How do you follow up the most beautiful car in the world? Citroën CX

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there are very few people even outside the world of cars who won't stop and look at a citran DS when flamino Bron's big Saloon was unveiled in the mid-50s it was like nothing else 12,000 orders were placed in the first day the car was unveiled 80,000 after 10 days of the Paris Motor Show [Music] not only were they stylistically beautiful but technically as well were owned by Michelin yes that's right the restaurant guide people it may seem a little backwards to Modern ears for a tire company to own a car company but it's like this citen had gone bankrupt in the 1930s and melin hadn't we have much to be thankful for there even aside from Michelin being technologically aggressive resulting in greenlighting all sorts of technology to go into citon cars the company really focused on development of the radial tire and designed all new postwar cars around it Paving the way for that Superior technology to supersede the old cross playes the DS was no exception the car also received a fully hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension system aimed at reducing the harshness of postwar French roads in much the way the 2cv had been before this system had been applied to the rear axle of a few late model traction events but in the DS it would replace the springs on all four wheels the car was the first mass produced to use discs on the front wheels at a time when even the 160 mph Mercedes gwing had drums in the series 3 Cars the headlights follow the direction of the front wheels to improve safety at night only now are other car makers following suit and even then they don't do it with nearly as much Panache the DS remained a popular car and a French icon throughout its 20-year production run its peak production year wasn't until 1970 all in all about 1. 5 million of these much loved cars have been produced by the early '70s though undoubtedly still beautiful the car's shortfalls were catching up with it the engines were never a strong point the traction of an before had a nice smooth six-cylinder option the DS never got that French tax brackets kept the engine options low in displacement between 1. 9 and 2.

3 l and the push rod four cylinder offer was always noted for being quite thrashy the car struggled too in that land that all luxury car makers dream were breaking into the American V in the 1960s would want a car that was large air conditioned and V8 powered the DS was offer as none of those things even the car's legendary good looks were curtailed in the land of the free American headlights all had be fixed sealed beams this particularly affected the series 3DS where the lovely covered headlamps and clever swiveling lights had to go by the end of the 1960s citrons management could see that the DS wasn't going to sell forever there was also the question of a mid-range car or lack thereof at the cheap end of the range sat the 2cv and the am6 then in the luxury segment sat the D series cars with nothing in between long-term citan designer flamino Boni had passed away suddenly in 1964 and young Robert opon had been made head of the styling Department he went on to be responsible for the DS's Series 3 facelift in 1967 in overall charge of citen at this time was Pierre burco a great lover of art and culture he gave the design Department almost free reain with nothing outlandish off the table when it came to replace the DS two models were proposed a smaller car in line with the pujo 504 and Renault 16 and a larger one for the luxury segment development of the smaller car began under the banner of pro L at this time a small section of management felt it would be better commercially if citrum were to abandon their eccentric designs in favor of something more conventional Robert opron disagreed but he did what he was told he had Jack Shon and Michael harmont in his Department design a car with altogether conventional appearance meanwhile he also let his designers Begin work on the car they wanted to build cital under Barco didn't use public consultation and designing new models all decisions were left to management insight when it came time to unveil the new model to burco and Co opron had both cars in the design studio under covers with a conventional design in front and the designer's car behind a screen he unveiled the conventional model first the managers who wanted it were pleased burko said nothing opron led the group behind the screen and unveiled the other car berco's eyes lit up and he exclaimed this is what we need the denters were overruled and op wron got to continue working on his car Andre barel in 1965 had begun work on a type of frame to which the car suspension engine and body could be attached the result is a car which is a mix of monoco and Body on frame it was tried on a DS development mule and found to be very comfortable owing to the fact that the engine and wheels are technically no longer connected to the body it also increases strength as project L took shape attention turned to options for engines one early prototype was fitted with a four-cylinder boxer of lancha origin possible at the time due to the partnership with Fiat but this was found to have a center of gravity too far forward and at 1. 6 L was probably not big enough for the big car that project L would turn into in the background Citron released the SM and GS in 1970 the smaller GS had been developed under project F and filled a gap in the lower segment of the market in the end it looked like a smaller version of the car that project L would be the SM had been developed under project s to provide initially a sports coupe version of the DS eventually it became its own Grand turo Design and made use of the fact that citran owned Maserati by using their V6 from the morac during the Prototype stages some project L cars were fitted with a V6 however the engine had never proven overly reliable in the SM and in any case Maserati would go into liquidation under Citron in 1975 so the engine would never have been a great long-term option the rotary engine was assumed to be the upand cominging power plant of the future at this stage on paper it is fantastic lots of power from not so much displacement compact quiet vibration free Citron had worked with NSU to develop a birotor vanle engine which would be fitted to the GS by rotor fairly unsuccessfully these engines simply weren't reliable enough as Mercedes were finding out at the time with their c111 project the partnership with Fiat ended in 1972 and left citrum with no other option but to reuse the old D series engines which could trace their routes all the way back to 1933 in the background situm Was preparing to actually produce this new car the company went all in too far in as it would transpire a brand new Factory at un Suba and all the associated tooling would be this straw that broke the company's back financially and land them in the arms of risk ofers PUO by 1972 the final shape of the car which would be the CX was all but complete now it just needed a name of course this would have to be something along lines of a two-letter designation such as GS DS or SM Jack vogan singer came up with the French abbreviation for the coefficient of drag in English this would be CD but in [Music] French in fact the earlier SM has the CX beat in terms of CX with 33 compared to the latter's 36 that's not to say that the shape of the CX isn't incredibly ahead of its time it's easy to forget now but compare it to contemporary offerings even Mercedes was still releasing distinctly slab fronted Cars 2 years later the final model Bears more than a passing resemblance to a piece of work completed by Sergio pin and Farina back in the 1960s and unveiled at the Trin Motor Show in ' 67 this car was a redesigned study for the Austin 1800 in the end BMC weren't brave enough to put this car into production in the 1960s but it's incredibly aerodynamic Shipe and camil certainly helped opon finish his designs for both the GS and the CX as well as Alpha Romeo's Alpha sud lano's beta and eventually Rover's sd1 in 1976 the CX design is nothing if not minimalist there are two lines in the Bodywork the first here flows from the wing back to the front door and a second higher up which flows down to meet the rear lights the wheel arches on these early cars are smooth and simple this is an odd to austerity and the door handles are the same they had some trouble with the wind screen it was too big huge by the standards of the day the two wipers originally conceived couldn't clear clear the screen sufficiently this was so much of an issue that a system for blowing rain off with compressed air was considered making screen smaller was out of the question it would ruin the lines of the car the eventual solution was a simple one as you can see your typical family motor car tends to have a lot of overhang at the back and not a lot of the front you can see citen turned that on its head with a lot of the front and not a lot of the rear this is to emphasize front-wheel drive the covered rear wheels are an effort in the same vein the bright work on the CX isn't plated Chrome it's stainless steel this was barco's doing he liked pure real materials likewise the concave reare window Barco didn't like the hatchback door he felt it was more appropriate for a van the caved window has the added bonus of clearing rain water without a wiper [Music] if you think it's spaceship themed in here that's no coincidence interior designer Michelle hammont was a big fan of Science Fiction he also liked logical placement of instruments without care for convention and as a result a 70 Citron tends to take getting used to there are no stalks everything is within a finger's reach of the steering wheel which of course is single spoked so you can mostly always see the instruments lights are on the right this lever switches the them on this rocker switch looks after the high beams this button to flash on the left we have everything else indicators in this rocker wiper underneath horn on this button drive this for a day and you'll wonder why every car isn't the same this Flying Saucer cluster is called launu or crescent moon in it are more warning lights than you can shake a stick at and everyone's favorite the rotating drum speedometer the seats are deep plush and comfortable reminiscent of a DS the door handles are shaped like the trigger of a gun this Cosmonaut helmet is supposed to be an ashtray and between the seats we have the he controls and the manual height [Music] [Music] adjustment first and foremost the cax is equipped with citrons by this point bread and butter hydropneumatic system in the CX this system provides adjustable self-leveling suspension for all four wheels I could wax lyrical about the ride quality of this car but instead I'll quote disgraced motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson who called this literally the best riding car ever made there are no coil springs and damping is provided by nitrogen filled spheres at each wheel a pump on the engine provides pressure to the system which doesn't hold it while the car isn't running so of this vintage which has been standing overnight will usually have to be raised from the ground in the morning it wasn't thought possible to produce Automotive suspension which is capable of being comfortable in a straight line and handling well in the corners the man who invented it Paul Maes had no Technical Training and so was able to apply unconventional wisdom the principle is simple with increasing loads the nitrogen gas pressure becomes higher so you can have stiff suspension through the corners and soft on the Stream the system also feeds a true power braking system much like the DM and the DS Where the brake pedal is replaced by a mushroom although here there was a step towards normality the mushroom has a pedal hinged on top of it the function Remains the Same however this is really more like an onoff switch which sends High press hydraulic fluid to the calipers you'll find no vacuum booster in the engine bay and the brakes are incredibly sharp the third function to be fed from the car's hydraulic system is deravi steering when fitted this is citron's proprietary power steering system which was first seen in 1970 fitted to the DS and SM Davi stands for D AEL AI or power steering with power assisted return in the UK it was marketed as VAR power and in the US as speed Feld also invented by Paul Maes it was the first commercially available variable power steering and it is mechanically fascinating the first thing to know is that the steering wheel is not mechanically connected to the steering rack under normal operation where most steering setups are power assisted this is a fully powered system the driver's input directs a change in hydraulic pressure to move the steering left or right the rack comp pinion system itself is almost conventional and should the hydraulic system fail there will be enough manual control to safely stop the car but the steering will be incredibly heavy constant hydraulic pressure keeps the system self-centered and creates the phenomenon where the wheel will automatically return itself to the Straight Ahead position the result is in theory steering without any Kickback neither Tire blowouts nor potholes can affect the steering wheels or the steer Direction since they simply is no feedback it is all artificial I'm told the DS and the SM were able to make better use of this with their inboard brakes allowing for a truly neutral steering geometry when iboard brakes were installed on the CX the geometry was thrown slightly in practice this is barely noticeable the system takes getting used to and can feel far too sensitive at first the failure of the rotary program meant the CX launched with the two and 2. 2 L Patrol engines found in the DS unlike in the DS they were remed transversely in fact you can see the engine sits well ahead of the front axles and is counted forward 30° on top of that this is to fit the engine under the low Bonnet line the gearbox is a product of the fat partnership it's based on the gearbox of the Lano beta and could be had as a four-speed or even a 5-speed like this one a three-speed semi-automatic was marketed as catic the eagley among you will note that this isn't the aforementioned petrol lump the 2.

2 L diesel was introduced in 1976 to complement the petrol offerings the French are famously fond of heavy oil but this will be the first citran car offering with won since before the war the engine came from the C32 van unfortunately the 2200 was a wee bit gutless and in 1978 this 2. 5 from the c35 van was added to the car range interestingly these engines are gear driven rather than by a timing belt or a timing chain when it was sold in 1978 this 2500 diesel palace with its 5p gearbox was the fastest diesel car on sale in [Applause] Europe on the petrol front the 2. 4 L engine appeared in the CX Prestige of 1976 this was a car envisaged to replace the topof thee line ds23 the car gained 25 cm in wheelbase over a standard CX all of which went to the rear seat leg room long wheelbase cxs are easily recognizable by their vinyl roofs which hide the weld seam where the extension was carried out early plans for the prestige envisaged a sort of hybrid between CX and SM this car would have had a completely redesigned interior too but unfortunately it never materialized Instead The Prestige was for all intents a well appointed long wheelbase CX F's PSX group had acquired 38% of Citron in 1974 by 1978 PSA increased their stake to 90% this brought options for technology sharing even if it threatened citron's individuality in flare with bujo's famously conservative design one of these was the duon engine developed jointly by puu and Renault this was a belt driven overhead camshaft engine and much needed for the patrol cxs which are still being built with those side cam DS engines these appeared in 1979 in the 2000 reflex and Athena saloons speaking of long wheel bases in September 1975 the CX bre was presented as a replacement for the DS break with the eight seater from milale arriving in 1976 to replace the DS Safari models the car was an elegant solution with rear doors redesigned to meet the new line of the large rear windows the cars were fitted with reinforced rear suspension arms and a slightly wider track compared to the saloon in 1977 citon introduced the CX GTI with an emphasis on sportiness to this end the car had suspension spher set up to provide less body roll through the corners the 2.