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The DS, a fifty-year-old goddess, part I
By Stéphane Schlesinger on 3 June 2005 | 
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Yes, the DS is nearly fifty. It appeared at the Paris Motor Show, on October 6, 1955. Drawn by Flaminio Bertoni, the DS astonished everybody: it was 20 years ahead. Everything about this car sent its rivals to the museum: hydro-pneumatic suspension, front disc brakes, front wheel-drive, hydraulic gear change, intense use of plastic and aluminium and a splendid streamlined body. The engineers, ruled by André Lefebvre, had been summoned to give the best of themselves. Special congratulations to Paul Magès, for designing the whole hydraulic system.
On the other hand, the engine was inherited from the Traction, and even if Walter Becchia had endowed it with a new top, the DS would always lack the flat-6 once planned for the top-of-the-range Citroen. The company was simply short of money to achieve its development.
The public was more than enthusiastic: on the first day, 12,201 orders were placed. At the end of the show, this figure rose to 79,996! Even if the DS reached new technoligical summits, it remained affordable.
Citroen was both delighted and embarrassed: only 8 copies had been made hitherto. If fact, the car was still a prototype and the first customers underwent appalling reliability problems. It took Citroen a few years to solve them: by the time, the DS had acquired a dubious reputation…
But then, the company constantly improved and developed its goddess on wheels. 1958 saw the introduction of a simplified DS called ID, which was declined in an estate body (Safari)the following year. In 1960, the convertible came out in the Paris Motorshow. In 1961, the engine was modified and saw its power rise from 75 to 83bhp.
In 1964, the luxurious Pallas trim was introduced and in 1965, the old 1911 cc unit was deeply modified (on the DS only). It received a 5-bearing crankshaft and its capacity rose. From then on available in 1985 cc 90bhp and 2175 cc 109bhpversions, it allowed the DS to jump into the highway age with ease and elegance, helped by a new 5-speed gearbox.
It still had no real competitor: the Rover P6, the Peugeot 404, the Vauxhall Cresta, the Mercedes 220, all of them were left far behind in terms of comfort, roadholding or braking power.
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