Why the 1955 Citroën DS Was Ahead of Its Time | WIRED
Vložit
- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- The 1955 Citroën DS is the auto industry's platypus: bizarre, delightful, innovative, and, if not inimitable, never imitated. WIRED's Jack Stewart took both the DS and SM for a spin.
Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on CZcams? ►► wrd.cm/15fP7B7
Get more incredible stories on science and tech with our daily newsletter: wrd.cm/DailyYT
Also, check out the free WIRED channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV. Here you can find your favorite WIRED shows and new episodes of our latest hit series Tradecraft.
ABOUT WIRED
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Through thought-provoking stories and videos, WIRED explores the future of business, innovation, and culture.
Why the 1955 Citroën DS Was Ahead of Its Time | WIRED
Why Citroën doesnt make this kind of car anymore? I blame Peugeot for restricting Citroën's creativity!
True, and very unfortunate!
Well actually the DS wasn't a big financial success. Citroën managed to produce and sell this car through the years thanks to the 2CV, a very popular car.
As people prefere to buy a german car for the perfs and notoriety of these brands, Citroën sadly never sold very good in the world.
But even with that in mind, they've produced cars like the DS (with hydropneumatics suspensions and lots of revolutionnary technologies) until 2012 with the C6 (the last luury sedan of the brand), and 2017 with the C5 (a common sedan but still available with hydropneupatic suspension)
Now it's true there are only SUV in Citroën's catalog, but PSA created a new luxury brand called guess what... DS !
So now you can buy a DS7 Crossback (a SUV on the same base as the Peugeot 3008 and Citroen C5 Aircross) wich has some cool features like suspensions with hydraulic stops
.
Still, I miss sedans like Citroën used to do (CX, XM, Xantia my favorite with the V6 and the version that could go faster than a 2008 Porsche 911 GT3 RS and a 2017 Mclaren 675LT in the moose test !!!)
@@jeanmoins495 citroen ds was sell and produce with almost million and a half produced cars.Jay leno says that is very good result for citroen because in america.Citroen ds was similar to cadillac with prices in america.And Quentin wilson says that citroen ds was awful lot of money like mercedes w108 250 se in britain.Mercedes w108 is f segment of cars citroen ds e segment,
Because people don't buy them unfortunately and sales matter. It's one thing to praise it's virtues but the masses flock to simpler cars.
@@jeanmoins495 lol the time we no
MP y
This car is awsome. The seats are like
lounge chairs and in the backseat is like a couch. With the right music, you feel like sitting in a mobile lounge.
I know! The first time I sat in one I melted because the seats were the best seats I've ever sat in in my life!
@@tylersimmons7105 The French had comfortable seating in their automobiles. I remember riding in a Renault R8 and was astounded at the comfort of the seating. It was the Germans that wanted rock hard seating for support on the autobahn. How many people in the rest of the world drive their cars on something as smooth as the autobahn?
Citroën Peugeot 👍
This goes to prove that a car can be both aerodynamic and beautiful. Car makers today don't have a clue.
Pope-Eye yes is thru.
C3 corvette
C i t r o ë n
D S
A 55 DS19 still has many features more advanced than most modern cars.
The DS breaking is phenomenal, it's like dropping four anchors.
I don't think any modern cars even come close, accept extremely high performance sports cars.
What modern car can drive around on 3 wheels. or survive a blowout of both tires on the same side at high speed ?
That's not a '55 because in that year the swivel headlights (one on each side) were just ordinary static ones. The turning, under-glass headlights (two on each side, but only the smaller one had the turning mechanism) were introduced in '68.
actually those early circular headlights were also self-leveling!
Is that so? Well, I've learned something new this afternoon. Did they just levelled in height? Such a shame that that feature hasn't transcended as the turning headlights did.
yep, only in height.
indeed, it's a 73 model
'55 models are very hard to obtain. Not many survived years on the roads with salted winter roads. Those that are left over are like museum pieces that owners won't let you take for a spin.
When you consider the cars on the road in 1955, you realize how much creativity it took to design such a masterpiece.
Funny to notice that this particular DS has been in at least three countries. It is a Citroen so it was produced in France, for the Dutch market (hence the vintage Dutch license plates), where it was driven a few years before being imported in to the US. What a short 3.40 min. can tell you, without actually telling you ;-)
Most beautiful car ever done. Period.
Alfa 156
"The DS is not the car of the future, nor the car of the past. It is the car of today!"
At this time, France was the most incroyable pays du monde !
All citroen cars are masterpiece.
A rolling art!
Imagine: Citroën releasing a new DS that looks exactly like the original, but build to modern safety standards and equipped with an all-electric motor that has the same power output as the original's engine.
That thing will sell like hotcakes.
Amen. I suggested an eCitroen to Burbank car lover (????) to do just that! It is not only a beautiful design but is WAY ahead of the times. Step 1, put an electric power system in a la an eBMW or Honda, or ? ? ? Add solar panels on hood roof and trunk. Then add light weight carbon fiber doors/fenders and make the frame of CF for an Ultimate light weight eCitroen!
Ed
A job for an “Elon Musk” type! Over the years I’ve owned 5 Cit’s, wonderful machines AND beautiful clean and practical features and shape. No UGLY front design
Hardest thing would be to achieve the rigidity of the passenger compartment expected today with those really thin A and B pillars. Also, windshield angle is actually a bit steep in terms of aerodynamics, it'd need to change slightly. Other than that, absolutely.
the french are actually amazing
This Citoen DS is well featured in the Alain Delon's Film "Le Samurai" in 1967. It's a masterpiece of engineering
And in lots of other films !!!
The taxi that you see in Back to the future II is a DS
The DS appears in Disney"s movie Ratatouille also.
The flying citroen ds in the french movie Fantômas
I have the same model at the beginning but red, still totally new, that car is just awesome.
PuchNiX Sweet!
president de gaulle owed his life to a DS during a botched assasination attempt in the 1960s, the ds was driven away from the gunman on 3 wheels to safety try doing that in a conventional motor car. trully an engineerring marvel.
On 2 wheels. They punctured 2 wheels: the front left and rear right.
What the driver did was retrograde to 3rd gear (to gain extra punch) and accelerate. With a normal car, this would swing the car around. But here, the car was fully drivable despite the high accelaration.
Extremely Exotic, and Beautiful !!!
The hydropneumatic suspension was so revolutionary that Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce licensed it.
I'm a broke 20 years old french student without even my driver license, i don't like cars that much.. but now I want this car SO MUCH
Contemplative Whale the President of France was actually saved from an attempted assassination thanks to this car. dont remember the details clearly but i believe Jay Leno talked about it on his CZcams channel during the video he did with his DS
You have good taste, I'll buy one as well.
I know when i was a kid i saw the Presidential DS that saved him. It's on display in his memorial...
Contemplative Whale oh ok, and i think it's still the car of the people in France or something like that. I wonder if this car is exempt from those regulations that regulate when older cars can be used in the city
Contemplative Whale oh ok, and i think it's still the car of the people in France or something like that. I wonder if this car is exempt from those regulations that regulate when older cars can be used in the city
44 years old and still in love with this amazing car... I remember first time seeing this masterpiece as a kid! Amazing french cars (GR)
I would really like to know some more about these cars.
The man who designed these models of the DS such as the HY and the Citroen Traction Avant, is my grand grandfather Andrè Lefebvre.
Anyone who knows about the cars or the history can send me a little email or leave an email address and I will contact them.
Fabian Lefebvre your great grandfather was the technical designer of the hydraulics of the DS, you can mail me at hldehaan@gmail.com if you want to know some more.
Actually Magés designed the hydraulics (I met his grandson on youtube too! :) and Lefebvre did the overall design and concept design. Bertoni did the shape. But the car is clearly the brain child of Lefebvre, it is very similar in many points to the Voisin Laboratoire which was a race car he designed earlier. I certainly think Lefebvre changed the concept of the car for ever, his designs were so unique and forward looking. All the citroens and voisins he designed were masterpieces in their own way. All of them went cultic. I hope you are very proud of your grandfather, I really admire him. If you ever have a chance, take a ride in these cars. If you are ever in Budapest, contact me I give you a ride in a DS :)
Such a pity that Citroen abandoned such fantastic technology and went mainstream!
Not much of a choice with "Pijo" running the show.
Wow that's incredible. Did you ever meet your great grandfather?
It's not a car it' an icon.
I've seen about ten in London in recent years.
Beautiful car !
The 1955 Citroen DS makes car manufacturers efforts in 2017 seem pathetic! Consumers are no longer interested in what happens under the car only what the screen does glued to the dashboard whilst the suspension bumps up and down with coil springs with no self levelling. Even cars today with air suspension are very bumpy compared to DS Hydropneumatic suspension.
It was very futuristic. Thumbs up.
This was the car that was used to make the taxi cab on Back to the Future part II.
Justin Hill The Yugoslavs allowed drivers for politicians to make money by using the Citroens used to drive them around to be used as taxis at intercity bus and train stations. One could get a bus to an Adriatic beach town and be driven to where they were going to engage in naturism in a luxury Citroen.
For all of you who wants from what year this car is, 1973
Because of his Dutch license plate I was able to find some additional info.
A special DS Prestige with glass partition and rear head rests - very rare...
Would love to see changing a back wheel - 1 bolt to remove the guard while self jacking suspension.
A true master piece. No doubt about it. Thank you. Build new ones please.
My favourite dream cars ,the DS and the SM 😊
The video didn't even mention that the car could drive on 3 wheels.
And it still is way ahead of its time
love this car
Citroen DS la beauté de l'automobile
This thing looks like it came out of Star Trek, way before Star Trek was even an idea.
Beautiful car
Clearly the most innovative single car of the twentieth century, the DS' "time" still has not arrived as it remains the high bar.
The pictured car is not a 55, of course, but an evolution of that remarkable car.
Jack has one of the best sounding voices i have ever heard... Plz do some voiceovers vor BBC Earth or anything :D
THe car featured at the start has twin, steering-guided head lamps. It's a 70s model.
That suspension though
If you are car-sick don't get in one. Let's just say the hovering feeling is not for everyone.
Well it is for me
tinatpasselepoivre That was even more true when I was a kind sitting in the back seat and dad drove up the mountain...
Mama mia! What a DS you have there! Magnifique !!!
Many thanks for the sharing!
The SM is fantastic! Still the most advanced car in the world!
Thanks to this car being restricted and the company just not bothering to implement it in the future; modern, larger Citroens are just floaty and vague to drive.
There was a short glimpse of the SM:s dashboard in the beginning....
La DS du reportage date au minimum de 1967, elle se distingue par ses phares sous plexiglas et tournants. Alors que la version de 1955 avait des phares ronds , comme le coupé que l'on aperçoit en arrière plan , derrière la Traction.
Aún ahora este auto llama mucho la atención, para su época debe de haber sido algo increíble, a mi siempre me gustó, en verdad se destaca más que cualquier otro auto moderno, es una belleza!!!
Does this guy even know how to use the jack stand? This one is a 1972 DS. The 1956 car had single fixed headlamps.
Timeless design
This were Citroen Golden years, now Citroen only make ordinary cars like all the others, such a pity!
How about the Ami?
That is not a '55 DS... Its a late model as they made it until 1975
Citroen has revolutionary technology which provides greater comfort and safety but I wonder why it was not used by other car makers yatiinder Kumar
What a lovely looking car
Is this is the car which turned in Lamborghini Centanario
In Transformers - the last knight????
I remember one of my cousins had a DS , I thought that maybe i got amazed by it because it was new at that time , but nah till now i get amazed at how beautiful and advance was it , it make the new cars looks pathetic really
imagine this in 1955, well i cant that's a later model .
So true
CITROEN: The future in the past!
It doesn't just feel it... it is.
Do more of these videos please! Lambo Espada, db5, Porsche 911, Mercedes Pagoda etc!!
That paint 🤤🤤
Citroën ds 23 Pallas
(option ). prestige avec c'est repose tête arrière + climatisation !
superb
If you think the Mercedes S Class was innovative and ahead of its time, better think again! No German car would match the Citroën's superb engineering and features of that time. Former president Charles de Gaulle made the right choice in using this as the presidential car. If he had ridden on a Mercedes 300 Adenauer or any other S Class, I can bet he wouldn't have survived the assassination attempt in the 60s. It's funny how people praised the S Class for innovative when in fact it was nothing more than a mainstream luxury car with almost no features if compared to one of these Citroëns. Simply a superb car!
IMHO the DS is STILL ahead of the times. The futuristic shape, the engineering, just about everything is ahead. Not only was it beautiful, it was practical too, in terms of drag figures, safety, comfort and all the other things. Like other correspondents here, I also blame PSA for curtailing the beautiful cars of CITROEN ! Sadly, these days, the industry as a whole is run by 'beancounters' whose only interest is profit !
The car showed in this clip is not a 1956 DS. It´s a much later model, with a different, more modern front, among other things.
But remember: This doesn´t apply to Citroens inferior models of today......
Not inferior, but they (the American head of Citroen) abandoned the Hydro-active suspension for reasons of "money". The C5 and 6(I believe) still had it.
Much later on, but I was always told the Datsun 300zx was ahead of it's time :P
A Brit reporting on a French car with Dutch license plates, filmed in the US. Pretty international.
Awesome ds👏✊👍
Car Suspension design is pathetic in modern cars even Citroens. This DS is miles ahead of 99.99% of cars on the road today
Cool car
NO MENTION OF THE HIGH MOUNTED REAR TURN SIGNALS ON THE DS.
Can someone tell me why they stopped the Battle Damage series?
Actually that's the 1971 Citroën DS.
I like it's steering wheel
Beautiful car, but how much would it cost?
J'ai un rêve, avoir une DS!
That's not a '55 DS
It's "Citro-EN", not "Citron". See the two dots above the "e"? You Brits always have to screw everything up.
"Citron" in French means "Lemon" and we don't want that mistake to be made!
Exactly. Andre Citroen deliberately put the two dots above the "e" so his name would not be pronounced "Citron."
In Finland we sometimes use the name Situuna (Finnish for Citron/Lemon)
Are those Dutch plates? In the US? Is that legal?
how much is it now?
the SM " more of a driver's car". ??? Connerie!
This could be justified when equating "driver" with "US driver" where driving a stick is for paupers who can't afford a V8 hemi with a torque converter (which hilariously wastes about half of these 400+HP the engine can generate, while the DS wastes none of its 115 Hp) and doing anything other than a straight line is so difficult it's reserved for an elite - after all, there IS a reason why F1 GP has no races in the US, and why only the US follow indy car racing (where the drivers only need to practice how to turn left on a given course, or right if they decide to make things more difficult).
It is also true that even the DS23 was a bit lacking in the horsepower department; it took quite some time to reach said high speeds (0-100kph in 16 seconds), but the car compensated beautifully with its near-perfect road holding capabilities and its still unrivalled aerodynamics, meaning that you could reach and maintain very high speeds (180+ kph) with it.
They had the nerve to give the DS name to their modern cars who have nothing to do with the og.
líbý se my citroen ds
Thanks for the nice video. I do own a DS21 1972 with the Citromatic ( the 4 speed semi automatic transmission) I have been trying for years at great expense to keep it on the road. I now have been hit with a massive LHM leak. I am desperate to find a mechanic qualified on those cars to fix this problem. I suspect the power steering to be the cause I live in Orange County California/ Any hint, information would be greatly appreciated . Please help me out, I just love the car but cannot drive it even after the massive amount of money I spent on it. Thank you in advance.
join the "Citroen DS Tech Talk, Parts and Needs" group on Facebook.
Ben Voila WHen one est Francaise one is always proud et enchante par this Bitiful machine Elle merite l Medaille d' or Love it
THE ORIGINAL LOW RIDER!!!!😉😁😎
This one doesn't look like a 1955... the door handles were different in 1955..
The USA market for Citroen was not good because getting repairs, parts and service was lacking and slow. It`s like the French wanted to sell the cars but could care less about the owner`s experience.
Short answer: Cause it had new features other cars didn't have
I remember DS form its earlier time and it truly was something like no other, on the road. Can't understand why it never got popular in USA, except if it was the pure zealous feel or some unusual human nature may show, in relation to geography of product's origin! Definitely nothing to do with educational desire. And there was another European car (Possibly French or Italian) that I don't remember the name but had propeller under the car, at the rear and yes, it was amphibian (For when need arises) but dominantly made for usual roads (Real car that was capable of dealing with temporarily boat function) . You don't see that level of innovation these days except for ideas Elon Musk has or barrows from other genius guys with less executive power.
That is totally not the 55 ds?
👍
Keep in mind that The Enlightenment, Europe's era of intellectual and philosophical progress, began in France! So, it stands to reason for France to build this Magic Carpet Ride machine that has endured throughout the ages!
"was ahead of its time"? Don't you mean "is ahead of its time"?
this is not a 1955 Citroen DS
Wait thats a 1955?
@Derbi senda : sorry but it's not a Dutch plate. This is a French plate. 1 to 4 numbers and 1 to 3 letters and 2 numbers (for the "département) 33 is "Gironde" (Bordeaux). The rear plate is black. (sorry for bad English).
@Derbi senda is right, this is a Dutch license plate. You can lookup the information here voertuig.net/kenteken/33YB33
Funny it has a Dutch license plate
Unfortunately, the new head of Citroen (an American woman -lawyer-?) abandoned what made Citroen so fantastic, and ahead of it's time! Shame!