Citroen SM

Styled in-house by Citroën's chief designer Robert Opron, the futuristic SM with its glassed-in nose and sweeping flanks took over where the DS left off.

Unusually aerodynamic for its era with a drag coefficient of just 0.26, it looked like a teardrop from above and had a shaped undertray which sucked it to the road the faster it went. Only available in left-hand drive, the interior was as striking as the exterior with extravagantly padded seats and a highly stylised gear shift. It bristled with technical innovations such as graduated power steering that weighted up as speed increased, self-levelling headlights and suspension, rain-sensing wipers and hydraulic brakes that could stop it on a sixpence.

The fastest front-wheel drive car in the world, it was powered by Maserati's 175bhp 2.7-litre V6 and could cruise all day at three figure speeds with uncanny smoothness. With its cool, intellectual styling and technical cleverness, the SM is often caricatured as a car for architects and industrial designers but its appeal goes wider than that – Emperor Haile Selassie was very fond of his and Idi Amin had seven of them! Just 12,920 were made between 1970 and 1975 and survivors are now increasingly sought after.

This example was first registered in Italy in November 1972. It received a major overhaul in 2004 and was imported into the UK a year later.  A large history file with invoices dating back to the time it arrived in this country shows that it has been well looked after, the vendor describing it as mechanically good with everything working and that it has a good rust free body - in fact he is currently using it as his everyday car and enjoying the experience very much. He adds that it has a few scrapes and small dings, whilst the interior could do with a tidy up, specifically the lining around the boot area and the carpets, the odometer registering 105,000 kms.

One of a collection of cars that were destined to live in France with the vendor's family, the SM is now only reluctantly offered for sale due to a change of plans and represents a good, sound, running example which, with the benefit of a bit of cosmetic TLC, would make a prime example. MOTd until February 2014 and tax exempt, it looks a most tempting proposition given the current resurgence of interest in this iconic model. 

 CATALOGUE AMENDMENT;  The vendor advises us that it is fitted with a stainless steel exhaust.