By 1955, France, ravaged by two World Wars in the space of just 31 years, was on its knees with the daunting task of rebuilding its economy and replenishing its national pride on the horizon. Out of the darkness, however, rose the effortlessly elegant Citroën DS; a car which would come to represent the resolve of France’s post-war population and stands today, at 60 years old, as a monument to the golden age of automotive artistry. Here is its story.
The DS owes much of its existence to a charismatic gentleman called Pierre Boulanger. As Citroën’s design and engineering director at the time, he was tasked with conjuring up a successor to the mass-manufactured Citroën Traction Avant. After 18 years of secret development, including a spell of inactivity during the Second World War, Citroën had created a motoring masterpiece.
Aside from its charming looks, the DS’s party piece was that it used hydraulics, not just for the suspension, but also to assist the steering, clutch, gear change and even the brakes, meaning the DS drove like no car before it. Tragically, and somewhat ironically, Monsieur Boulanger was killed by his own creation in 1950 when testing the DS’s hydraulic suspension in a prototype car. Nonetheless, the model made it to production and at its launch at the Paris motor show in 1955, 743 orders were taken within the first 15 minutes, making it the automotive equivalent of the iPhone of its day. The DS was an overnight automotive sensation.
As if those statistics weren’t enough to elevate it to heroic heights, those gentlemen with the ability to speak the ‘language of love’ will see there’s a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ about its name. “DS”, when pronounced in French, sounds like ‘deesse’, which happens to sound a lot like the French word for goddess.
Goddess or not, this deliberate play on words by the French automaker proved popular with the people, so much so that President Charles de Gaulle chose one as his staff car. With its innovative technology and smooth, highly styled looks, the DS belongs to a bygone era of suave sophistication; a car developed when comfort and refinement were prioritised above performance and efficiency. With some fine examples commanding upwards of £40,000, the DS is already a sought after classic for collectors all over the world. After all, which gentleman wouldn’t want to say he owned a goddess?
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