FRENCH EVOLUTION

Its actual pronunciation might be tough on the upper palate, but Citroën’s cars are easy on the eyes, as they are on, well, everything else

- PARTH CHARAN

Settling into the driver’s seat of the swashbuckling Citroën SM, I can’t help but wonder out loud, “Why, oh why, did we ever stop making cars like these?” The question is of a rhetorical variety. Everything about this car, with its fenders-for-days, channelled leather, swivelling headlamps, are relics of a bygone automotive era. But the car is, much like its precursor, the legendary DS, peak Citroën – A throwback to a time when driving was an act of celebration and cars were the champions of the post-war resurgence of commerce and industry. Function heroically held the train of the gown worn by form and all appeared to be well with the world. At least that’s the effect cars like the Citroën DS and SM were meant to have; comforting the eyes, the posterior and everything in between.