Not A Lemon: 1972 Citroën D Spécial
Everything in the world is relative. When Amber Heard (whoever that is..how do the tabloids decide which vacuous dimwit they are going to pluck from obscurity to obsessively cover, anyway??) complains that her old boyfriend Johnny Depp wasn’t rich or famous enough for her — you’ve got to shake your head in confusion like you’ve been slapped silly with scissors-hands until you realize her current crush is Elon Musk….so when somebody says that his Citroen D Spécial is “very dependable,” you’ve got to wonder what is his current ride? Find this 1972 Citroën D Spécial offered for $10,500 in the Town of Newburgh, via craigslist. Tip from Rock On.
The Citroen (Citroën) DS/ID was launched in 1955, a Franco-Italian project
with engineering by André Lefèbvre and styling by Flaminio Bertoni (the base model ID was renamed the D Spécial in 1970).
A few years ago I’d regularly spot an old neglected DS (or ID) sitting forlornly at
the side of the road like a beached whale — her oleopneumatic
suspension having lost the good fight — but they are almost entirely gone from the landscape. Are they in collector’s garages or recycled into those little robots that spit fire while they walk? I dunno…
The classy single spoke steering wheel looks ready for the new owner to enjoy the strange sensation of driving one of these land yachts. With 107 horsepower and 112 ft-lbs of torque from the 2.0 liter inline-4 you won’t go anywhere fast, but you’ll get there in style.
See a better way to feel special? tips@dailyturismo.com
Funny, in Latvian the word, "citron" means lemon…
The Citroen family came by the name honestly:
"a grandfather had been a greengrocer and seller of tropical fruit, and had taken the surname of Limoenman, literally "lime man," his son however preferred Citroen, Dutch for 'lemon'. "
Oh, where to start? First, there were more than a million of these sold between 1955 and 1975. And they were quite reliable. You just don't sell a million cars that are junk. Their enemies are rust and neglect.
This particular one looks to have the fully-manual gearbox, with a regular clutch pedal. That is a good thing, as the semi-automatic gearboxes were a source of eventual complication.
DT writes that you won't be going anywhere quickly. Not all all true. The thing about these cars is that you never need to slow down. The ride is perfectly controlled even over horrible road surfaces. And road holding is phenomenal. So you get up to speed, and you just stay there. These are so comfortable that you can drive all day and emerge at your destination fresh as a daisy (or a marguerite, if you prefer).
Oh, and the braking! Thanks to the self-leveling suspension, there is no "forward pitch" when you brake. It feels like the entire car is being sucked down into the road.
This car is attractively priced, if it proves to be rust free.
Have you ever looked…..I mean really LOOKED….at Elon Musk? He's the Citroen of humans
Watch the video of him taking deliver of his Mclaren F1 and try not to cringe
Stripped down, performance oriented cars are my thing but I think these take the cake in the beauty pageant that is the car world.
And what has Amber Heard ever done to you again? And you know she is a vacuous dimwit how? And you are OK with abusive relationships because…?
Oh, you didn't know. Vince and Amber… well, he doesn't like to talk about it. But it was years ago when he was developing his vacuum-based lighting dimmer system. And just when things were starting to click, there was this article in the Enquirer… and I've said too much already.