The Engineer Car Review: Citroën DS 7 Crossback

DS Automobiles may be one of Europe’s newest car brands – spun off from Citroën in 2014 – but it’s a name that conjures up a rich history. The original Citroën DS was perhaps the world’s most advanced car when it was launched in 1955. It came with self-levelling hydropneumatic suspension, a semi-automatic gearbox, servo-assisted disc brakes on all four wheels and cutting-edge aerodynamics that gave it a drag coefficient of just 0.36 when most saloon cars were seemingly still modelled on house bricks.

The Citroën DS’s finest hour came in August 1962. A DS19 limousine was being used to ferry French president Charles de Gaulle through the Paris suburb of Petit Clamart when gunmen opened fire from the side of the road, spraying the unarmoured car with bullets. At least two of the tyres ruptured, sending the car into a skid, but the unique self-levelling suspension system allowed de Gaulle’s chauffeur to regain control and escape at speed.