What Is A Sm?

[collector]

There is a Citroen SM sitting down the road from where I live and it hasn't been on the road for a long time. It appears to be 70s vintage. Can anyone tell me what this is? Thanks!

[Johndouglas]

The Citroen SM was built for only a few years in the early 70' and it was based on the DS. At the time, Citroen had bought up the Maserati company and they used a Maserati engine in it.

[Randombloke]

The Citroen SM was built for only a few years in the early 70' and it was based on the DS. At the time, Citroen had bought up the Maserati company and they used a Maserati engine in it.

 

The SM was the car, that, AFAIK bankrupted Citroen and had them bought by Peugeot/PSA for peanuts.

 

It brings to a close the line of truly innovative Citroens, years ahead of their time, like the DS, GS and the SM itself. The CX was also part of that legacy, being launched before the Peugeot take over, but to my mind was not so innovative.

 

SMs are like XMs are like dogs, not just for Christmas, but for life. If you get a good XM (not petrol turbo 2.0, or gas guzzler 3.0 auto) then it can be a great car. The same is not so true of an SM, and IMV any SM is very deep hole guaranteed to swallow endless sums of money.

[Ronin]

Ahhh the famous SM... Some would say (the last of the true inovative citroens)

 

It had many features way ahead of it's time that we take for granted in modern cars.

It was powered by a maserati derived (Merak) 2.7litre v8 vee at 90 degrees to keep the profile down, It was 2.7ltr to keep it below the french engine tax laws which were extortionate for engines over that capacity.(3.0ltr for the US market

It had electric everything! ...Power assisted steering, power brakes.... The works really

Underbody venturi aerodynamics that would actually suck the car further down to the road surface over 50 mph.

Citroen had a couple of Dasault aircraft wind tunnel engineers work with the design team to achieve the lowest drag factor possible using the teardrop shape... Now standard proceedure with all manufactureers but unheard of in 1969-1970

Directional inner headlamps that moved with the steering the outer ones stayed straight.

self centering steering with only 2 turns lock to lock.

rain sensitive wipers

very light touch sensitive brake pedal (looked like a small mushroom)

Optional carbon fibre wheels (yes carbon fibre)!!!!

It was capable of acheiving 150+mph and 0-60 in under 8 seconds

It was weel reknowned for the ride quality (obviously) but it was reported to feel no different at top speed than at 70 mph.

Citroen dealers at the time had to take new SM owners on a 60 mile orientation drive so they could get used to the "two turn steering lock to lock" feature and the brakes after 5 out of the first 20 sold were damaged by hitting kerbs etc...lol.

 

It was rumoured that Citroen only bought the troubled maserati company so that they could get there hands on the v8 expertise for this car. No one actualy knows what the "SM" stands for but the best guess was Série Maserati

 

Unfortunately Citroen didn't make a profit on the SM and only sold just under 13,000 of them.