Citroen SM

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AMENDMENT: This car could not be started due to a fault with the starter motor so it will not rise up on its suspension and therefore cannot be transported to Brightwells, as previously planned. It can be viewed at Stondon Museum (SG16 6JN) on Friday 5th June from 10am - 4pm.

In 1961, Citroen began work on 'Project S' — a sports variant of the revolutionary Citroen DS. As was customary, many running concept vehicles were developed, increasingly complex in nature and moving further upmarket from the DS.

Citroen purchased Maserati in 1968 with the intention of harnessing their high-performance engine technology to produce a true Gran Turismo car, combining the sophisticated Citroen suspension with a Maserati V6. The result was the Citroen SM, first shown at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1970. It went on sale in France in September of that year.

Styled in-house by Citroen'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 SM was Citroen's flagship vehicle, competing with other high-performance GTs of the time from Jaguar, Lotus, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo and Porsche. 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, although its acceleration time of 8.9 seconds from 0-60mph was adequate rather than outstanding.

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, all LHD, and survivors are now increasingly sought after.

First registered in November 1973, this SM came into the hands of the Saunders family (owners of the Stondon Collection) in the mid 1980s. An MOT from 1984 shows an indicated mileage of just under 70,000 miles at that time although there is no further paperwork other than a current V5C.