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April Car In The Room
1973 Citroen DS23 Pallas (DS punned to Déesse translates to Goddess in French - quite appropriate) I spotted her mid last year, of all places on Trademe having already looked for a classic to purchase for some time. It was listed on a Saturday, my wife Jude and I viewed on the Sunday and bought it on the Monday (much to Alan J’s annoyance!). We love driving her, taking her out on runs most weekends. The most memorable trip to date is a week long trip around Tongariro National Park, October 2020, with a group from the Citroen Club. This car has been fortunate to have been used regularly, properly and thoroughly maintained by her previous owners using marque specialists who knew and understood what these cars were about. This is a special car and you feel more like a custodian than an owner. The Citroen DS concept and design took about 18 years to get to production which pre-dates the beginning of WWII. The principal architect of the Citroen DS project was the brilliant and accomplished French engineer André Lefèbvre. He was also principally responsible for the Traction Avant, the H series Citroën trucks and vans, and the 2CV as well. Italian sculptor and Industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni styled the car. Paul Magès, a young engineer with no formal training, developed the hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension. The initial design brief was simple, fast travel on poor road surfaces. He later professed that if he had been trained then he would never have developed this type of suspension. Citroën built 1,455,746 examples across six countries, of which 1,330,755 were manufactured at Citroën’s main Paris Quai de Javel (now Quai André-Citroën) production plant. The original DS19 was launched on 5th 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 reached 12,000. During the 10 days of the show, the DS
took in 80,000 deposits; a record that stood for over 60 years. The DS placed third in the 1999 “Car of the Century” poll recognizing the world’s most influential auto designs. It was also named the most beautiful car of all time by Classic & Sports Car magazine. In 2009 the magazine asked car designers “What is the most beautiful car ever?” Included were former McLaren designer Gordon Murray; Ian Callum famed for his Jaguar and Aston Martin designs; Leonardo Fioravanti of famous Italian design shop Pininfarina/Ferrari; and Marcello Gandini of Bertone. The DS was a clear winner! The Citroen DS’s hydraulics perform many functions including: • Hydropneumatic suspension including an automatic leveling system and variable ground clearance. • First production car to have disc brakes. These were inboard to reduce unsprung weight. • Rack and Pinion power steering. Other party tricks include: • Fibreglass roof which lowered the centre of gravity and so reduced weight transfer. • Aluminium bonnet reduces weight and reduces weight transfer as well. • Directional inner turning headlamps turn with the front wheels allowing the driver to ‘see around the corner’. • Aerodynamically efficient. This car has a drag coefficient of 0.34 • Wide front and narrow rear track reduces understeer. The Citroen DS was a car many years ahead of its time.
