Citroën ID/DS short history

	The introduction The introduction of the DS took place at the October 1955 Paris motor show. The orders taken at the show (12.000) were well above the amount Citroën could build within the first production year. Enormous crowds gathered at the Citroën display and at the occasional DS on the streets.
	People believed it came from another planet, due to the hydraulic suspension and looks of the bodywork and dashboard. A stripped version of the DS called ID (no power steering, no power braking, and no semi-automatic hydraulic gearbox) was introduced at the October 1956 motor show.
	In October 1958 the Break (Station wagon) was introduced. It supplies room for around 7 people. The chassis was extended to create more room. Click here for a more detailed description of the first series breaks . Click here for pictures of a first series break Confort .
	Twenty years of evolution During the first years a lot of effort was put in making the hydraulics reliable. Citroën had developed the car fast and with lots of new techniques. This meant that the cars were troublesome in the first years. After 1961, hydraulics turned out to be very reliable and effort was mainly put into developing a stronger engine and a more luxurious interior. Engine power was raised over these 20 years from 75 SAE HP to 141 SAE (130 DIN) HP. In 1963 also the front of the car was changed slightly. A major change to the looks of the ID/DS was done for production year 1968. The DS got its so called 'new' or 3th front (see picture)
	The end In 1975 the production of this Citroën was stopped after around 1.5 million pieces.
	Special bodies Apart from an individual changing the looks of the DS a number of companies worked on the body work of the DS. The most famous was the France Chapron, Chapron build the factory cabriolets and did special orders for luxury DSs. Another major name in this field was Currus who build the DS ambulance (Along with other firms).

Did you know that....

• The rear window of the DS was made of Plexi Glass during the first production years!
• The bonnet was made of aluminum (apart from the ID Normale) and also the trunk lid on the early DS models.
• The roof was either made of epoxy, aluminum (ID/DS) or steel (Break)
• The DS was a very early adopter of disk brakes (one of the first mass-production cars).
• The radiator fan and first dashboards (until september 1961) were made of Nylon, a very new material in 1955!
• The ball pins are exactly in the center of the front wheels. A big advantage when a front tire goes out-off air, you do not notice this in the steering of the car, even not at high speeds!
• The wheel spacing between the front wheels is different from the spacing between the rear wheels.
• The wheelbase differs with the height of the car and is extremely long for a car this size.
• Different sizes of tires were mounted front and rear (apart from the break and Injection types)
• The DS and Break model had a load adjusted braking mechanism reducing the risk of blocking wheels during breaking.
• All the body panels of a DS/ID can be taken off in a couple of minutes.
• The hydropneumatic suspension is used on certain Rolls Royce models from the 70's because even than (many years after the introduction of the DS) the hydropneumatic suspension of the ID/DS was still unbeaten.
• The car is self leveling independent of the load it has to carry, due to the hydropneumatic suspension and hydraulic levelig system.
• The post 1967 models (with the headlights behind glass) had two turning mechanisms (the simpler ID19 models had standard fixed headlights for a couple of years after 1967 but could order the mechanism as an option).
• One for turning the additional headlights to follow the direction of the wheels (so that the headlights illuminate the road ahead in bents)
• The main headlights are height corrected, depending on the height of the front and rear of the car.

• www.schaalbouw.nl/citroen © 2014 E.Paijmans
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