Citroën is the automotive equivalent of the platypus: bizarre, delightful, innovative, and, if not inimitable, never imitated. Until World War II, the French automaker enjoyed a reputation for innovative, but thoroughly mainstream, automobiles. It gave Europe its first truly affordable car, the Type A, and popularized front-wheel drive with the Traction Avant. It wasn't until after the war that Citroen got weird and gave the world the wonderful DS. The car astounded audiences at its debut in 1955 with its sleek styling, pivoting headlights, beguiling hydraulic suspension, and single-spoke steering wheel, among other things. Futuristic design proved timeless as well as lucrative: Citroën received more than 700 orders within 15 minutes of the debut, and more than 12,000 by the end of the day. It kept building the car—now an unquestioned classic—until 1975. Ooh La La• • • The DS—pronounced in French as déesse, the word for goddess—even caught the eye of French philosopher Roland Barthes. 'The Déesse is first of all a new Nautilus,' he wrote in his 1957 book Mythologies—inspired more by science fiction than reality. And like the great works of Jules Verne, the DS remains influential, but more as muse than model. No one's making nitrogen-infused hydropneumatic suspensions anymore, and the brake pedal hasn't given way to Citroën's floor-mounted, mushroom-shaped plastic button. Yet the car continues to inspire. 'It really challenges your perception of what proportion is and how you make a customer feel as though they have something which is comfortable, fast, reliable,” says Marek Reichman, lead designer at Aston Martin. 'It did so many things in terms of technology as well, whether that's the hydro-elastics, the suspension system, the electronics in the car, the interface, none of those had been seen before. And you put all of that into this body which literally looks as though it's a UFO.' The Déesse is first of all a new Nautilus. Philosopher Roland Barthes To celebrate the French automaker, the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, has gathered 46 Citroëns, from the very early models to the most modern, including the curvy, floaty 2009 C6 executive sedan. 'Citroën is a marque that has always appealed to me on some level,” says Peter Mullin, founder of the museum. “The way in which the company set about designing its often odd but always stunning vehicles, packing them with wildly innovative technologies, is fascinating.” Although Citroën pulled out of the US decades ago, it's still quirkin' on the continent. At this month's Geneva auto show, it will show the C-Aircross Concept, a small SUV with suicide doors, '3-D' rear lights, and an interior design in which everything seems to float. The signature single spoke steering wheel is still there, nearly a century on, showing that although the brand has had to go more mainstream to survive, some things will (hopefully) never change. Everyone is always saying the Citroen DS is timeless and beautiful. I think it's dated and ugly. More Citroen DS videos. More Citroen DS images. The Citroën DS (also known as Déesse, or Goddess, after the punning initials in French) was an automobile produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1955.
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