The Citroen DS

[disco man]

When I was a younger the old man bought one these cars and I must admit I hated it. It wasn't until I got older until I understood the engineering and how revolutionary the car truly was.

BBC - Culture - Citro?n DS: A ?goddess? of a car (http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141003-a-goddess-of-a-car)

[Chucaro]

There are a couple of those well restored here in Hobart.
One just have new leather interior done for $11,000 :eek:

They were very popular in Uruguay and the most popular models were the 11cv and the 2cv
The other was The M?hari based on the 2cv engine but with a ABS plastic body. It was something similar to the Moke but IMO much better :cool:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/12/809.jpg

[disco man]

There are a couple of those well restored here in Hobart.
One just have new leather interior done for $11,000 :eek:

They were very popular in Uruguay and the most popular models were the 11cv and the 2cv
The other was The M?hari based on the 2cv engine but with a ABS plastic body. It was something similar to the Moke but IMO much better :cool:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2014/12/809.jpg

G'day Arthur, That is quirky looking car,but its cool.

[Chucaro]

They run with the smell of petrol and are great on the beach :cool:

[JDNSW]

When I was a younger the old man bought one these cars and I must admit I hated it. It wasn't until I got older until I understood the engineering and how revolutionary the car truly was.

BBC - Culture - Citro?n DS: A ?goddess? of a car (http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141003-a-goddess-of-a-car)

I have owned one for over thirty years, and there is at least one other owner on this forum.

Consider that in 1955, when it was introduced, Holden was selling (for not all that much less!) a car with tiny drum brakes, crossply tyres, and a design that was up to date in 1941.

The DS in 1955 had inboard front discs, dual circuit brakes, safety steering column, power rack and pinion steering, power brakes, self levelling suspension, frameless door windows, crossflow cylinder head, centreline steering, single bolt wheels, radial tyres, four wheel independent suspension, braking power distributed front to back according to load, Cx as good as almost anything on the road today, plus more.

To meet design rules twenty years later when production ended, all they had to do was to fit antiburst door locks and seat belts.

John

[Chucaro]

When we look how advanced were the French cars compared to many other brands we also have to mention the Peugeot 504.
I used to have them and also the "fully optioned" Cortina GT.
The poor Cortina was not near as good as the 504

[JDNSW]

When we look how advanced were the French cars compared to many other brands we also have to mention the Peugeot 504.
I used to have them and also the "fully optioned" Cortina GT.
The poor Cortina was not near as good as the 504

But the Ciroen DS was a contemporary of the 403, introduced the same year. I was working in rural Queensland when the 403 was replaced, and the general view was that none of the successors were as suited to the generally unsealed roads of the time.

The 504 came 13 years later, admittedly while the DS was still in production, but it still did not have most of the advanced features of the DS.

John

[Chucaro]

I agree with you about the DS, it was well ahead of anything mass produced.
With reference to the Peugeot, OS, we used the awesome 404 diesel in the rice farms where we have to service John Deere equipment in the middle of the farm under terrible conditions (clay soil with water on the top of it)
The 404, with chains in the back performed fully loaded equal to the F100 that we also have in the service department.
At the time,I regarded the 404 ute as one of the best vehicles for the kind of work.
Regarding unsealed roads IMO will be hard to come to something close to the service roads in the rice farm district.

[Ausfree]

I remember the DS getting about in my younger days and thinking how far ahead of other cars it was. In 1955 the Holden of the time (which I owned and loved in the 60's) was so far behind the DS that it was laughable!:)

[DoubleChevron]

Nah ... you guys don't want a DS ... horibble, gutless, overly complicated and old ........... There bloody woeful things ...

MINE ... there all mine ..... get away :D

People think you nuts if you own those things anyway

My tired old CX feels just the same at 220+km/h as it does at 100km/h ............. er, I've heard. It was manufactured at the same time as an XF fowlcan.... Remember those things? I remember trying to keep one on the road at 100km/h .... scary light power steering, heap of **** darting all over the road every time you tried to correct it's line. The CX felt way safer at 200+km/h than an XF fowlcan at 80km/h.

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2662085/meet-ballarats-citroen-nut/?cs=3963

THe plastic body mehari pictured above also comes in 4wd ... I've never driven one though. I imagine it's very similar too a 2cv to drive (so absolutely hilarious...... I steal my mothers 2cv and drive it whenever she's not around to stop me LOL)

[JDNSW]

In the early 1970s there was a DS featured in a TV ad in France. It was driven over a spike to blow one front tyre, and then immediately given a crash stop, which it managed in an almost straight line - with the driver's hands off the steering wheel. Try that with any other car.

I have on one occasion destroyed a rear tyre because I did not notice it was flat, as the handling was unchanged.

Another interesting point. As I found when a woman drove her Fairlane through a stop sign into the side of mine, the allowable chassis alignment accuracy was less than a millimetre, and was beyond the capabilities of almost all available chassis jigs. All suspension arms are attached to the chassis via tapered roller bearings, with no rubber at all used anywhere. This makes them noisy, but explains a lot of the handling, and also exceptionally good tyre life.

John

[DoubleChevron]

In the early 1970s there was a DS featured in a TV ad in France. It was driven over a spike to blow one front tyre, and then immediately given a crash stop, which it managed in an almost straight line - with the driver's hands off the steering wheel. Try that with any other car.

I have on one occasion destroyed a rear tyre because I did not notice it was flat, as the handling was unchanged.

Another interesting point. As I found when a woman drove her Fairlane through a stop sign into the side of mine, the allowable chassis alignment accuracy was less than a millimetre, and was beyond the capabilities of almost all available chassis jigs. All suspension arms are attached to the chassis via tapered roller bearings, with no rubber at all used anywhere. This makes them noisy, but explains a lot of the handling, and also exceptionally good tyre life.

John

There remarkably tough "underneath" given the bodypanels might are frail lightly made merde .... Have you seen the rally senegal films from the period. At one point they have one at high speed offroad on 3wheels (they must have used all there spare tyres :confused: ). At another point they found the fastest way to travel was down the rail line ......... So the poor bloody car is hammered over the railway ties at high speed for miles on end, and somehow doesn't break.

They were quite low powered in there time, the reason they won those brutal rallies is they were among the very few cars to actually manage to finish.

seeya,
Shane L.

[disco gazza]

There's a bloke out sth penrith that deals in 2nd hand parts for citroen. He's been there for ages.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using AULRO mobile app

[JDNSW]

....

They were quite low powered in there time, the reason they won those brutal rallies is they were among the very few cars to actually manage to finish.

seeya,
Shane L.

I don't think that was the only reason, although it certainly helped, but the suspension enabled them to travel much faster than anything else on very rough roads, and the handling enabled the speed to be maintained round corners, plus the brakes being better than anything else on the road meant you could leave braking till later. And the low drag meant you did not need the power for high speed anyway. In 1964 I drove my brother's ID19 wagon (69HP from memory) the 315 miles from Brisbane to Roma in under four hours, and that included Ipswich Rd and going through Toowoomba. (Who needs more power?) I was young and foolish then.

John