Nestled among the classic Citroëns at the Classic Motorshow’s parking lot, next to a slightly dented CX GTi turbo was a Feuille doree gold coloured 1971 Citroën SM. It wasn’t the only SM at the event, but it was the most interesting one I had yet seen.
This particular “Special Maserati” was registered new in the Eastern Finnish town where my dad grew up. The car was ordered by a Citroën enthusiast, the owner of a plumbing company, and my dad knew his son. Apparently, the car did spend quite some time at the shop already when it was new, but that is probably par for the course when you have a very rare, very quirky and very exotic personal luxury coupe somewhere in Eastern Finland.
After a few years, the car got sold on, disappeared to Sweden, got damaged and partially dismantled, and after numerous lost decades it was uncovered and restored to its current state in recent years.
It was definitely great to be able to see the very exact car I had heard mentioned numerous times growing up, and I did actually call my dad right there, standing next to the radioactive coloured Citroën. It even has the same St. Michel region plates as it did when new.
Here’s a photo from when the car was handed over in April 1971 at the Citroën dealership in Savonlinna.
Here’s another, US spec SM with fixed headlights instead of the European spec turning ones. The car is still striking as it is, but it’s not quite the same.
[Images: Antti Kautonen]
Blast from the Past: 1971 Citroën SM
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One of the most desirable cars ever with a fantastic interior, in probably the best and most seventies color that was on offer. So why am I more drawn to the CX next to it?
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i think one thing we Hoons do is evaluate every car on the basis: “Could I someday….own that?”
with a CX, we probably could! it would cost way more than some unreliable transportation is probably worth, but as a “weekend car”, as our baby, many of us could probably own a CX.
an SM? probably not. thinking like that long enough, the mentality becomes engrained. we appreciate the aesthetic and sensibility of an affordable weird car more than that of something forever beyond our reach, which we will forever admire but never truly connect with, never be able to identify with.
it’s weird, and maybe it’s almost wrong. but it opens doors. it means that the cars we get most excited about might plausibly be found in our own garages. it means that instead of aspiring all the time, we can think about what we’re actually going to make reality. although when i say it like that, it makes us all sound like a bunch of basement-dwelling losers.-
Sounds better than being a beige Camry-driving ‘winner’….
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i guess i just meant in the sense of being unwilling to “dream big”. but that in turn suggests that the flashy Ferrari is objectively the more desirable choice that we have simply given up on because we lack imagination.
probably our (collective) admiration for things like the 456GT, prestigious and out-of-reach but offbeat enough to appeal to us, disproves the idea of Hooniverse readers as bottom-dwelling no-ambition-having sad saps with no futures. we’re just weird.
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There’s always this one if I want to get another one. A good price.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/citroen/auction-882787094.htm
http://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/380323026.jpg
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I nearly bought one in the early 2000s. For $500. Running and driving, 5 speed. Hooniversal Brown. Many years of Clearwater Beach sun and salt air. Rusted and sun-baked. Would have needed $50K to make a $15k car out of it. But it did start and go up and down. Thank you Car Gods for making it disappear two days later. Still, it would have been glorious if it made it even half of the 4 mile trip home…
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Is two miles too much to ask?
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For that particular car? Probably. I could see everything going wrong, with money I didn’t have. But still…
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To me, the SM is one of the most interesting cars I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I would ever own one, and I don’t find them particularly attractive, but they’re really, really interesting to me. Maybe that’s just me.
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SM = Interesting, I encourage others to buy and restore. DS = I’m going to have one, someday.
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A very valid viewpoint.
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That conclusion is how I feel about the Ami.
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No M35 for you?
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Aside from the fascinating story: that picture has an SM, a DS and a CX in it.
Je serai dans ma couchette…
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