70 years of Citroën DS (1955)
The Citroën DS is celebrating its 70th anniversary. A milestone, especially in France. In French, the name is pronounced 'déesse', which means 'goddess'. The nickname 'goddess of the road' is also derived from this. The DS was conceived by designers who had complete creative freedom and wanted to demonstrate what they were capable of. This resulted in a unique product that achieved the status of a national prestige object. Do you have Citroën DS stamps in your collection?
History of Citroën
André Gustave Citroën (1878 – 1935) is the name of the engineer who founded a car factory in France in 1919. The name of the Citroën car brand was born. In 1900, he obtained a Russian patent in Poland for a production method that enabled him to produce gears with V-shaped teeth. The advantage of this was greater strength, greater precision (the teeth no longer 'slide'), and consequently lower wear and a lower noise level.
This distinctive shape is later found as the double chevron in the Citroën logo.
André Citroën was responsible for the introduction of groundbreaking technologies, such as the Traction Avant (the first mass-produced front-wheel-drive car) and the hydro-pneumatic suspension system. However, he is not directly responsible for the DS, as he died in 1935, twenty years before the DS was introduced in 1955.
History of the Citroën DS
The DS was presented on October 6, 1955 at the Paris Motor Show and dropped like a bomb ('La Bombe Citroën'). In the preceding decade, with the exception of the death of Stalin in 1953, French newspapers had devoted so many lines to no other news item as to this event.
The car had various features and applied technologies that had not previously been combined in a single vehicle. On the first day, 12.000 orders for the new car were reportedly placed, and by the end of the week this had even risen to 80.000, a number that caused the factory major production problems. Deliveries could not actually begin until the course of 1956. In the meantime, quite a few orders had already been cancelled. At the end of 1956, a simpler version came onto the market: the ID.
The ID/DS was supplied by Citroën in various body styles: berline (sedan), break (station wagon), and décapotable (convertible). In addition, ambulances were built based on the 'break' by various coachbuilders. Henri Chapron, who manufactured the convertible and the 'prestige' for Citroën, also built various coupes, convertibles, and sedans of his own design under his own (model) name. Furthermore, dozens of other coachbuilding companies in various countries built special models based on the ID/DS. These modifications were relatively easy to realize because the car – unlike its predecessor, the Traction Avant – did not have a unibody construction, but rather separate (bolted) body panels on a very rigid platform. Consequently, anyone could improvise freely on it.
The DS reached third place in the 'Car of the Century' election in 1999 (the Ford Model T finished first and the Mini second) and was named the 'most beautiful car of all time' by a panel of prominent car designers convened by the British magazine 'Classic & Sports Car'.
The first DS (19) had an engine capacity of 1911 cc and a top speed of 140 km/h. Successive borings of the engine block resulted in more powerful versions; the DS 20, 21 and 23. From model year 1970, the DS was also available with the electronically controlled fuel injection (D-Jetronic) developed by Bosch: the DS 21 á injection électronique, and from September 1972 also with the successor to the 21, the DS 23. The latter had an engine capacity of 2347 cc; the variant with injection produced 141 SAE hp and had a top speed of 188 km/h.
Another type was the ID Ambulance (Break Ambulance with medical installation package and optionally a raised roof and/or extended body), built by Currus, Petit, Visser, Akkermans, and a number of other French, Belgian, and Dutch coachbuilders. Only Currus and Petit ambulances could be ordered through Citroën dealers.
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