Description
Citroen SM Maserati 2. 7. Triple Weber version, which is either the preferred option, or not… This is one of the last ones Citroen made, delivered new in the UK, so it has a factory-fitted speedometer reading miles per hour, and an odometer showing 64, 000miles, supported by the paperwork. There is also an English language owner’s manual, which must be a prize on its own. The engine had a bottom end rebuild in 2011 (invoice to show), plus a new clutch, and a new stainless exhaust system but has covered very few miles since. The car is completely solid underneath, including the floors and boot, and the body is very good - I can’t find any bubbling anywhere and the bottoms of the doors are completely sound. The paintwork is presentable and polishes up well – but it’s not concours. The dash is nice and original, the major gauges work fine and the original Blaupunkt radio works (really), as do the faders front and rear. The headlining is good and the rest of the interior is in quite good condition - there is some wear on the carpets, and the driver’s seat bolster is a bit saggy, but like the paintwork, it’s all presentable. I have overhauled the carburettors and fitted five new spheres and the car drives nicely, rides, steers and brakes as it should, and second gear synchro is good, which is not always the case. There are still a couple of jobs needed to make this a daily driver – the headlights work but the reflectors are corroded and the pneumatics for the swivel function need sorting out, and the electric windows have stopped working. Overall, it’s a very sound example and almost usable as is, but still best described as a light project. These cars are extremely rare (just 75 on the road in the UK) and just as they were in the 1970s, there is still nothing that looks, or drives like one. And ownership would make you a member of an exclusive club; Emperor Haile Sellasie, the original Ras-Tafaria, drove one, as did General Secretary of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev, and the Shah of Iran. Idi Amin the Ugandan dictator owned seven… Amongst Rock Royalty, Carlos Santana and John Barry owned one and Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman still do, as does Jay Leno. So there must be something about them
