Game Changer: Citroen DS

In 1000 years, when social anthropologists investigate why 20th Century automotive design suddenly underwent a massive advance, the 1955 Citroen DS (aka Goddess) will give them the clue.

No alien engineer had delivered access to secrets that were decades ahead of accepted practice. The company’s own engineers devised the car’s advanced mechanical systems mostly on their own and, while the extraordinary body was developed with some outside assistance, it came not from a recognised stylist but an Italian industrial designer and sculptor.

Plans for Citroen’s VGD, or Voiture de Grande Diffusion, were hatched even before World War II began but would not resurface until the 1950s.

Citroen had pioneered use of front-wheel drive in its volume-selling Light 15 and the new 2CV, so that aspect of the new car’s design was already proven.

So too was the 1.9-litre straight-four engine which the company launched with the LT15 in 1934. A radical flat-six was considered, but the plan shelved due to cost and complexity.

Most significant amongst the car’s many radical elements was its body, for which the world can thank the variously gifted Flaminio Bertoni.

He had first worked as a stylist for Citroen on its Light 15 sedan and later on the snail-like Deux Chevaux. However, the aerodynamic and spacious DS ranks as Bertoni’s crowning achievement.

Even naming the car DS was no coincidence. The French word for goddess is ‘Diesse’ and the svelte Citroen looked nothing less than divine when parked beside conventional 1950s cars.

The body was shaped with assistance from a wind tunnel, which Citroen acquired during the early 1950s. The structure beneath was created without need of a chassis and the car could operate with all of its external panels removed.

The roof panel was moulded from fibreglass and was half the weight of a steel panel. It was cheaper, more difficult to damage and lowered the car’s centre of gravity. It was able to use thinner pillars while providing equal levels of rollover protection.

At the heart of the DS was its hydro-pneumatic system which levelled the ride height and could increase ground clearance to deal with rugged terrain. It also provided power assistance for the steering and the braking system with its rear drums and inboard front discs.

Like its LT15 predecessor, the DS was front-wheel drive. It was also intended to use the radial ply tyres pioneered by Citroen owners, Michelin.

In addition to delivering a supple and almost shock-free ride, the big sedan would corner at speeds that were seemingly impossible. This was helped in part by the radials’ grip but also a narrowed rear track to counteract the car’s forward weight bias.

Seat belts were one safety feature missing from the initial design, but the DS did feature controlled crumple zones and beefy sills to protect occupants, plus a single-spoke steering wheel to minimise chest injuries.

Those attributes likely helped save the lives of London-Sydney Marathon contenders Lucien Bianchi and Jean-Claude Ogier when their DS was hit head-on by an errant spectator vehicle while leading the 1968 event.

Although robbed of victory on that occasion, Ogier and Citroen returned to be co-winners of the 1970 Ampol Trial. Then in 1974, a DS23 crewed by Australians would dominate the World Cup Rally; an event regarded as the toughest long-distance motoring contest ever staged.

It would run for much of its distance across the Sahara desert, where the winning DS was able to travel with its suspension at full extension while averaging better than 160km/h.

Final versions of the DS produced until 1976 would include luxurious Pallas sedans with leather upholstery and the massive Safari station wagon which offered 2.2 metres of load space.

Related: A century of Citroen

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