Citroen DS

When the Citroën DS was first unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October 1955, 743 orders were taken for the car in the first fifteen minutes. The stunning impact of the DS, or déesse (goddess), was not just due to its sleek aerodynamic shape but also its engineering advances, including hydropneumatic suspension, front-wheel drive and disc brakes, all of which were innovative at the time. In this book, Citroën DS expert James Nicholl tells the extraordinary story of how the Citroën DS was developed and designed by a team that included both a sculptor and an aeronautical engineer and describes all the variants, including the Pallas and the Safari estate, and the more economical Citroën ID. The author describes how the car was celebrated by artists and philosophers and how it featured as a guest star in films such as The Day of the Jackal. The book also discusses the success of the Citroën DS as a rally car. This is a highly readable and informative guide to a car once described by Classics & Sports Car magazine as ‘the most beautiful car in the world’.