The motoring sands tend to shift very slowly, and only occasionally do true revolutions occur. When they have occurred, though, quite a number of them have featured the name Citroen. For example, the 1938 Traction Avant was the world’s first mass-produced car with front-wheel drive and a monocoque construction, and the Citroen DS of 1955 had revolutionary zeal evident throughout its advanced engineering and meritorious design.
But the DS went further, much further. There was that beautiful and aerodynamic body, for one, from the pen of Bertoni; it was a work of art in itself, with its teardrop shape and flush undersides and wheels pushed to the far corners and its truncated tail and its differing track widths front to rear.
Then, underneath it all, you’d find the remarkable oleopnuematics, those high-pressure bubbles of squishable pleasure that assisted the self-levelling suspension, the steering, the brakes, the clutch and the gearchange. It was a magic carpet ride, this car. It was also futuristic, modern and bold, and chock-full of so many innovative and clever details both large and small that it would take a week to list them all. It was brilliant.
In time, known eventually as 1958, an estate version of the car appeared, and among other names it was called the Safari. In proper Citroen tradition, it looked like no other car, and it made the most of its capacious bodyshell to house a large amount of either people or belongings or, if you fancied, both at the same time. Better still, its hydropneumatics meant that it remained on an even keel, no matter how heavy the load in the back.
In my day, which admittedly is long since past, we small kids were all piled into the back of these things in huge numbers, the only limit being when one of us stopped breathing. The parents who owned such things tended to be what some today would call the liberal elite, and they’d all keep their cars in a suitably filthy condition, replete with dog hairs, as if cleaning a car were a slightly parochial affair best left to those who owned Cortinas. Think of these people as Volvo estate owners with attitude.
They’d also keep their DS Safari for many, many years, and indeed this fully restored, rare 1968 example is an original right-hand drive UK car, and has had only four owners over its fifty-year life. For £40k you could have perhaps the ultimate people carrier, as well as one of the most revolutionary, and of course one of the most thoroughly logical, cars of all time.
SPECIFICATION: CITROEN DS SAFARI
Engine: 2.2-litre inline four
Transmission: Four-speed semi-automatic, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 100@5500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 121@3000rpm
MPG: 23
CO2: n/k
First registered: 1968
Recorded mileage: 61,000
Price new: n/k
Yours for: £39,950
1 / 3