{"id":1760,"date":"2020-07-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/50-years-of-citron-sm\/"},"modified":"2020-10-10T07:15:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T07:15:48","slug":"50-years-of-citron-sm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/en\/50-years-of-citron-sm\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Years of Citro\u00ebn SM"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the 1970 Geneva Motor Show, Citro\u00ebn presented a vehicle that amazed even experts. Hydropneumatics as in the DS, but with a racy coup\u00e9 body, a glass nose and then, to top it all off, a V6 engine from the Italian subsidiary Maserati. The Citro\u00ebn SM broke with many conventions and was for a long time the fastest car from the Parisian halls with the double chevron logo. The look of the SM matched the family design of the French, but somehow it didn’t. Six headlights and the front license plate under a glass dome – there had never been anything like this before. Only the headlamp idea was found in a very similar form on the original versions of the Alpine A310 one year later. The silhouette of the coup\u00e9 body with its rear sloping down, on the other hand, was typical for Citro\u00ebn since the ID and DS models and was also used on the GS, CX and BX. Even if it sounds unbelievable at first glance, the so-called cX value, i.e. the drag coefficient, is almost 25 percent lower than the DS. Citro\u00ebn had been the majority shareholder of the Italian sports car manufacturer Maserati since 1968 with more than 60 percent of the company shares and was therefore able to fall back on the Merak engine. The 2.7-liter V6 produced 125 kW\/170 hp and took the SM to a topspeed of over 137 mph. Later versions received a small power boost to 131 kW\/178 hp, and in some countries there was also a three-liter V6 with 132 kW\/182 hp available.

By the way, the glass nose of the SM didn’t only find friends. Especially some national accreditation offices turned up their noses and didn’t want to give their blessing. In Germany, the ‘showcase’ had to be approved for each car individually, as the license plate was said to be difficult to read because of it. In the USA, covering the front license plate wasn’t an issue in most states anyway due to the lack of one. On the other hand, they were totally disagreeable with the six headlights, of which the two inner high beams could be steered in curves, which led to a special export variant with four lights and without glass covers. In the interior, Citro\u00ebn remained true to itself and, as expected, gave the SM a futuristic single-spoke steering wheel, which sat in front of a curved dashboard with three round instruments. The seats with integrated headrests were extremely comfortable, but offered little or no lateral support in fast corners.

In general, the Citro\u00ebn SM was designed as a Grand Tourisme, with which it should be possible to travel comfortably and quickly. The long wheelbase combined with the hydropneumatic suspension contributed to this, giving the SM an almost sedan-like ride comfort. Unfortunately, the car rolled into the middle of the fuel crisis in 1973, which further restricted the already small market. The general concept of the SM was also a problem. For sporty drivers it was too heavy and too comfortable, for comfort-oriented travelers it was much too sporty – in connection with the difficult registration procedure in Germany and some other countries one can imagine that the SM was only worth a purchase for true fans, despite good test results in magazines. Also the maintenance-intensive Maserati V6 might have been rather against a purchase from a rational point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n
\"\"
<\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>