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50th anniversary of the Citroën DS !

La DS dessinée par Flaminio Bertoni

Paris, 1 October 1955. At the Grand Palais exhibition centre in Paris, a new car explodes onto the automotive scene and is hailed as a sensation by the contemporary press.
The DS has arrived. Visitors and journalists from around the world look on in total amazement. The car presented by Citroën is completely unlike anything they have ever seen before. The Marque has just unveiled the model that is set to replace André Citroën's renowned Traction Avant.

The world suddenly changes from black-and-white to colour, and fiction becomes reality. A new automotive era has arrived. Citroën's latest design makes all the other cars on show look outdated.
The unveiling of the DS was an event that made an impression on all those who were present. Fifty years on, people are still talking about it. Because the DS is still on the road, kept alive by thousands of collectors.

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This marvel of automotive design was created by two men and their staff teams. Both were originally recruited by André Citroën and designed the Traction in1934. André Lefèvre was an engineer, while Flaminio Bertoni was a draftsman and sculptor.

The two men pooled their talent to create this automotive wonder. With the DS, they were set to revolutionise automotive history. Technology and styling functioned together in perfect harmony.
The DS was far more than just a stylistic choice. Its lines were dictated by the technical solutions adopted, while its design reflected a close fit between utility and harmony, functional convenience and visual appeal. Comfort and safety were already key values for Citroën and remain so today.

Fifty years have gone by since the unveiling of the DS, which has taken its rightful place in global automotive history. It has joined two other legendary models: the Traction Avant and the 2CV.

A car of revolutionary design, the DS drove the whole automotive industry forward. By making avant-garde technology widely available, it set the tone for a generation of modern vehicles.
The DS opened the way to progress and, for this reason alone, it gained universal recognition.

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