1971 Citroen-Maserati SM

They really are bad shots", Charles de Gaulle dryly commented as he stepped out of his bullet ridden car, the presidential Citroen DS. The French President had just survived an assassination attempt by the OAS - a right-wing terrorist group - when his car sped through incessant machine gun fire and continued speeding despite having only three working tires. The Citroen DS and it's remarkable hydraulic suspension system had once again proved itself a miracle of car design, even though its engineers had not anticipated such a dramatic test of their claims. The DS achieved what most cars never set out to accomplish - being celebrated for its technical and design prowess the moment it was unveiled.

The DS had a host of ground breaking features. It was front wheel drive with a hydraulic system that fed the suspension, semi-automatic clutch, disc brakes and power steering. The suspension, sporting an independent self leveling system, could be raised to around 7 inches in case of rough terrain, a little less than five for regular surfaces or practically dropped on the ground when parked or for loading / unloading. No jack required! This suspension mechanism resulted in an unbelievably smooth ride that was capable of quietly absorbing any imperfections in the asphalt before they ever reached the driver.

Citroen was always a little unhappy with the DS, because they got so involved in the ground-breaking hydraulic system that they spent all the development money before they designed the engine. Always intended to house an air-cooled flat six (some 10 years before Porsche did this with the 911) lack of funds caused them to scrap that and fit it with the wheezy 60bhp 1.6 engine from 1934's Traction Avant. And despite selling some 1,500,000 of the various DS models, the engine issue was never addressed.

So, in 1961 Citroen started work on Project 'S', a sports variant of the DS. It was intended to show that the quirky hydraulic suspension and front wheel drive layout were capable of handling a lot more power. But still they had no engine, so in 1968 they bought struggling Maserati with the intention of harnessing Maserati's high performance engine technology to produce a true Gran Turismo car, combining the sophisticated Citroën suspension with a Maserati V6 engine.

The result was the SM. A luxury high speed 2+2 with more quirk than any car before or since. Headlights that turned with the steering, variable assist power steering, self-centering steering and a space-age shape that still looks reasonably fresh some 40 years later. And it is great to drive. With plenty of poke from it's rorty Maserati lump (later used in the Merak) and a surprisingly stable cornering from the clever suspension it does drive more like a modern car than anything else from it's era.