all this cleverness in a body that made the DS look like it came from another planet, instantly dating rivals like the Alfa Romeo 1900Ti, Austin A95 Westminster and the BMW 501/6.
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The only disappointing aspect of the DS was its four-cylinder engine, which could trace its roots back to the Traction Avant of the 1930s and was slow and noisy, news that Citroën had planned to fit the DS with either an air or water-cooled flat-six just poured salt in the wound.
But reliability was Citroën’s biggest problem. Early versions of the DS proved fragile, and their mechanical complexity meant that mechanics often needed help knowing where to start when fixing them. However, a significant quality control initiative turned the tide and the car gradually gained a new reputation of dependability.
The DS was sold for 20 years – from 1955 to 1975 – with a facelift in 1968 that added faired-in headlights that looked even better than the original. By the end of its life, Citroën had sold nearly 1.5 million examples of the DS, and it arguably hasn’t built such an iconic and innovative machine since.