This car has its ups and downs.

Moody?  No.  French, and logical.

When road conditions change, you can change the height of a Citroen car to suit the road.   Citroen can do it, and only a Citroen.

Deeply rutted road, heavy snowdrift?  Uo you go, and pull away with plenty of clearance.

Flat tire? Raise her up higher still.   The jacking is automatic, and only on a Citroen.

Regular road or smooth turnpike?  Cruise along at normal height.   The comfort is something to marvel at.

By means of a lever you control Citroen’s ups and downs without leaving the drivers seat (varying the driving clearance from 6 1/2″ to 12″).

Result?

Citroen’s exclusive Air-Oil Suspension system seems to actually change the road.   Reducing fatigue.  Eliminating ruts.  Flattening bumps.   As if Citroen was rolling out its own carpet of concrete.   What could be more French… or logical.. than Citroen, the Most considerate car in the world.

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This is a US ad, so the car is shown with US headlights.  US headlights were different as archaic laws meant headlights that turned with the steering were not allowed.   Nor were lights that adjusted with the suspension.  The car in the ad has panel gaps better than any new DS21 ever did!

Citroen introduced front wheel drive, chassis-less construction, replaceable wet cylinder liners, large-amplitude independent suspension system… as far back as 1934… The company possesses and apparently bottomless source of brilliant technical solutions to the rest of the world’s motor industries have either never noticed, or have pretended don’t exist in the hope they might go away.

So there are really only two kinds of cars in the world today: Citroen and the rest.

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The Citroen… a safe car you should look into.

1. Safety “No Spoke” steering wheel.
2. Rugged hemi head engine, built to maintain high cruising speeds with low gas consumption.
3. Dual proportional braking system that prorates brake force according to front/rear weight distribution.
4. Front-mounted spare tire provides additional impact protection.
5. Aerodynamic body slices through air smoothly, silently.
6. Adjustable road clearance to drive right over deep snow, ruts, any terrain.
7. Sensor warns when brake pad linings are low.
8. Power disc brakes.  Mounted inboard for better cooling and reduced unsprung weight.
9. Front wheel drive with low center of gravity for better traction control.
10. Michelin XAS steel cord radial tires.
11. Power Jacking for quick effortless tire changing.
12. Hydropneumatic suspension for greater stability and a smoother ride.
13. Narrow side pillars to give you better visibility.
14. Mono-shell construction provides a rigid zone of protection around passengers.
15. Flat floor, no driveshaft hump.  Full length body underpan.
16. Constant level ride regardless of load and weight distribution.
17. Four wheel independent suspension with constant camber.
18. Safety energy absorbing body sections, front and rear, to cushion collision impact.
19. Turn signals are high mounted for greater visibility.
20. Deep foam padded interior – top, sides and even bottom.

All this and more.   Take a different kind of test drive in a different kind of car.  Different enough to meet your needs for a personal, business or family car.

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Plenty of pull when you need it.

First thing you sense when you slide behind the wheel of a Citroen is the fast, powerful crew you’ve got under the hood.

The motor will deliver 100 mph handily, if you ever need it.

Then there’s the way it takes the road. It’s the front-wheel drive. It actually pulls you around curves.

You feel a relaxed sense of control – an awareness you can step out and pass when you want to. It’s a good feeling; helps your driving, too.

And the more you drive a Citroen, the more you appreciate its agility.

You’ll find it great in winter. No skidding, thanks again to front-wheel drive. No chains, no snow tires.

It’s a car your wife can drive home some night in a blizzard – and you don’t worry.

And in any kind of weather, you’ll like the way a Citroen handles. A big car, it will turn in the same space as a small import – and park just as easily.

Other all-weather features: 28 to 34 miles to the gallon… the easy restful ride of Air-oil suspension… power disc-braking… tires good for 50,000 miles.

Put them all together and you see why owners talk with such pride about the Citroen, why it becomes such a part of the family.

If you’re looking for a car you can really fall in love with, open a flirtation with a Citroen.

A demonstration will do it.

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Citroen’s Aerodynamic Styling Pays Off

How Citroen breaks the long standing performance/economy barrier for sedans – with speeds in excess of 100 miles-per-hour and 30 miles-per-gallon economy. 

Citroen is the world’s first – and only – full-size (123″ wheelbase) family car that can break the century mark in speed and deliver 28 to 34 miles per gallon in normal driving.  Part of the answer for this breakthrough lies in the thrifty power output of the engine and in the superior mechanical efficiency of front-wheel drive.   But the greatest part of the remarkable performance is due to functional body design as, on all cars, a large percentage of the horsepower output is used to overcome air resistance at higher speeds.

Citroen’s coefficient of air resistance is the lowest for any car in its class.   Contours are designed to make the air layers hug the body, reduce turbulence – the main cause of friction and wind noise.

Citroen is aerodynamically designed – outside, underneath and under the hood!  Note the absence of “fins” and other superfluous styling or “streamlining” gimmicks.

Front – The jet-shaped nose reduces frontal air resistance.   The conventional radiator grill which causes friction has been eliminated.

Integral aerodynamics!  Citroen reduces friction in radiator cooling.  Intake delivers air through sealed duct systems to radiator.  Power disc brakes are cooled by separate air intake and duct systems.  Small air scoops provide air for heating and ventilation.

Top – The top contour including the hood that sweeps from the front bumper to the windshield is designed to minimize drag and turbulences.

Below – The full length body underpan eliminates air drag around mechanical parts.   The pan is curved in profile to reduce lift and increase stability at turnpike speeds.

Rear – Fenders are fully skirted, Side, bottom, and top planes converge slightly towards the rear to reduce the drag of the air wake.

Sides – The convex sides, plus the long wheelbase give less hold to cross winds and increase stability.

Under the hood – With internal aerodynamics – new in 1963 – Citroen raises top speed 4 miles per-hour and boosts economy at higher speeds by up to four miles-per-gallon.

Citroen hugs the road closely (6 1/2″) for better stability in cornering and t high speeds.   Adjustable road clearance enables the driver to raise the car – up to 11 1/4″ clearance to drive over deep snow, rutted roads, or other bad road conditions.   Front-wheel drive, another engineering advance pioneered by Citroen offers great stability at all speeds – and stronger cornering power.  it completely eliminates the driveshaft hump – and by placing the engine over the drive wheels helps develop better traction on all surfaces.   That’s why Citroen owners never need chains or snow tyres in most winter driving.

Why not prove all this to yourself with a test drive!  Visit your nearest Citroen Dealer – soon.

The post Ad of the week: Citroen DS Aerodynamic Styling appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Sadly, while Citroen was one of the most innovative car companies in the world during their heyday from the 30s to the 70s, having the most innovative designs does not necessarily sell cars. Citroen was eventually forced into a takeover by Peugeot.  Peugeot were not really interested in the Citroen approach of going ‘all in’ on new designs.  Over the years Citroen cars became more and more conventional.    A few really interesting designs did manage to sneak through the net, but today there is nothing that really distinguishes a Citroen from any other car, and the company has finally dropped the last Citroen specialty – the famed hydropneumatic suspension system.

In a move that highlights the modern car business at its most cynical, PSA have split up Citroen and created a new brand called ‘DS’ which aims to sell tarted up hatchbacks.    It is a sad end to one of the great manufacturers of the 20th century.  They are even offering a 1955 special edition despite no relationship whatsoever to the original car.   Regardless of what is happening with the brand today, Citroen will always be remembered for their ground breaking designs including the Traction Avant, 2CV, DS and others.    Citroen is not alone, a number of the famed brands of the 20th century are a shadow of their former self. Take Lancia which is just a Fiat with a chrome nose.

The Citroen Car Club organized an event for the 60th anniversary, to be held at the Campbelltown Steam and Machinery Museum.    While this was quite a contrast from the 1955 Paris auto show, it was a nice choice of venue with a range of different technologies that have changed the world on display.    The Club had a great turn out with almost 30 cars on display.  About half of them were D models (including my car).   Unfortunately there were no early cars, but there were a nice variety of 3rd nose cars, from pristine restored cars to a car that has been off the road for 18 years and has recently been recommissioned.      In addition to the D’s, there were a couple of CXs, a GS, a brace of BXs and some more modern Citroens.

As well as the Citroens, the rest of the Museum was well worth a look. It includes a variety of stationary and traction steam engines.  It also has some other classic cars including a group of Cadillacs, military vehicles, tractors.   Some of the stationary engines were providing power for the event, and there were rides on the steam tractors for children.  There were also various ‘sheds’ with interesting things to see from old tools, tractors, farm equipment and so on.

At the day, I was also able to talk to a previous owner of my Traction Avant, who is a member of the Citroen Car Club.   He owned the car in the early 70s.    His uncle worked at the Citroen dealer at the time. The car had been brought in with an engine problem.    The owner was then convinced to trade the car in for a new model when the problem was partially fixed.    The dealership just wanted it gone, so the uncle was able to let his nephew know about the car.  He came down and bought it and drove it back up to Narrabri (via the putty road).

Later the problem was diagnosed to be one of the seals for the cylinder liners. This was allowing water into the oil.   Luckily the owner had a friend who taught mechanics at the local TAFE.  The engine was dropped off to be rebuilt by the students as a project!    A week later, it was re-installed in the car and the paint, which was pretty bad by then was refreshed.   Over the time, the clutch was fixed and other general maintenance performed.    The owner later moved to Bathurst, where the next owner later purchased it.      During his ownership, he was able to trace the car as having been in Melbourne in its early years.

The post The Citroen DS was launched 60 years ago this month appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

It does a good job of explaining the changes over the years (in this aspect, probably not as good as the Reynolds book), and an especially good job of covering the models for various countries – the UK in particular, but also the Australian made cars among others.     The Appendix sections are probably not quite as detailed as the Reynolds book, but some of the background sections around the hydraulics are better written.

Overall, I would recommend this book.   You can get it for less than $35, and some of the detail it is missing is available on Le Nuancier DS (A French website) which has even more photos of the various details of the DS year by year as well as the colour charts etc that are made available in the Reynolds book.

In summary, this book is better for the story and history behind the DS, and where it is a bit lacking, there is an excellent web resource to fill this gap.    It is also a good buy for the person who is contemplating a DS, to explain the innovation contained int he car, and help decide which of the numerous models is right for that buyer.   This is one of the books I refer to regularly in my library.

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For reasons of their own, Mercedes gave the 220SE and 250SE models the same designator (111.021 for coupe and 111.023 for cabriolet).   In addition, the chassis number was shared with the 220SE sedan.   This was not continued for the later W111 coupe and cabriolet that have their own model designator and sequence.

From what I know there were:

• 220SE Sedan:  66,086
• 220SE: Coupe: 14,173
• 220SE: Cabrio: 2,729
• 250SE Coupe: 5,259
• 250SE Cabriolet: 954

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