From a french frog , former owner of a Citroen AMI 8 . Thank you for honoring one of the beautest creation that our country ever produced.No french-bashing , no pukes , no "cheese eating , blahblah supposed to be funny" jokes . Frankly , extremely enjoyable.
People doesn't truly undertand influence of this car: it was introduced in 1955 (ten years after WW2, ten years!) with same style and it continued trough 1975, hydropneumatic suspension, frameless glass, superb aerodynamic... everything you see (beside double headlights) were there in fckin 1955! nineteen fifty five!!!!!! one spoke steering wheel? 1955! and you know what? 1955 it was PRODUCTION YEAR!!!! not prototype not mock up PRODUCTION CAR. On first day of reveal they sold freaking 12000 of them.twelve thousand!!! in 1955!!!! this is pinnacle of engineering (until we have some warp speed elon musk imagined kessel run thorium powered s#!t) this is THE car.period
@@truthseeker8483 I saw my first Citroen at the Seattle Worlds Fair. Bought one (DS 19 Palass) in Toronto in 1969. This vehicle is not only the most revolutionary but the best car -- well the DS was anyway. Also owned a Deux Cheveax. It was a sad day when they no longer were allowed into North America about 1973.
@@phlotographer My father had a 1958 model in 1968 when I was 4 years old. He had several over a 32 year period or thereabouts. I drove them very long distances here in Australia often towing trailers. Ride comfort, stability, steering and braking were always outstanding. They were also quite economical..I now have a modern hatch which returns similar mpg. I miss them every day as I bump up and down in my new car with simple suspension. New car manufacturers concentrate on profit and giving the user a digital screen to admire on the dashboard. Cars today in 2020 should be totally amazing in their engineering..even cheap ones
I understand !......currently refreshing my '72 Pallas.....has a 3speed Borg Warner gearbox , only 300 built......sold my '62 ID Decap last year only partially restored over 15 years.....bought for 5000 Euros , sold for 40,000 Euros......worked for an old architect in my first summer job out of Architectual University in 1972 . He drove a Pallas which he always bought from the French ambassador in Dublin.....25 yrs later I came upon him changing a wheel on a motorway while I was driving my first DS .....a great moment !.....Bon Chance Penzija !
Kamran, while very much safety cars of their era, by today's safety standards they are grossly obsolete. The 1970 SM was a much improved car designed around the D platform and chassis but it's now a 50 year old design.
I owned a DS for 13 years and had a smile on my face for every minute of it. It stopped traffic wherever it went. Beautiful cars. Nothing but nothing like them and the ride quality is like driving on a bed of fluid.
Juan Manuel Martinez These cars were really sour as a lemon. This is a true confession of a real Citroën car owner's son. I am not kidding you or making funny jokes.
Wonderfully informative video for an exceptional car... they had a catch phrase - "NOTING MOVES YOU LIKE A CITROEN" - Both as a mode of transport and your heart! Your slopey dash, hydraulic gearchange DS21 Pallas is very iconic. IDs were amazing. The DS Safari was an exta bit wonderful with the two jump seats in the rear and the integral aerodynmanic roof rack with knurled rubber on the leading edge so there is no wind whistle. One of fav Citroen experiences was as the most rearward passenger jump seat with the curved back window at night at 80 mph on a dirt country road, dust billowing out in clouds behind, gum trees flicking past and an inky moonless star filled sky above... then looking past 3 rows of people in front of me to see the turning headlights searching the road ahead. I am a long time Citroen addict from my first car at age 19. An Australian assembled 1962 Citroen ID19 with the brake button disguised with a low pedal. My next 1964 ID19 had the rubber overridders and a brake button... The addiction has continued for 48 years. 1965 DS19 Safari, 1968 DS21 Citromatic. 1970 D Super, 1972 DS21 EFI Pallas 5 speed with leather, 1974 DS23 EFI Pallas 5 speed with jersey. 1971 GS 1015 Cmatic, 1972 GS 1220 manual, 1974 GS 1220 Cmatic wagon, 1978 CX Prestige EFI 5 speed with leather. 1997 Xantia 1.9 Turbo Diesel. 2018 C4 Cactus 1.2 turbo petrol 6 speed auto (current) 1978 2CV6 Club, 1982 2CV6 Charleston, 1990 series 2CV6 Charleston (current) Phew... Citroen has moved me quite a lot... 550,000 kms in 3 x 2CV6s plus mileage of the 14 other Citroens. Fab adventure driving the 2CV6 Charleston across Europe, UK, Ireland, Canada & USA for 15 months in 1982/83. RHD, yellow French headlight bulbs... even the police in Canada & USA loved it. No speeding tickets despite being pulled up twice for speeding plus a few times for photos...
Ted, it is refreshing to hear and see an American praising a car that was built and designed outside of the U.S.A. I too love the styling and engineering of the Citroen DS, it is a unique car which was way ahead of it's time, it is nice to know it is appreciated in your country also.
Jeeezz! Love you guys! As a french guy, I'm still impressed how this car can be loved at this point all over the world. How passionate you can be. Thanks again so much for sharing your knowledge.
I remember seeing a brown one of these drive past my house in Massachusetts when I was a kid c. 1960. I've always assumed it was a Saab. For all these years, no one believed me that I saw a car that was driving on only 3 wheels. I am vindicated! Thank you FLC. (I remember the left rear being the missing tire. Based on your explanation here, could it have been a right hand drive?)
Either rear wheel can be removed and the car driven. It just makes sense when demonstrating to remove the wheel supporting the least weight. I have driven mine (RHD) missing left and right rear. The car will balance itself when missing a front wheel but of course cannot be driven.
There is one more genius thing he forgets to mention... The "stored system pressure" he says is used for the brakes is actually taken (primarily) from the REAR spheres... Result: the car actually hunkers down under heavy braking, so no forward pitch, no mass shifting! It is the simplest, most genius system I've ever seen!
+Bass Trammel "That is a good looking car. Wouldn't mind spending a fortune and most of my time repairing one just for drive it on a few summer days" IF looked after, they are not expensive to maintain. You just need a mechanic who won't flip out at the sight of it.
If you want the best one for summer driving, then you need the Chapron version ,which is a convertible However very few were made,and now days are ridiculously expensive
Very low maintenance. I had one for a few years as a daily driver and it was built like a tank. It was rust prone however if you were in a bad climate, but other than that it wasn't anything like a Mercedes or, god forbid, a Porsche in maintenance costs. I drove mine across the US twice....loved it.Change the fluids regularly and use the French Hydraulic fluid to top up the system and you're good to go. 20 years in production...they were doing something right.
A complement about the brakes: The brakes also has a distribution valve (governed by the pressure in the rear suspension spheres) that distributes the brake pressure according to the load of the two axels.
Honorable European Nationalist Looks is subjective, but the quality of the design is not. Like it or not, the shape is very aerodynamic, and make most others cars of the time looks like a brick.
Honarable European Nationalist like the name I hate globalisation! Citroen sold 12,000 in one day at the motor show in 1955 just shows a lot of people thought it looked pretty good!
Agreed--most revolutionary best car ever made. Some things you didn't mention--crumple zones, engine slides under the driver's feet in a head-on collision, and did you ever wonder why the spare tyre is up front? That's also to absorb the force of a front end collision. My parents were in one, travelling at 60 mph when a couple of tourists, high on marijuana, ploughed into them, at a combined speed of around 150 mph, at least according to the cops. And mom and dad walked away from it.
I can't remember why anymore but my dad and i once drove back on 3 wheels like this and where stopped by the police. (netherlands) we continued after we explained it (and we where close to where we needed to go). Can't remember why we didn't have a working spare but it was probably somewhere else during a rebuild. My dad worked for citroen for >50 years so we handled/had lots of cars.
Aluminum head; aluminum block with steel cylinder sleaves; aluminum valve cover; aluminum oil pan; aluminum transmission / transaxle case; aluminum radiator; aluminum hood; fiberglass roof panel; gas tank inside a sealed steel box; inboard front disc brakes that reduce sprung weight on the front wheels; one connector held each wheel on, it was a captured bolt so it could not get lost; leading arm front suspension, trailing arm rear suspension, acted to raise the nose under heavy braking; the steering pivot line was centered at the center line of each front wheel so there was no pulling bias on the front wheels; the car had the lowest aerodynamic drag of any other at the time. It is more advanced than any production sedan made today.
But in real use the nose plunges under heavy braking. the steep bumps. The children are sick. The brake pedal has too little travel, and is very difficult to dose. Suspension spheres often leak.
@@HenriBourjade My children are not sick, in a DS there is less movement in the back of the car than any other sedan. The brake "pedal" has zero travel, that's right because it is pressure sensitive. I never had problems with applying the brakes smoothly. In my 11 years owning a DS I had to fill the spheres once, that is normal.
deez, the D block is cast iron, not aluminum. The SM has the aluminum block and lower crankcase. The front suspension is lateral parallel arms, not leading. The 2CV based cars have leading front swing arms. The SM has the same kind of front suspension as the D, only it's turned around so that the swivel castings are ahead. The castings are tilted slightly forward to provide anti-dive on braking
Around 1970 I went for a test drive in a DS. It was indeed the smoothest riding car I've ever been in. When the salesman was driving, he asked me to not look at the speedometer, and tell him how fast I thought we were going. I replied 50 mph. He then had me look at the speedometer. We were doing 80 mph.
Couple more features I believe were not mentioned: The front drive shafts had a CV joint on the inner and a double universal joint on the outer giving an immense the turn angle of the front wheels for a front wheel drive car. This , coupled with the rear wheels being right at the back of the vehicle, enabled an 120 inch wheelbase vehicle being able to be parked the space of the car length plus my brief case. Back and get the rear wheels in the correct position go opposite lock once forward then opposite lock once rearward and you were parallel parked. The front of the car being semicircular when viewed from above, meant that there were no corners to catch you out. So inspite of its length it had an excellent turning circle. .. The body was self leveling in pitch.. Throw ten bags of cement into the boot and the vehicle would automatically level up on the hydromatic suspension [This is separate from the also self leveling headlights]. It also had load proportionals breaking as the rear brakes would work harder when the boot [sorry, trunk to you Yanks] was so loaded. It was mentioned that the panels were removable. I believe this was a design feature so that in France if you dinged a panel you would go to the panel beaters and they would just swap that panel and fix the damaged one at leisure. You can strip the front, rear and doors off in about 12 minutes, rear wings as shown one bolt, front wing four bolts [two of these on the headlight tilt bar and four bolts for each door. The roof was held on by twelve bolts and on one nice day I once unbolted the roof and had a nice day driving around Targa style. The front brakes, being mounted inboard on the gearbox, were accessed beside the radiator from under the bonnet. I changed the disc pads one day whilst waiting for my wife to get changed. 20 minutes for a full change and I was wearing my suit at the time! Only got my fingers dirty. It was the most boring car to drive at high speed as handling was the same no matter what speed you went. There are some nice video on RU-vid of blowing out a front tyre with no hands on the wheel. The only thing was that they were a bit underpowered due to the strange licencing in France of motors over 2300 cc. I woudl dearly like to have one made up as was intended with a six cylinder aircooled boxer engine. The low bean headlights were fully reflected, the direct beam from the filaments being shielded by the high bealm reflector giving an absolute vertical cut off. This gave the impression when looking at the headlights from above that they were two glowworms but from behind the wheel they were great. First mass production vehicle with disc brakes, You could hold a dance in the back seat area there was so much room. ... and I still miss my swiveling driving lights! 1973 DSpecial, 1975 GS. Oh, and if you want to see the ultimate DS look up "Le Mille Pattes Citroën Michelin" on youtube! ;-)
actually one can remove the doors with one bolt ! the 2 vertical spindles have a locknut , loosen the lower one, then with a very long screwdriver unscrew the spindle about 10mm and lift the door up and off the top spindle ! we do it all the time at my friends resto garage , no alignment needed too, genius !
Wheelbase is 123 inches. They completely failed to mention the superior aerodynamics. Additionally, they used a very odd example. The dash instruments were not round like on this car unless you bought an aftermarket dash by Jaegar. The original dash used a sliding speedo, had no tach. Cars after 1970 had more modern round instruments, but far different than this car. The example used has the mirror on the fenders, never sold that way. many other details that are simply unique to this car. The single spoke steering wheel is a safety measure, many people died in car crashes in those days because they were impaled on the steering column. The column could not impale you. Many, many safety features in the design, such as crumple zones, the engine was designed to submerge under the car, not go into the cabin, the fuel tank is under the rear seat so it can't be damaged in a rear-end crash. The hood is made of aluminum, don't recall that being mentioned. And the dash on the very early cars was nylon, largest nylon peice ever made. Dorr handles were plastic inside an out. The car was supposed to have a plastic body, imagine that. But demand was so high Citroën realized they could not keep up, simply not enough plastic making capacity. So it was redone in metal, bu they kept the wide gaps out of expediency, those gaps were intended to account for expansion of the plastic. This video is better than most, but I think they really miss what the true top 10 futuristic design elements are.
As a Canadian CX Diesel driver, all I can say is YES. I would like to meet this DS driver, his enthusiasm and expertise are amazing. Thanks,Bas Vancouver BC
I saw a Peugeot 404 wagon in the background. Great car. Not revolutionary like the Citroen, but an extremely durable car with great steering and suspension
+Eric Wheeler "Are you actually blind? That is a hideous pig" Let me guess, you have never set foot in an Art Museum, ever, Right? Back to your spray cheese coated McDonalds burger, leave the aesthetic appreciation to those with taste.
I love the dash on the interior of your car, so shiney, sweet, and perfect looking. But of course Monsieur, I just love that Citroen suspension. I have had the pleasure of getting a ride in one of these vehicles. Even though this car is rare here in America, there are some of us who keenly watch for these vehicles and know a lot about them, me being one of them. I didn't think I'd see anything I didn't already know in your video regarding this vehicle but it was very nice to see the mechanicals that you showed, I had never gotten a chance to get a closer look at some of the way things worked. I thought I'd known everything about these cars but I learned something new from you today! Very pleasant video, thank you so much guys!
I remember writing in one when I was only 15 gosh that was all the way back in 1975! It drove like a powder puff and it was so cool I never saw a car that can go up and down before I've never forgotten it now I finally know what it's called! Thank you
The brakes have one more feature which few people know about. The front brakes are powered by a pressure accumulator in the engine bay. The rear brakes are powered by the pressure in the rear suspension. This means the braking force at the rear is load sensitive. More load, more braking force. That's good engineering. It also has the second effect. If you depress the brake button hard a few times, the rear end will drop before the hydraulic pump is able to replenish the reservoirs. :-)
Hi guys, Dave in France here. Brilliant video of one of the most beautiful, cleverest, comfortable cars in 2022 - and it was introduced to the market in 1955 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fabulous, fabulous cars ..
Please inform the owner. The purpose of the "non centered" center arm on the wheel (single spoke) is to rest your arms/hands when driving on highways. It's really relaxing. That's the real reason it is non centered.
This video of my all-time favorite of all cars, is by far the best! Very comprehensively detailed description of most of the DS' many outstanding legendary features. Excellent!
My mom's boss had one in red, early 1970s. I was a little boy and loved it, remembering the rear turn signals (my favorite detail on the car) the turning headlights and the smooth ride. We had a Beetle and a Corolla and the DS was HUGE :)
Great vid :). However you both missed a couple of details. 1) Machining tolerances for the hydraulic control pistons. Able to hold 2500psi pressures without the use of seals - +/- 0.0003". Cit rewrote the book on mass production of parts with those tolerances. The other is the steering rack. Zero play in the steering system. IOW one only has to just touch the steering wheel and you will get a response from the front wheels. The other thing that the system does is prevent, via lots of hydraulic pressure inside the rack, any movement of the front wheels caused by forces against them. Hit a pot hole in a corner, nothing happens. Have a flat tire in the front and you can stop the car with your hands off of the front wheels (lots of vids on the net showing this).
They probably meant 3 out of 4 wheels or 1 less wheel. Which all the cars you mentioned above can't do. But you all probably knew what they meant, right? 😜
It's so great to see that some people still appreciate these fantastic and misunderstood cars. I've had a GS, a GSA, an AX and a BX. Once in my GSA I had exactly the same experience as related here. On the highway, doing about 130kph, so about the same 80mph. Three guys in the car arguing whether we'd had a blow out or not... Only when we started seeing the bits of tyre flying of, did we agree it would probably be a good idea to stop! Oh, and it was the front right tyre...
Yes still awake loved your video,i have watched a few but your the first to explain those parts from your garage,especially the gear shifter,i was chuffed to see that., thanks, Pete from Newark in the UK.
Nowadays, Citroën has lost all what it was 50 years ago. Financiers killed engineers and designers. Now you don't have the right of taking risks, you don't have the time of studying cars for years. You have to produce cars, with reduce costs, and maximum earnings. You car is like the others ? Advertisers will pass it off as exceptional! So sad... 😥
A friend, Thane Bierwert, former president of the Central Citroën Club of the Chicago, Illinois, USA area, was moving to Franklin, Tennessee, USA. He had his Citroën ID 21F wagon loaded, full inside, heavy load on the roof rack. Even the RH front seat was full. Nearing Brentwood, Tenn. on I-65 south at about 75 mph (120 kmh), the RH front tire blew out. He said that he saw a black “thing” leap out to the right from underneath the car. At first he thought he might have run over a tire tread. So, he pulled over to the side and got out to see if it had damaged the tire. The tire was gone! Nothing but radial cords. The tube was gone. He went to a phone (pre-cellular era) and called me. He didn't have a spare as he had had a flat in Kentucky. I dragged an old 15x5 wheel with an ancient Michelin X 165 tire, nearly bald, out and carried it to him in my '71 DSpécial 21. He installed it and went on to his new house. He went back to Chicago and brought another full load down. The old X blew out south of Nashville, Tennessee not far from where the other tire had exploded and shredded. As the old rusty wheel was already beat-up, he drove on to his house. The point of this is that when front tires blew out, he didn't feel anything and the car didn't behave badly. Other than a slight tilt toward the side on which the tires failed, he barely knew that a tire had failed. Such is the safety benefit of Citroën Center-Point steering.
(I am an unrepentent Cit guy and think this video is the best I've ever seen on the DS. Most stress either is style or French peculiarities. This video describes the engineering tour de force these cars were/are brilliantly.
Thank you for your beautiful video ! From a french Citroen fan ...My collection car is a CITROEN GSA X3 (year 1982) , a more little hydropneumatic suspension car with flat-four air cooler motor : I both can drive with it on 3 wheels . (Excuse my bad english !!!)
I've driven both the DS19 and the DS21. This is a car you will never forget. It's not a sports car but it still has a fair amount of grunt. It's fast with the most comfortable seats you have ever imagined. Remember they started making these in 1955 and it was light years ahead anything on the road and still is the most beautiful. Put driving one on your lifetime bucket list. It will blow your mind! The only downside it was so revolutionary it was beyond the understanding of most mechanic's.
The Citroen is under appreciated. It was my family car growing up. My Dad loved them. In SF Ca good shops meant we had 4, last being 1972 DS21 Pallas metallic black. It was sublime. Enjoyed your great video. Early inspiration for Body is the raindrop, kamm-backed and flat sided w/ bellypan no less. Cha cha check it
Great video, my dad was a Citroen dealer in the '70's remember working/playing with all the new DS's at the time. Try placing your left hand on the center of the steering wheel and the your arm will naturally be along the spoke of the wheel...crazy French
Easily still the most advanced production car in the world bar none. Great to see a video that gets down to the engineering design that enables its to work so perfectly!
I remember seeing this car when I was 8 years old and my dad was just absolutely gushing over it. He knew a few things about how technologically advanced this car was and couldn't stop talking about it. Lovely cars. Wish they still built them like this.
I had one of these and it's not just the suspension that makes it comfortable it's also the best driving position of any car I have sat in , the steering wheel is well clear of your legs, the roofline is really high so no ducking your head to get in. My '74 manual could cruise at 100mph and still had reserves. For all its complexity it was really reliable which is why I guess they were so popular as taxis in France.
Citroën has had a history of being one of the most innovative car companies ever. Pity the recent years have not been quite up to the legacy of the years gone by. Let's hope Citroën rises back to its old heights and we get to see and drive another one of their magnificent creations in our lifetime.
I was just at the "Citroen Rendez Vous" in Ballston Lake near Saratoga Springs NY were many DS, SM, 2CV, Traction Avant and otheres were, great car show, great people! All my childhood right there!
My father had the 1976 Citroen CX and the Maserati. The Maserati had another feature, the headlights could turn to the direction on which you turned the steering wheel. Very cool cars.
I owned a DS 19 (English model) 1955 for a short time. It would drive 35 miles per gallon if only on the first stage of the Weber carb. It had "center lock" wheel hubs with one Allen screw that was loosened/tightened with the crank handle ( that's correct, it was supplied with a crank handle). I once changed a flat tire in 1 minute and 35 seconds. Marvelous car. But I didn't have the special tools required to maintain it. I still have the factory workshop manual.
There is a Peugeot 404 in the background,French cars have always had a unique character and charm then and now,plus this are the cars that were common while I was growing up.
I remember one english journalist writing about the lack of standardization of shifting patterns among french cars. He explained the various pulling, prodding and twisting needed for various models.
@@julienbee3467 Yes, when I was a child, growing up in Haiti. I had a relative who owned one. I only rode in it once, but it definitely left a lasting impression of a lifetime.
I drive a 1971 DS21 Pallas EFI Semi auto, yes they are complicated but they are also reliable, we have plenty of garages in the Uk that specialise in them and the spares are available, still a stunning car and it gets lots of attention from total strangers.
Beautiful car, wonderful - and very warm and friendly - presentation by Ted ! Congratulations and my compliments for such an admirative and caring restoration of these "godessess"! I remember the car not only from French movies with Louis de Funes (he always owned a black DS in those movies), but also when, 25 years ago, I was lingering by a neglected but intact silver DS 23 Pallas in front of a house in Constanta, Romania, and suddenly, a woman appeared from behind a window of the house asking me if I am interested in buying it ! "No, I said," too shy and at same time, feeling stupid. "Pity", she answered. "I want to get rid of it". She dissapeared from the window and from my life. A year later, the car wasn't there anymore.
+•BFM Productions• "very revolutionary car for its age" Blew everyone away. Produced from 1955 to 1975, no major changes bar the headlight redesign. Americans were turning out a new body style how often, every 12 months?
Years ago I met a man who said he once drove his Citroen DS on three wheels because he had a flat tire. He got pulled over because he was driving on three wheels. But he managed to get the ticket dismissed in court. Also, years ago another man in our neighborhood had a 1958 model sitting in his driveway that did not run and was in junk condition, except for one thing, it did not have ANY dents in it! The owner told me that that was why he kept it.
Somebody I knew took one to Lapland. The hydraulics froze up and they had to use a blowtorch to get the oil more able to flow. The ride was rather bumpy till they got things warmed up .
@@leborde hmm, I'm unsure, I've already read that but apparently this was more a myth than any other thing. They were designing a v8 engine but it was this engine that has 2 cylinders cut to get a v6, it was a separate engine IIRC. I could be wrong though.
Hello ! Great video ! I guess you really love french cars, as I can see a Peugeot 404 estate in your parking. A car you can see in the first episode of "Starsky & Hutch". But... The beautiful Jaeger dashboard is certainly absolutely well manufactured, but do not let it be seen by a french person. The "distance d'arrête" is a pain to be seen... Greetings from France.
I was so proud as a kid, when the streets were flooded after heavy rain and we were the only car cruising in our block, thanks to the highest suspension level. Then my dad got a Citroën GS, and upgraded to the higher standing CX shortly after, all with similar hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension. The design of both the DS and the CX is Italian, by Bertoni for the former, and inspired from Pininfarina for the latter, this helps explain their iconic status.
Re. DS features , here is my contribution......both sunvisors are mounted on chrome rods which allow the visors to move.....this allows one to bring the visors together in the centre to block out sun which would normally penetrate the gap between conventional sunvisors......I amost forgot to mention the TWO horns . for town or country driving......might be a useful feature these days to combat road rage !
I owned many of these absolute fantastic cars. The offset west south west steering column is so if you are highway cruising you can rest your arm on the door rest and hold the steering wheel on that joint. In left hand drive countries the column is facing east south east.
I'm from italy and my chiose could be done from a long list of fabulose italian cars of that age. But the DS is my dream since I was a kid, 40 years ago. In 2003 my dream became a reality and I bought a beautifull DS 20 PALLAS april 1973. If you like sport cars, this is not the car for you, even if a DS 23 with EFI rises up to 150 hp . Anyway the DS is the best confortable car of 60'S and 70's, thanks to hidraulic system that manages suspension , brakes , clutch , gear box and direction. No compromise: or you love it or you hate it. it is not an easy and simple car, but it's amazing how many innovations are concentrated in a single car born in 1955! at last the incredible design , a mix between a car and a fish ( that's why it was generally called the shark , or der snoek , or el tiburon , or lo squalo in italian. Our french friends were more romantic calling it DS , pronunce Deèsse , the goddes. But i'm proud to say behind this shape there is an italian hand; Flaminio Bertoni , born close to Varese on northen of italy , was the designer of body and interior. He was an artist before an industrial designer. Driving a DS is a kind of extra sensorial experience. And all together these things are enought to forget some negative or detective aspects of this fantastic car. Ciao!
Superb cars. My father had two Safaris. Utterly brilliant and so rare that they inevitably turned heads. Expensive to service, though. I seem to recall the engine had to come out to work on the clutch assembly.
excellent video. The DS was incredibly revolutionary and it was the car for the well off upper middle class in post ww2 France. The DS was also a popular ambulance in Europe. I see there is also some love for the Peugeot 404, another Hemi engined car.
