Normalcy is highly overrated. This is especially true in cars.
Welcome to Countersteer, where we ask you to tell us your greatest stories of success and failure, then we pull the very best of them to share with the rest of the world.
I like to think that Jalopnik is among the world’s foremost appreciators of unusual cars. That’s not to say you can’t drive a normal car; we all have to get from point A to point B without worrying whether our 10-liter radial engine is up to the task or not! But driving a weird car, whether it’s briefly or for a lifetime, is a wonderful experience.
I am privileged to have driven many strange cars in my lifetime, from a ‘32 Ford Model A to a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. I’ve even kept most of them off walls.
But maybe the weirdest car I ever drove was Alex Roy’s Citroën SM, a deeply bizarre and completely delightful grand tourer with a ride that makes a Lexus feel like a tank and an interior designed by a surprisingly functional mental patient. It’s smooth, it’s classy, it’s weird as hell, it’s French.
Last year at Pebble Beach Alex let me, Raphael and Mike Ballaban go bombing around some back roads in his. I didn’t want to give it back.
You know that planet in Daft Punk’s One More Time video with the dancing blue disco aliens? On that planet, everyone drives a Citroën SM.
Surely you’ve driven some weird cars and have a good story to go with it. Tell us all about it for the latest Countersteer.
Photo credit DW Burnett/PUPPYKNUCKLES
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.