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06/12/2010, 16:37
By MURRAY HUBBARD
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I distinctly recall my first ride in a Citroen DS `Goddess’. I was hitch-hiking from Brisbane home to Melbourne in an era when it was safe to do so. The trip took five rides. I had just been dropped off the pillion seat of a motor bike after a 50 kilometre ride out of Newcastle. After that butt-crunching stint the Citroen looked like heaven on wheels. It was, apart from the driver.
I was travelling light and threw my kit onto the back seat and introduced myself. I was about 23 and he was slightly older. He said he had been working in Mt Isa and was headed home to Melbourne after 12 months away. His aim to was to drive through without a break: more than 3400 km. If there was a car in the world in 1971 that would assist in this insanity it was the Citroen Goddess. In retrospect I feel – and I am not religious – that we had both God and a Goddess looking after us. I offered to drive, but was politely declined. This was a miner on a mission. He drove … it was my job to keep him awake.
When I faded we simply picked up another hitch-hiker, somewhere north of Albury, and I crashed on the back seat while the newbie took on the role of insomnia guru to our manic pilot. Long story short, we made it in one piece. To this day I still credit the safe arrival to the comfort, safety and ease of the Citroen. Compared to the Holden and Fords, plus quite a few other marques of the day … there was simply no comparison. I doubt there is any other human being who has driven from the Isa to Melbourne in a single stint, stopping only for fuel and fodder.
The remarkable Citroen DS, commonly called the `Goddess’ came about after Robert Puiseux, took the reins at Citroen in the early 1950s. Puiseux, a son-in-law of Edouard Michelin, of tyre fame, had a major challenge: to come up with a replacement for the magnificent Traction Avant. It would not be easy with the front-wheel-drive Avant a ground-breaker in technology and cornerstone of Citroen as a company.
That replacement was the Citroen DS revealed at the Paris Motor Show on October 5, 1955. While the Traction Avant’s exterior design was of the 1930s, the DS was futuristic and streamlined. It was beautiful and could not have been anything but French, the nation that creates style. Visitors to the Paris show went ape over it. Citroen took 743 orders for the car in the first 15 minutes and on the first day around 12,000 customers put pen to paper.
But this car had more than just good, but somewhat quirky, looks. It was an engineering marvel. It was the first mass production car with power assisted front disc brakes, had hydropneumatic suspension with auto levelling system and variable ground clearance. Many people from this era would gaze in awe at the sight of the DS body rise and fall several inches at traffic lights. It had power steering, a semi-automatic transmission and a fibreglass roof. The front brakes were inboard and the front and rear wheel tracks wire different widths and tyre sizes to reduce the typical understeer from a front wheel drive car with the engine also at the pointy end.
When the DS was launched with the 1911cc engine carried over from the Traction Avant. Like the Avant the gearbox was mounted in front of the engine, and between them sat the differential. This was replaced in 1965 by the 1985cc, five bearing engine and Citroen also offered a 2175cc engine with Bosch electronic fuel injection from 1970, again the DS taking a lead by being one of the first mass-produced cars to use this form of induction. In 1973 Citroen introduced the 2374cc engine in two variants, one with carburation and the other fuel injection.
I was not the only person to believe the Goddess helped me stay alive. French President Charles de Gaulle believed his DS saved his life during an assassination attempt on August 22, 1962. Shots had blown out two tyres, but the vehicle escaped at high speed – an event highlighted in the movie, `The Day of the Jackal.’ A Goddess was also leading the 1968 London-to-Sydney Marathon and was within close reach of Sydney when it collided head-on with a Mini on a road that was supposed to be closed. The car was written off and needless to say Citroen’s chance to write itself into Australian motoring history - for all the right reasons - was lost.
Our featured car is a 1974 D Special owned by Kevin and Leigh Eeles which we spotted at the RACQ Motorfest in Brisbane in July 2010. It was first sold new by Alan Jones Motors in Sydney in 1975 and has since clocked up 221,000 km. This car features the five main bearing 4-cylinder 1985cc engine (DY3) with a dual choke Weber carburettor. It has a four speed manual transmission with the shifter mounted on the steering column.
Perhaps the easiest way to emphasise the importance of the DS (To whioch our D Special is closely related) is simply to defer to the 1999 Car of the Century Awards. This was won by the Model-T Ford, followed by the Mini, then the Citroen DS Goddess, with the VW Beetle in fourth spot and Porsche 911 coming in fifth. That really says it all.
SPECIFICATIONS
1974 Citroen D Special
Engine:
4 cylinder 1985 cc (DY3)
Bore: 86.0mm
Stroke: 85.5mm
Power: 108 bhp @ 5500 rpm
Torque: 112 lbft @ 4000 rpm
Compression: 8.75:1
Head: Alloy crossflow
Carburettor: Weber dual choke
Transmission: Four speed manual
Steering, brakes and suspension all powered by oleopneumatic system. |
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