CITROEN

SM

The CITROEN SM is one of the most ambitious and technologically dazzling cars France ever produced — a long, low, aerodynamic grand tourer that married Citroën's futuristic hydropneumatic engineering with a Maserati V6 engine. Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1970, the CITROEN SM was conceived as a prestige GT to sit at the very top of the Citroën range, after the company acquired Maserati in 1968 and finally had access to a suitable high-performance engine. Styled in-house by Robert Opron, the same designer behind the later Citroën GS and CX, the CITROEN SM had a teardrop silhouette with a faired-in glass nose panel covering six headlamps, a tapering Kamm tail and a remarkably low drag coefficient for its era. Underneath, it carried over the DS family's self-levelling hydropneumatic suspension, powerful all-round disc brakes, and the famous DIRAVI speed-sensitive, self-centring power steering — a genuinely advanced package that made the CITROEN SM feel like nothing else on the road. The heart of the CITROEN SM was a Maserati-designed 90-degree V6. The initial 2,670 cc unit produced around 170 bhp, giving the SM a top speed of roughly 220 km/h and making it, for a time, the fastest front-wheel-drive car in the world. Later cars gained fuel injection and a larger 3.0-litre version, and the SM even spawned a handful of specials, including Maserati-engined record cars and the presidential Citroën SM Présidentielle used by the French state. Production of the CITROEN SM was tragically short. The 1973 oil crisis hammered demand for a thirsty luxury GT, and when Peugeot took control of a bankrupt Citroën in 1974 and divested Maserati in 1975, the SM was discontinued, with just 12,920 built. Today the CITROEN SM is a revered cult classic — visually unmistakable, mechanically fascinating, and increasingly valuable as collectors rediscover one of the boldest GTs of the 20th century.