GETTING A GODDESS
It’s almost impossible to imagine just what a stir the Citroën DS caused at its launch in 1955. Suffice it to say that any impressive news in the motor industry today would pale into insignificance were any manufacturer to announce a sea change of quite such magnitude. When your forefathers were still motoring around in Hillman Minxes or sidecars, along came this vision of the future which rode as if it was floating and looked like it had come straight out of ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’. Styled by sculptor Flaminio Bertoni, the DS and its ID sister lasted a full twenty years in production, and were still ahead of the competition by the time the CX replaced them.
Built in Slough from 1956 to 1966, English IDs featured walnut dashboards and some trim from the DS. DSs were built in the UK too, alongside a new model called the DW which mated DS trim to the ID’s manual gearbox several years before Paris had the same idea.
It wasn’t all new – under the bonnet was a different story since the flat six originally intended needed money Citroën didn’t have, so in went the four-pot from the Traction Avant. Citroën saved its money for
