Citroen SM 1970 - 1975 - Model history

Many prototypes were made and destroyed over the coming years, but it was also decided that this model would be the best model from the company. Citroen acquired Maserati in 1968 and decided to use its technology in the production of GT cars, along with the Citroen suspension and Maserati V6 engine. The result was a Citroen SM, introduced at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show, and appeared six months later.

Citroen SM

Most models had a steering wheel on the left, while a number of copies for the UK and Australian markets had a steering wheel on the right. Even today, it is not known why SM was named. The S probably came from Project S, and M from Maserati, and the version also mentions that SM stands for Sports Maserati. One of the stories is that SM stands for Sa Majeste (Her Majesty in French).

Regardless of the name history, SM represented the best model from Citroen and fought with other GM greats from Jaguar, Lotus, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo i Porsche. Journalists especially praised the control of the vehicle, both during parking and at highway speeds. Customers were even more enthusiastic and liked the combination of comfort, stability and high performance that no other car had at the time.

Citroen SM

From the design side, SM looked like the car of the future, but Citroen designer Robert Opron did not hide that he wanted a car similar in design to the DS. Many car details also show that the designer was American, most notably a tail that was a trademark of American cars of the period. The car was also very aerodynamic and had a fairly large tank (90 liters) for its class. The interior was also for the future with quality materials.

The choice of the latest technology has also been huge such as special lights, cornering stability and brakes. The choice of engine was very small. For the first two years, SM offered a 2.7L V6 engine with 170 hp to later increase its power to 178 hp. The slightly larger 3.0L V6 with 180 hp was available from 1971 to 1975. In the first year of production (1970), the SM was the fastest front-wheel-drive series car in the world and Citroen claimed to have a top speed of 220 km / h, though some tests have shown that it is actually faster and capable of developing 235 km / h.

In addition to France, the main market for SM was the US market, where this class of car was much more popular than in Europe. The main competition in America was the Cadillac Eldorado, Lincoln Mark IV, Ford Thunderbird, Mercury Cougar as well as a long list of Italian, British and German imports. How much SM impressed the Americans is best illustrated by the fact that the popular Motor Trend magazine proclaimed SM the Car of the Year in 1972, which was unprecedented in that period for imports to become the Car of the Year. Although sales started promisingly, it stopped quickly and in the two years in the American market (1972 and 1973) only 2,400 copies were sold. When Citroen went bankrupt in 1974.

Peugeot took over the company ownership and by May of next year got rid of Maserati and decided to cease production of SM, whose sales were minimal that year. Although the 1973 fuel crisis played a role in the cessation of SM production, it should also be mentioned that competition such as Mercedes 450SEL 6.0 and Peugeot 604 played a big role. The SM also had some mechanical problems as early as 60,000 km, and an even bigger problem was that the mechanics did not know how to work on Citroen's engines of the future and SM required great experts. Eventually, 1970 copies were made in the six years of production (1975-12,920). Although the SM failed, the legend of this car continued to live in cars such as the Maserati Merak (engine and transmission) and Lotus Esprit (transmission) while Nissan had three small cars in the 1970s that were very similar in design to the SM. The highly successful Citroen CX went on sale at a time when SM was counting down the last few days and mechanically parting a lot.

Author: Talladega
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