1972 Citroën DS20 Pallas

“ This pride of France could possibly be the pride of your driveway should you be in the market for one. ”
With this DS being the fine example it is, there’s only one thing left to say, Faites vos offres.

Background
Just as it had done 21 years previously with the revolutionary Traction Avant, Citroën stunned the world at the 1955 Paris Salon with the launch of the outrageously futuristic DS. 

The Citroën DS didn’t just raise a few eyebrows. It genuinely dropped the jaws of everyone who saw it, setting a new paradigm for automotive design in the post-war, space-age era and introducing engineering and aesthetic breakthroughs which influenced decades of designers and engineers to come. 

On day one of the 1955 Paris show, 743 orders for the car were taken in the first 15 minutes. 

By the end of the first day, orders exceeded 12,000 and, after 10 days, some 80,000 deposits had been taken - a record that remained unbroken until the advent of the Tesla Model 3 in 2016. 

In 1955, the DS looked like nothing we’d seen before. 

Now, it looks like nothing we’ve seen since. 

People who saw it for the first time must have assumed that it had been deposited on planet Earth from some saucer-shaped mothership. Quite possibly accompanied by weird celestial music. 

Even now, nothing says French, post-modern or avant-garde quite like a Citroën DS. 

Just looking at one is enough to make you rush out and buy a black polo-neck and 20 Gauloises.

It got its futuristic good looks from designer Flaminio Bertoni. The French aeronautical engineer André Lefèbvre styled and engineered the car, and Paul Magès developed the innovative, pressured, self-levelling oleo-pneumatic suspension system. 

The suspension’s engine-driven seven-cylinder axial pump worked with a high-pressure regulator, a fluid reservoir and six-nitrogen-filled spheres to produce a ride that was akin to floating on a magic carpet. 

Ridiculously, you could even remove a rear wheel and the self-levelling system would allow you to drive as if nothing had happened. 

People used to say that vehicles suffering from this temporary, three-wheeled predicament looked for all the world like a dog cocking its leg.

This bonkers but hugely impressive system also powered the brakes (which were operated by, of all things, a mushroom button), steering, clutch and - we’re not making this up - the gearbox. Only the engine, which was a hemi-head straight four derived from the Traction Avant, was of a recognisably conservative design.

But the DS didn’t stop there. Oh no. What else? How about dynamic headlights that followed the front wheels around corners, a dashboard with revolving orbs for instruments, and its status as the first European production car to feature disc brakes? 

During its 20-year production cycle it won a Monte Carlo rally, lost its roof (Décapotable), gained an estate rear-end (Safari), and was stretched to seat eight people in three rows (Familiale). There were also budget versions (ID), ambulances, and even bulletproof government variants (as seen in The Day of The Jackal).

The DS came third in a 1999 Car of the Century poll of the world's most influential auto designs and was even named the most beautiful car of all time by Classic & Sports Car magazine.

Citroën sold 1,455,746 examples, with 1,330,755 manufactured at the Paris Quai André-Citroën production plant.

Overview
We know this particular DS20 Pallas because we sold it to the vendor.

He bought it around 5 years ago and is only selling because he feels he’s not giving it the driving time it deserves.

The car came to the UK in 2019, having spent the previous 47 years of its life in South Africa, a country where, while they do have penguins, they don’t have snow, sleet or salted roads.

The man from whom the vendor bought the car came from a long familial line of DS owners and he invested accordingly large amounts of time and money ensuring that his newly imported purchase upheld the family tradition by being the best possible version of itself.

Among other work carried out on behalf of the penultimate owner between 2019 and 2021 are the followings highlights.

New starter motor
New carburettor
New water pump
Pressure test cooling system
New timing chain
Adjusted valves
Greased suspension and steering
Replaced rear suspension bump stops
Replaced cup/rod bearings
New clutch plate, pressure plate and thrust bearing
Reconditioned pressure regulator accumulator sphere and fit new return pipe
Reconditioned brake accumulator sphere
Overhauled 5 suspension cylinders
Fit new power steering dust covers
Inspect rear brake linings, fit new wheel cylinder kits
Fit new front brake callipers and brake pads, both sides
Replace rear suspension rods
New stainless exterior sill covers
New fuel tank
321 Ignition upgrade
New exhaust, tyres and battery
New tinted windscreen
Underseal removed and reapplied
Roof removed and checked, fixed and replaced
New door mirrors
A repaint to ‘Delta Bleu’.
New seat foam inners and new black leather facings, front and back
Most of the work was tackled by The DS Workshop who, as you may have guessed, are DS specialists.

The vendor picked up the baton passed to him by his predecessor and carried on the work of restoring, preserving and enhancing the car.

He spent nearly £4,000 on replacing the roof lining, fitting new rear mud flaps, replacing the fuel sender gauge and voltage regulator box, and ensuring that various items of exterior and trim were in the correct ‘Pallas’ spec. 

‘Pallas’ denotes the factory’s luxury grade spec and includes such niceties as better noise insulation, more luxurious leather upholstery (with the driver’s seat being height adjustable) and some external trim embellishments.

The car starts on the button, rises up on its magical suspension system with all the grace of a hovercraft, and glides along as smoothly as an otter in an evening suit. 

Just before the vendor dropped the car off with us the driver’s door lock mechanism suffered a typically Gallic fit of pique and, no doubt with some sort of mechanical shrug, refused to allow opening of the driver’s door from the inside. 

It can, of course, be opened from the outside and, with the window wound down, the external door handle can be reached from the inside.

We don’t imagine there’s much more to fix or replace than a wayward nut, clip or washer.

Estimate: £17,000 - £22,000

View Current Bid Price HERE