Citroën SM – The Brilliant Future We Never Had

Words and Photos by James Cooper

Remember the kind of cars you used to sketch in the back of your math book when your teacher wasn’t looking? You know the ones, all swoopy coachwork and crazy features, like something from The Jetsons? As young petrol-heads, that was the automotive future we wanted, heck it was the future we expected. Rather unexpectedly, it was a future Citroën gave us in 1970, but it was also one we never really had. Allow me to explain.

Coming out of World War Two, French car manufacturers had been concentrating on vehicles for everyday use, such as the 2CV. However, as the 1950s rolled around and petrol rationing ended, a new stream of more aspirational cars began to emerge from France. From the Citroën 4CV and Peugeot 203 to the Panhard Dyna, style and some measure of luxury was beginning to become a selling point again.

Unsurprisingly, when Citroën launched the luxurious, highly advanced DS in 1955, it was a huge hit. To the delight of enthusiasts everywhere, it looked like luxury cars with a heavy leaning towards futurism and technology would become de rigeur. Citroën certainly thought so and leaned into the idea hard. If a technologically advanced, luxury vehicle is a big hit, then surely a sporting, technologically advanced, luxury vehicle would sell by the bucket load?

Thus the idea of the SM was born. In 1961, work began in secret on ‘Project S’, a version of the DS for fast road and racing use. The project seemed to stall for some time, veering from being a mere development of the DS to something new entirely. But it was Citroën’s acquisition of Maserati in 1968 – ostensibly to get their hands on Maserati’s fabulous engine development – that lit the fire under the project and transformed it into what we now know as the SM.

First shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 1970, the Citroën SM was a heart-stoppingly pretty car from day one. Penned by Citroën legend Robert Opron, the space-age styling and heavy influence of aerodynamics made it one of the stars of the show. However, it was the technology that was the truly impressive aspect of the SM.

Following on from the enormous success of the Traction Avant and the DS, the brief was to maximise the performance and handling characteristics of a front-wheel-drive platform, while maintaining the luxury and ride quality Citroën were famous for. It was a tall order and took some serious outside-the-box thinking to make it work. Here’s just a fraction of the solutions and advancements they developed to make the Citroën SM work:

• Power from a 2.7 litre (later a 3.0 litre) Maserati V6
• The world’s first variable power assisted steering system (more on that later)
• Self-levelling suspension and headlights
• Self-levelling braking system to prevent ‘pitching’
• All-round disc brakes
• Aerodynamic “teardrop” shape with wider front track than rear

That is some list. And it barely scratched the surface of what went into making the SM the ground-breaking product it was. Let’s just consider the steering for a moment.

Specially developed for the SM, Diravi (“Direction à rappel asservi”, meaning “steering with controlled return”) was a fully powered, self-centering steering system designed to eliminate torque steer and provide a comfortable ride and sporting handling. Effectively, it had no direct connection to the wheels and eliminated any tugging on the wheel from potholes, torque steer and random camber changes. Integrated into the car’s hydro-pneumatic system, itself a development of the one found in the DS, it allowed the steering to weight up at speed, while remaining light and easy to put onto lock at low speeds or when parking. Lock-to-lock was a mere two turns, so this was an incredibly fast system for now, let alone in the early 70s. Another advantage of the system was that very little caster was needed on the front wheels, which meant that on full lock there was hardly any camber change, allowing the tyres to maintain the maximum possible contact patch.

It certainly worked. Critics raved about the car’s handling, expressing amazement at the fact that Citroën had somehow managed to combine DS comfort levels with razor sharp handling. Of course, the downside of such a system is that nearly all true ‘feel’ was eliminated, leaving drivers who were used to cars that communicated every bump and ridge in a road back to their hands, feeling a little weirded out. According to reports from the time, it took the average driver a few dozen miles to get used to the SM’s unique handling characteristics. But once they did, many were almost evangelic in their praise of it.

Citroën didn’t stop there though. Disc brakes were fitted all-round, inboard at the front and standard hub-carried items at the rear. And these too were linked into the car’s hydro-pneumatic system, being able to adjust front to back depending on the car’s weight distribution, to get rid of ‘pitching’ and keep the car level under hard braking. This kind of thing was unheard of at the time and must have felt like witchcraft.

With 170-180bhp on tap, depending on whether you were driving the 2.7 or 3.0 and whether it had triple Weber carbs or Bosch injection (only on some 2.7s), the Citroën SM was no slouch. The 0-60 sprint was dispatched in about 8.5 seconds and officially it would keep pulling to 137mph, although there were reports of SMs reaching 145mph+ in standard trim. With that kind of performance from the 90º Maserati V6, it’s no surprise that Citroën decided to rally the SM. In fact, it won its first race – the 1971 Rallye du Maroc, and so the short wheelbase “breadvan” SM was developed for competition only. If you’ve never heard of the Citroën breadvan SM, I strongly recommend you do a bit of research on it – it’s one of the most incredible vehicles you’ll ever see.

Of course, the Citroën SM was as much about style as performance. That amazing teardrop shape and smoothly flowing silhouette made it look like nothing else on the road. Every little detail is beautifully considered, from the glass front containing the six adaptable headlights to the stainless steel brightwork, beautifully designed instrumentation and futuristic seats with individual padding. Nothing since has come close to the SM in terms of refusing to compromise on the vision of the designers.

Naturally, such a unique and stubborn vision was a gamble. Sadly, it was a gamble the Citroën lost. Despite the critical acclaim, the SM proved to be unreliable, difficult to fix and expensive to maintain. Stories circulated of engines detonating with just 50,000 miles on them. By 1972 sales were in freefall.

In 1974 Citroën went into bankruptcy and Peugeot took over their holdings. Almost immediately, they sold Maserati back to the Italian state and the dream of the SM was over. By 1975, when production ended, fewer than 200 units were sold. It was a sad and ignominious end for what may be the bravest, most forward-looking car ever built.

Thankfully, there is now a network of enthusiasts, collectors, and specialists all over the world keeping these delightful machines going. It’s fantastic that so many have survived the last 50 years, but I can’t help but wonder what may have been. Imagine a world where the SM was a roaring success and spawned generations of space-age, forward-looking cars.

I suppose we should be glad such a brilliant machine exists at all. It’s so rare for any company to make the leaps of faith that Citroën did in the 50s through 70s. It resulted in some of the most beautiful and elegant machinery we’ve ever seen, and, for me, the SM is the absolute pinnacle. As a piece of automotive design, it still hasn’t been surpassed.

Think what it must have been like seeing one of these in the early 70s. The roads in Britain were chock full of Morris Minors, Ford Anglias and Hillman Imps. By comparison, it must have looked like aliens were invading. To be honest, when you see a Citroën SM on the roads today, they still look like a spaceship – incredibly styled and gorgeously detailed. Quite frankly, they’re a visual representation of the future we should be living in.

The gorgeous gold SM you see in these pictures is the pride and joy of car nut and all-round good bloke, Steven Prevett. On what turned out to be the single hottest day of 2021, he was kind enough to let us photograph his car and have a chat with him about the pleasures of owning one of the most ambitious cars ever made…

So, have you always been a car guy?

I think growing up in the ’60s & ’70s meant being surrounded by the massively expanding car culture from a very young age. It was the golden age of cars in many ways, and they were the upcoming stars on TV and film in productions like The Saint, The Persuaders, James Bond and even Joe 90 and Thunderbirds. It was exciting to be a kid back then.

What are the highlights of your car history?

My first car was a Vanden Plas Princess 4 litre R – I bought a rather tatty example before I’d even passed my test. I loved it, and enjoyed the swanky luxury compared to my mates’ Escorts and Minis. I kept it for very many years as my daily and spent most of my wages on petrol! Much later I bought and restored a variety of more modest machinery such as a Vitesse 6, a Spitfire, MGBGT and dabbled in American cars for a while with a ’72 Buick Skylark and a ’95 Pontiac TransAm; that was a fabulous daily car and I used it as a company car much to my colleagues’ delight! Then in the late 90s I bought a TVR Griffith 4.0 but when my kids arrived I sold it to buy my dream car – a 1971 Aston Martin DBSV8 which were cheap as chips back then and had four seats. I kept that for 20 years and only sold it this year, which was a bit of a wrench. But two new projects were demanding my attention (and cash!) – a 1972 Citroen SM and a 1976 Rolls Royce Camargue.

That’s some list of cars! I love the variety on display there. But was it always your aim to run an SM? What is it about them that attracts you?

Not at all, it was always there on the periphery of my classic car ‘radar’ as something special but only when I stumbled across this gold one did heart overrule head and I was suddenly in love! I persuaded Andrea to come with me ‘just to look’ and without any real knowledge of what I was buying I did a deal. What attracts me is the style. Pure, unmolested no-holds-barred style which makes the SM so unique. Especially the interior. You spend most of your time in there so I’ve always bought cars with beautiful interiors and the SM is up there with one of the best ever created.

Did you deliberately seek out this Citroën SM, or did it just kind of fall into your lap?

It certainly fell, I wasn’t looking – or maybe I was subconsciously! But I didn’t scour the internet, compare what’s available, look and test as many as possible as a sensible buyer would. But then I rarely do. I can be quite impulsive but I got lucky. It is an early fuel-injected car, one of only 24 built for the Swedish market and has a few benefits as a result such as corrosion resistant coating on all the hydraulic pipes. The biggest benefit was making contact with Lars Frykholm the president of the Swedish SM club who is not only extremely nice but also extremely expert and he has become a firm friend. He often jokes about the Swedish heritage of my car and asks politely for us to ‘give it back’ like the Elgin marbles!

Well, he can’t have it! We need every Citroën SM we can get on the roads here in Blighty. Speaking of which, it must be a challenge keeping such a unique classic on the road. Have you had any issues with parts supply or getting repairs carried out?

The only challenge is that there are so few cars and therefore so few specialists that really know what they’re doing. But they do exist and the internet is your friend when running a classic these days. The suspension is relatively ‘stock’ Citroën hydro-pneumatic but the engine needs proper expertise. Of course there’s a huge following for these cars globally so parts and advice are generally readily available the only ‘hens teeth’ items being trim. The big clubs like France are re-making parts too, and the Maserati engine shares components with sibling cars like the Merak.

Having had one for a while now, what would you say is the best thing about owning the SM?

The driving experience. It goes, stops and steers like a modern car and you just can’t believe it’s 50 years old. It simply knocks everything else of that era into a cocked hat. The build quality is exceptional too. This car wasn’t designed to meet a demand it was designed to be the best engineered car in the world, a statement of Citroën’s prowess. Of course it wasn’t cheap and cost as much as many ‘supercars’ of the era so owners now get the benefit of the inherent quality.

Have you taken it on any big road trips?

Yes absolutely, the biggest was a 3 week tour of Les Grandes Alpes in 2020 with some French friends in the fabulous touring club known as Virage 8. Fully loaded with luggage and in 35ºC summer heat it tackled all the big passes such as Gotthard, Furka and Susten and proved itself as the ultimate GT. Most SMs have aircon which is a big plus, and the self-levelling suspension and ultra fast steering make it a joy to drive on challenging roads.

Looking forward, how do you feel about the current trend to convert classic vehicles to electric drivetrains? Is it something you’d ever consider?

Not at all. The maths just don’t add up and it’s pointless really. These cars have very low footprint by definition having lasted 50 years, use little fuel in reality and the eco cost of building electric conversions is significant. This is a bandwagon I shan’t be jumping on myself and is an unwanted distraction from the real environmental issues posed by other forms of transport and industry.

Do you have any other classic cars or car projects on the go?

Yes, my big ‘other’ project is restoring a Camargue which of course shares suspension technology licensed from Citroën! Again I love the style of these Pininfarina 2 door cars and the interior is magnificent with a dashboard like something out of an aircraft. It has just been repainted and the restoration should be finished in 2022.

That sounds like a fabulous project. We may have to come back and have a look a that when it’s finished. Money no object, what’s your dream daily?

Probably the Camargue. It’s lovely to drive and very stress free in traffic. You just recline in the sumptuous leather seats and let the world hurry past. Equally at home going to Tesco or nipping over to St Moritz.

Did you sketch something like this in an old maths book? If so, here’s where you can find a Citroen SM for sale.