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The Case for a Contemporary Citroën SM
Commenter of the Day: Soichiro Honda Edition
Detroit, 12:37 PM
Sat Nov 28
4 posts in the last 24 hours
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The Case for a Contemporary Citroën SM |
Commenter of the Day: Soichiro Honda Edition |
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11/10/09
11/10/09
Also, kudos for using a picture from one of my favorite architects even if it was in part due to a google image search.
[www.afgh.ch]
11/09/09
Could the French build it again? Maybe. But the Italians could certainly chip in - one need look no further than a 2003 Fiat Multipla to know that wackiness on the assembly line is still available.
Should the Japanese build it? Probably. But only for a few years, and then sell the tooling and line back to the French. If a Japanese company is allowed to keep at it, they will engineer all the quirks out, and then you'd just have another Camry. Have someone like Daihatsu do the work - they're associated with Toyota on one end, but they're associated with Briggs and Stratton too - nothing like some cheerfully peculiar relationships to keep a Citroen wunderwagen what it ought to be: brilliantly weird. #citroensm
11/09/09
Job description:
1)Take the suitcase
2)Pick up the wife
3)Get to 70mph
4)Play Mozart all day
5)Stay at 70mph
6)Slow down
7)Pull into Casino Square
8)Show off curves #citroensm
11/09/09
I was so close. #citroensm
11/09/09
11/09/09
/looks for stones #citroensm
11/09/09
Also, F1Morgan, no, there's no chance. Even if you did find a more pedestrian motor that will sit behind the SM's gearbox in a longitudinally mounted/ FWD drivetrain, you'll still have to deal with the hydraulics. #citroensm
11/09/09
But I think Citroen has found enough of it's former zaniness tempered with some actual business acumen to do it themselves. #citroensm
11/09/09
Then again, Nissan is half-owned by Renault. Coincidence? #citroensm
11/09/09
11/09/09
11/09/09
Few companies are in the position to take that kind of risk today, especially those with a stingy board of investors and a soft customer demand. #citroensm
11/09/09
Well done, Peter. Of the many things that I like about the SM, the thing I like best is that they rallied them. Sucessfully too. The idea of taking such a technically complex machine and beating the crap out of it on some North African rally stage makes my brain whir. #citroensm
11/09/09
11/09/09
Ah, yes, but it is French, so at the very least you'll have to stop and get a fresh pack of smokes every 90 minutes.
11/09/09
I'm glad to see someone's pandering to the weirdo-jalop crowd in-between weekends! #citroensm
11/09/09
Harmonic Convergence of the planets. The Tunguska Event in Siberia. The Beatles. These were one-time events unlikely to be repeated in our foreseeable futures. I put the Citroen SM in the same category. #citroensm
11/09/09
Nah. Disagree with your choice of Honda there. Sure, Honda has the great engines, the racing pedigree, the engineering purity... All those things that Citroen didn't have in the SM. What Citroen did have in spades at the time was sheer lunatic genius, which is not an attribute that readily springs to mind when you think of Honda.
No, I think the perfect progenitor for the New SM has, by chance, just been formed. I propose that the people you're really looking for are Koenigsaab.
Looks at the similarities between Koenigsaab and Maseroen: One partner has experience with big engines, the other has none. One partner can make a car with suspension and seats that will cosset you across a continent, the other has a do-it-inhouse approach to engine making. One does great cabins, the other bespoke supercars. Both have a customer base that defines loyalty, despite some horrendous mis-steps (by Saab anyway). Both are the result of skin-of-the-teeth buyouts from bankruptcy.
And even more fortunately, Saab already has a styling exercise on the same subject. This, on the Zeta platform, with a detuned Koenigsegg V8 would be your new Citroen SM. And with that, the defence rests.