DS will head to the massive Retromobile classic car show in Paris in February to celebrate the 70th anniversary of… well, itself.
I thought DS was a fairly new brand?
DS as a separate brand has only been around for a decade, but the marque’s roots were set down in 1955 with the launch of the original Citroen DS - a car with as good a claim as any to be the greatest of all time.
So, at the Retromobile show - one of the biggest and most prestigious classic car events in the world - DS will have a display of a dozen historic DS models, entitled ‘The DS, a work of art for 70 years.’
“There is no setting more symbolic than Retromobile to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the DS. This event is dear to us, and we are delighted to share it with as many people as possible. Today elevated to the status of masterpiece, the 1955 DS is the perfect embodiment of the Art of Travel. We bear this special legacy with great pride, a legacy that inspired the creation of DS Automobiles in 2014. Our Brand is rooted in the richness of French culture, whether that’s its art, its literature or its avant-garde view on mobility. This spirit, which has defined the DS for 70 years, is now at the heart of DS Automobiles' identity,” said Olivier François - DS Automobiles’ CEO. DS, modern DS that is, is an official partner of the show and will also be displaying its crucial new DS No.8 electric coupe SUV, with its 750km one charge range, at the show.
Why is DS mixing classic and modern cars like this?
In the absence of the Geneva motor show, that’s not a bad idea for DS - both reminding people of the classic original, and displaying its latest model to the huge crowd (it’s estimated that 130,000 people visited Retromobile last year).
The actual platinum anniversary of the original DS takes place on the 6th of October, 70 years since the first car was shown at that year’s Paris motor show. To say that the DS stunned show-goers back then is to dramatically undersell it - it was seen as being a truly futuristic car, described by French philosopher and writer Roland Barthes as: “clearly fallen from the sky, (...) an exceptional article.” Barthes reckoned that the DS stood in comparison with the cathedrals of old, such was its significance in cultural and architectural terms.
How successful was the original DS?
Amazingly, given all that, only 1,456,115 DS were made between that 1955 launch and the car’s replacement by the CX in 1975. Still, the cultural impact was undeniable — the DS became an instant movie star, featuring in film classics such as Fantomas Unleashed (1965) with Louis de Funès, The Samurai (1967) with Alain Delon and Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future 2 (1989). It also had a starring role in real life, credited as saving the life of French president Charles De Gaulle when his motorcade was attacked by rogue French army officers of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS) at the Petit Clamart crossroads in 1962.
The OAS gunmen peppered De Gaulle’s black official DS with machine-gun fire, blowing out both rear tyres, and it was the DS’ famous hydropneumatic suspension and the skills of De Gaulle’s driver, police officer Francis Marroux that was credited with allowing the President to escape the hail of bullets. The attack was later immortalised in both the book and film of The Day Of The Jackal by Frederick Forsyth.
Away from the big screen, the DS has often been celebrated as a work of art all by itself. One, with wheels removed and the arches faired in, was exhibited almost like a jet aircraft, mounted on a pole a metre high, an installation which won the Industrial Art Award at the 1957 Milan Triennale. A DS is also to be found today in the MoMA Museum’s distinguished collection in New York.
So what’s happening at Retromobile?
Well at the show’s entrance, side by side, will be a new DS No.8 — being shown for the first time in France, with an elegant Crystal Pearl colour enhanced by extended bi-tone black paintwork covering the roof and bonnet, with an Alezan Brown Nappa leather interior — and an original 1969 DS 21 — shown in an exclusive Crystal Pearl livery, with extended bi-tone black paint, and a sumptuous Semi-Aniline Criollo leather interior.
In the show hall itself, there will be the quirky DS Balloons. This iconic model was initially designed in 1959 by Claude Puech, then Citroën’s advertising director, and it really is a DS with its wheels replaced by beach-ball-like balloons. This one’s a recreation of the original, and it appears on the 2025 Retromobile poster too. The recreation is finished in a Tortoiseshell Blonde colour, while the massive balloons symbolise the spheres of the famous hydropneumatic suspension, giving the illusion that the car is floating.
Other original DS on display will be a 1972 DS 21 Prestige that was used by Michel Debré, Prime Minister under General de Gaulle, a rare factory-made (most were converted by coachbuilder Henri Chapron) DS 19 Convertible from 1961, and even the metallic grey DS 19 Totem Pole that was shown at the 1962 Paris Motor Show.
There’ll also be a unique 1972 DS fitted with the 2.7-litre Maserati V6 from the SM coupe, and alongside it a more humble — but hugely practical — 1975 DS estate finished in Delta Blue.
Anything else
Some of the cars on display will be opened up so that show-goers can actually sit in and experience the legendarily sofa-like comfort of the original DS. There will also be some other exhibits, including a 1968 wooden wind tunnel model and modern sculpture implying a covered DS 19, a unique aluminium example, the work of the artist Frédéric Girard, an ornamental boilermaker, co-created with the DS Design Studio. Anyone at the show will also be able to visit the DS ‘boutique’, which will be offering models of the new and classic cars, including two unique to the show — the 1959 DS Balloons in Tortoiseshell Blond, reproduced in 1:12th scale and a limited edition 1:43rd Speedform 1955 DS 19.
Finally, the DS stand itself will be dramatically set off by Régis Mathieu chandeliers. Artisan bronzer, restorer and renowned designer, Régis Mathieu is the son of Henri Mathieu, famous for his collection of lighting with kinetic spirals.
Retromobile takes place from the 5th to the 9th of February at the Paris Expo Porte De Versailles.