In Citroen’s illustrious and long history there are a few notable times when the company dug into its reserves of Gallic flair and pulled out an icon – the Citroen SM from 1970 was one of those times and now there’s a new hommage to the original in the shape of the DS SM Tribute.
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Built to celebrate 10 years since DS branched off from Citroen to become its own marque, the SM Tribute was penned by the DS Design Studio Paris team. It’s only a concept car, but the DS SM Tribute was created under the brief of reinterpreting the iconic SM for today.
There’s even a suggestion the SM Tribute will influence future DS offerings with Thierry Metroz, DS Automobiles Design Director, stating: “we are working on the genes of our iconic models to fuel our research into the shape of future models that will come along at the end of the decade.”
The idea of a new flagship from DS was hinted at by the French firm’s boss, Olivier François exclusively to Auto Express earlier this year and it would be a position this SM Tribute would seem to fill neatly should it find its way into production.
DS says the design team worked “as if SM had continued to develop over the past five decades”. The similarities between the two cars are immediately obvious with Robert Opron’s original sleek, aerodynamic styling being carried over, but the overall proportions are also not far off, despite the new car being 3cm longer and 2cm taller. The SM Tribute is 14cm wider and sits 3.5cm lower to the ground than the old car, however.
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