The
Citroën DS was an
executive car produced by the French manufacturer
Citroën between 1955 and 1975. Styled by Italian sculptor and industrial designer
Flaminio Bertoni and the French aeronautical engineer
André Lefèbvre, the DS was known for its aerodynamic futuristic body design and innovative technology, including a hydropneumatic
self-levelling suspension.
The DS advanced achievable standards in automobile
ride quality,
handling, and braking.
[2] Citroën sold nearly 1.5 million D-series during the model's 20-year production run. The DS came in third in the 1999
Car of the Century competition, recognizing the world's most influential auto designs, and was named the most beautiful car of all time by
Classic & Sports Car magazine.
After 18 years of secret development as the successor to the
Traction Avant, the
DS 19 was introduced on 5 October 1955 at the
Paris Motor Show. In the first 15 minutes of the show, 743 orders were taken, and orders for the first day totalled 12,000.
[4]Contemporary
journalists said the DS pushed the envelope in the ride vs. handling compromise possible in a motor vehicle.
[5]To a France still deep in reconstruction after the devastation of World War II, and also building its identity in the post-
colonial world, the DS
motor car was a symbol of French ingenuity.
[citation needed] The DS was distributed to many territories throughout the world
[6].
It also posited the nation's relevance in the
Space Age, during the global race for technology of the
Cold War.
[original research?] Structuralist philosopher
Roland Barthes, in an essay about the car, said that it looked as if it had "fallen from the sky".
[7]The high price tag, however, hurt general sales
[citation needed] in a country still recovering from World War II, and a cheaper submodel, the Citroën ID, was introduced in 1957. The ID shared the DS's body but was more traditional mechanically: it had no power steering and had conventional transmission and clutch instead of the DS's hydraulically controlled set-up. A
station wagon variant, the
ID Break, was introduced in 1958.
An American advertisement summarised this selling point: "It takes a special person to drive a special car".
[citation needed]The DS was the first
mass production car with front power
disc brakes.
[8] It also featured
hydropneumatic suspension including an automatic leveling system and
variable ground clearance,
power steering and a semi-
automatic transmission, and a
fibreglass roof which reduced
weight transfer.
[citation needed] Inboard front brakes (as well as independent suspension) reduced unsprung weight. Different front and rear track widths and tyre sizes reduced the
understeer typical of front-engined and
front-wheel drive cars.
[citation needed]As with all French cars, the DS design was affected by the
tax horsepower system, which effectively mandated very small engines. Unlike the
Traction Avant predecessor, there was no top-of-range model with a powerful
six cylinder engine. Citroën had planned an air-cooled
flat-6 engine for the car, but did not have the funds to put the prototype engine into production. Despite the rather leisurely acceleration afforded by its small
four-cylinder engine, derived from the Traction Avant, the DS was successful in
motorsports like
rallying, where sustained speeds on poor surfaces are paramount, and won the
Monte Carlo Rally in 1959 and controversially in 1966, after the disqualification of the BMC Mini-Cooper team.
The DS placed fifth on
Automobile Magazine's "100 Coolest Cars" listing in 2005.
[9] It was also named the most beautiful car of all time by
Classic & Sports Car magazine after a poll of 20 world-renowned car designers, including
Giorgetto Giugiaro,
Ian Callum,
Roy Axe,
Paul Bracq, and
Leonardo Fioravanti.
The 1955 DS cemented the Citroën brand name as an automotive innovator, building on the success of the
Traction Avant, which had been the world's first mass-produced monocoque front-wheel-drive car in 1934. In fact, the DS caused such a huge sensation that Citroën was apprehensive that future models would not be of the same bold standard. No clean sheet new models were introduced from 1955 to 1970.
The DS was a large, expensive
executive car and a downward brand extension was attempted, but without result. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s Citroën developed many new vehicles for the very large market segments between the 2CV and the DS, occupied by vehicles like the
Peugeot 403,
Renault 16 and
Ford Cortina, but none made it into production. Either they had uneconomic build costs, or were ordinary "me too" cars, not up to the company's high standard of
innovation. As Citroën was owned by
Michelin as a sort of research laboratory, and were a powerful advertisement for the capabilities of the radial tyre Michelin had invented, such experimentation was possible.
Other models produced by Citroën were based on the utilitarian
2-cylinder 2CV economy car (that contained some of the most advanced independent suspension chassis engineering in the world). The
Ami also designed by
Flaminio Bertoni attempted to combine the styling of the DS with the advanced chassis of the 2CV. It was very successful in France in the 1960s, but less so on export markets because of its controversial styling, and by being noisy and underpowered. The
Dyane, was a modernised 2CV with a hatchback, to compete with the
Renault 4.
Citroën finally did introduce the
Citroën GS in 1970, which won "European car of the Year 1970" and sold a spectacular 2.5 million units. But it was still underpowered by a flat-4 air-cooled engine, the intended Wankel rotary-engined version did not reach full production.
The DS remained popular and competitive throughout its production run. Its peak production year was 1970. Certain design elements like the somewhat narrow cabin, column mounted
gearstick, and separate
fenders began to seem a little old-fashioned in the 1970s.
Citroën invested enormous resources to design and launch an entirely new vehicle in 1970, the
SM, which was a thoroughly modernized, much wider, faster and more expensive car than the DS. Although the SM construction was conceptually similar to the DS – a platform frame with many pieces spotwelded together,
mid-engine,
front-wheel drive, detachable front fenders,
hydropneumatic suspension, rear
fender skirts, and
trailing arm rear suspension – it is an entirely different car. On the SM, the roof and rear quarter panels were welded on. Few parts are directly interchangeable between the two cars, but the DS and SM were both assembled on the same production lines at
Quai André-Citroën, Paris. Unlike the DS, the factory never authorized a convertible model, as Citroën felt the roof was integral to the structure of the SM.
Despite all this, the SM had to fulfill another purpose beyond just modernizing the DS: it had to launch Citroën into a new
grand tourer market segment. This meant that unlike the DS, the SM was not designed to be a practical 4-door
saloon suitable as a large
family car, the key market for vehicles of this type in Europe. Typically, manufacturers would introduce low-volume
coupés based on parts shared with an existing saloon, not as unique models, a contemporary example being the
Mercedes-Benz SLC-Class. The SM's high price, driven by its
Maserati engine and limited utility of the
2+2 seating configuration, meant the SM as actually produced could not seize the mantle from the DS.
The DS was finally phased out in 1976, by which time 1,455,746 cars had been produced. The DS was replaced as the large family or executive car in the model range by the
CX. The development and launch of the CX in the wake of the 1974 oil crisis, bankrupted Citroën
[citation needed] and forced them into a merger with Peugeot, to form PSA Peugeot-Citroën.
While the DS was a hit in Europe, it seemed rather odd in the United States. Ostensibly a luxurious car, it did not have the basic features that buyers of that era expected to find on such a vehicle: fully
automatic transmission,
air conditioning,
power windows, and a reasonably powerful
V8 engine instead of a relatively modest
4-cylinder inline engine. The DS's price in 1970 ranged from
US$4,066 to US$4,329.
[11]Also, many Americans at the time wanted only the newest models, which changed every year, like
fashions, but the DS's appearance did not change significantly in the 16 years it was available in the States.
US legislation also
banned one of the car's more advanced features, aerodynamic headlamps, now common in US automobiles of the 21st century, which first re-appeared in the USA on
Audi cars of that era, and domestically produced
Ford Taurus cars in 1986 as examples. The first year of aerodynamic glass enclosing the DS's headlights, along with driving lights turned by the steering, was also the first year those features were outlawed in the US. The VW Beetle, Kombi (van) and Jaguar XKE had aerodynamic faired glass over their (fixed) headlights until the same time.
The DS was sold in the United States from 1956–1972. Ultimately, 38,000 units were sold.
Hydraulic fluid
The original hydropneumatic system used a
vegetable oil liquide hydraulique végétal (LHV), similar to that used in other cars at the time. Later, Citroën changed to using a
synthetic fluid
liquide hydraulique synthétique (LHS). Both of these had the disadvantage that they are
hygroscopic, as is the case with most
brake fluids. Disuse allows water to enter the hydraulic components causing deterioration and expensive maintenance work. The difficulty with hygroscopic hydraulic fluid was exacerbated in the DS/ID due to the extreme rise and fall in the fluid level in the reservoir, which went from nearly full to nearly empty when the suspension extended to maximum height and the six accumulators in the system filled with fluid. With every "inhalation" of fresh moisture- (and dust-) laden air, the fluid absorbed more water. In August 1967, Citroën introduced a new
mineral oil-based fluid
liquide hydraulique minéral (LHM). This fluid was much less harsh on the system. LHM remained in use within Citroën until the
Xantia was discontinued in 2001.
Briefly illegal in the U.S.,
[15] LHM has since been adopted by manufacturers like
Rolls-Royce,
Jaguar,
BMW, and
Audi under various labels, like "Total," "Pentosin," and others.
LHM required completely different materials for the seals. Using either fluid in the incorrect system would completely destroy the hydraulic seals very quickly. To help avoid this problem, Citroën added a
bright green dye to the LHM fluid and also painted all hydraulic elements bright green. The former LHS parts were painted black.
Two different hydraulic pumps were used. The DS used a seven-cylinder
axial piston pump driven off two belts and delivering 175 bar (2,540 psi) of pressure. The ID19, with its simpler hydraulic system, had a single-cylinder pump driven by an eccentric on the camshaft.
The DS was originally designed around an
air-cooled flat-six based on the design of the
2-cylinder engine of the 2CV, similar to the motor in the
Porsche 911. Technical and monetary issues forced this idea to be scrapped.
Thus, for such a modern car, the engine of the original DS 19 was also old-fashioned. It was derived from the engine of the 11CV
Traction Avant (models 11B and 11C). It was an
OHV four-cylinder engine with three main bearings and dry liners, and a bore of 78 mm (3.1 in) and a stroke of 100 mm (3.9 in), giving a volumetric displacement of 1911 cc. The cylinder head had been reworked; the 11C had a reverse-flow cast iron cylinder head and generated 60 hp (45 kW) at 3800 rpm; by contrast, the DS 19 had an aluminium cross-flow head with hemispherical combustion chambers and generated 75 hp (56 kW) at 4500 rpm. Apart from these details, there was very little difference between the engines: even the locations of the cylinder head studs were the same, so that it was possible to put the cylinder head of a DS on a Traction Avant engine and run it.
[citation needed]Like the Traction Avant, the DS had the gearbox mounted in front of the engine, with the differential in between. Thus some consider the DS to be a
mid engine front-wheel drive car. It initially had a four-speed gearbox and clutch, operated by a hydraulic controller. To change gears, the driver flicked a lever behind the steering wheel to the next position and eased-up on the accelerator pedal. The hydraulic controller disengaged the clutch, engaged the nominated gear, and re-engaged the clutch.
The DS and ID powerplants evolved throughout its 20-year production life. The car was underpowered and faced constant mechanical changes to boost the performance of the four-cylinder engine. The initial
1911 cc 3 main
bearing engine (carried forward from the
Traction Avant) of the DS 19 was replaced in 1965 with the 1985 cc 5-bearing motor of the DS 19a (called DS 20 from September 1969).
The DS 21 was also introduced for model year 1965. This was a 2175 cc, 5 main bearing engine. This engine received a substantial increase in power with the introduction of
Bosch electronic
fuel injection for 1970, making the DS one of the first mass-market cars to use electronic fuel injection.
Lastly, 1973 saw the introduction of the 2347 cc engine of the DS 23 in both carbureted and fuel injected forms. The DS 23 with electronic fuel injection was the most powerful production model, producing 143 hp (107 kW).
IDs and their variants went through a similar evolution, generally lagging the DS by about one year. ID models never received the DS 23 engine or fuel injection.
The DS was initially offered only with the "hydraulique" 4-speed
semi-automatic (bvh-"boîte de vitesses hydraulique") gearbox. The later and simpler ID19 had the same gearbox and clutch, manually operated. This configuration was offered as a cheaper option for the DS in the mid-1960s. In September 1970 Citroën introduced a 3-speed fully
automatic Borg-Warner and a five-speed
manual gearbox, in addition to the original four-speed unit.
[16] The full-automatic transmissions were intended for the US market, but as Citroën withdrew from the US in 1972, the year of highest US sales, due to constrictive road rules, most automatic DSs, fuel-injected DS 23 sedans with air conditioning, were sold in Australia.
DS in popular culture
The DS has been used in many film and television productions,
[18] has inspired artists, and was associated with the French state and French society for many years. The movie
The Goddess of 1967 has been named after the DS. The movie is about a 1967 DS or goddess (déesse in French).
In the post-World War II environment of the 1950s, the DS was a significant advertisement for French manufacturing and ingenuity. President
Charles de Gaulle praised the unusual abilities of his unarmoured DS with saving his life during the assassination attempt at Petit-Clamart on 22 August 1962 planned by
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry — the shots had blown two of the tyres, but the car could still escape at full speed. This event was accurately recreated for
The Day of the Jackal.
DS today
Citroën DS values have been rising – a 1973 DS 23 Injection Electronique 'Decapotable' (Chapron Convertible) sold for EUR €176,250 (
USD $209,738) at
Christie's Retromobile in February 2006.
[19] and a similar car sold by Bonhams in February 2009 brought EUR €343,497 (USD $440,436).
[2] On 18 September 2009 a 1966 DS21 Decapotable Usine was sold by Bonhams for a hammer price of UK £131,300. Bonhams sold another DS21 Decapotable (1973) on 23 January 2010 for EUR €189,000
[3]The DS's beloved place in French society was demonstrated in
Paris on 9 October 2005 with a celebration of the 50th anniversary of its launch. 1,600 DS cars drove in procession past the
Arc de Triomphe.
[20]Le Monde reported on February 2, 2009 that Peugeot Citroën would re-introduce the DS to the car market in 2010.
[21] It has since been revealed that the DS will in fact be a range of, to begin with, three cars, headed by the small '
DS3'. These cars will be high quality, high specifications variations on existing models, but with differing mechanics and bodywork. The DS3, launched in March 2010, is based on Citroen's new C3, but is more customisable and unique, bearing resemblances to the original DS, with its 'Shark Fin' side pillar. In 2010 and 2011, Citroen will launch the DS4 and DS5, models to sit above the C4 and C5 ranges respectively. Both are expected to be more innovative than the DS3, which received mixed feelings from critics and fans at its launch, and are expected to feature hybrid-diesel engines to maximise efficiency, as well as other things that have been seen on Citroen's most recent concept cars.
