THE 50th Anniversary of the CITROËN SM

The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of Citroën's first Grand Touring car, the Citroën SM. It was introduced to the public in 1970 at the Geneva Auto Show and immediately became popular with the press and the public.

Citroën had purchased Maserati in 1968 in order to broaden and polish its global image. Citroën needed at that time to take advantage of Maserati's lightweight, smaller, high performance engines, and planned to use their technology to power a new model to replace their DS model. Ever since the Delahaye, Bugatti and Talbot-Lago companies had gone out of business, no French company had produced an innovative

Grand Touring car, and it was a matter of French national pride to create one. It would also be an important boost to the French automobile industry, still suffering from the effects of World War II and its shortages in labor and material.

Robert Opron, Citroën's talented in-house designer, created the SM's aerodynamic body, borrowing from classic French 1930s teardrop styling. The low-drag coefficient of .26 was lower than the Jaguar XKE and the Maserati Ghibli, increasing its speed and fuel efficiency. The interior used quality materials including rolled, softly padded and readily-adjustable bucket seats, enhancing the driver's experience. The oval steering wheel and gauges gave the car an ultra modern and unique feel.

For the first two years, Citroën used a lightweight, 2.7-liter, V6 carbureted engine and then from 1972 to 1975 it offered customers the option of electronic fuel injection. The engine developed 174 hp, with a top speed of 137 mph. Faster than the Jaguar XKE series III V-12 or the Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC (their main competitors in 1970), the car had far better fuel efficiency. However, the engine size was limited by oppressive French taxation laws.

To promote the car in France and abroad, Citroën entered several international rally competitions. On its first outing in 1971, the SM won the very challenging Rallye du Maroc in North Africa, a remarkable feat for such a heavy car. In 1972, the competition department made two special lightweight SMs and the team won first in class and came in third overall in the Portuguese TAP Rally. That same year, the car won third place in the European Car of the Year Awards. It was first imported to the United States in 1972, and won the coveted Motor Trend Magazine Car of the Year Award, an unheard of result for a car manufactured abroad during its first year of importation.

Automotive journalists at the time loved the car. “The SM probably has the most outstanding ride of any car in the world today…It floats over the roughest road, even the worst bumps being more heard than felt and the SM is really only caught out on things like hump-back bridges which are not met all that often these days.” (CAR Magazine, April 2014)

Citroën's SM car was well received in the U.S. luxury market. However, the energy crisis and oil embargo in 1973 sent gasoline prices skyrocketing and fuel shortages throughout the world were followed by an economic recession. New car sales worldwide plummeted. Then in 1973, the EPA cracked down and without an exemption, which it did not receive, Citroën's 1974 models no longer complied and could not be sold. In addition, in 1974 the National Highway Safety Administration imposed new automotive safety regulations which eliminated Citroën from the U.S. market. As a result, the company went bankrupt in 1974 and was sold to Peugeot. Production of the SM model ceased in 1975. From 1970 to 1975, a total of 12,920 SMs were built and 2,400 cars were imported to the U.S.

All these factors conspired to eliminate an exceptional car from the market and it was lost to lovers of French Grand Touring aficionados.