I love Citroens, especially the vaunted DS. I also love Broughams. You might think the two would be at odds with each other, but both of my favorites–advanced European design and cosseting luxury–were perfectly entertwined in the top-trim DS Pallas, such as this example posted to the Cohort by regular r0b0tr10t.
The Pallas was the luxury DS, with soft Jersey cloth or plush leather seating, stainless-steel wheel discs and side trim, and other refinements.While the original 1955 model might be the purest form of the DS series, my pick would be one of these.
In late-model DS21 form, it was the über DS, and my favorite “Goddess.” This gray over navy blue example with saddle-tan leather is just about perfect!
Mmmmmmm, yes. Magnifique! Genuine luxury, the perfect ride, supreme competence, the pleasure of a true work of art.
Check out the headlights that steer in that last photo.
The DS is looking at the person taking it’s picture! The first one of these I ever saw in person was in NYC about 1965.
I don’t normally care for French cars or Citroens one way or the other but I’m finding this one lust worthy. Looks like the perfect car for a relaxing drive from Paris to the French Rivera.
If this is a brougham, then I love broughams. I’d kill for one of these.
I have a baby one from 98 you’d like it the ride is like this one but with WRC handling and diesel
There is a local champagne colored Pallas with a dark brown roof, the owner is a Citrophile, probably one of the only Citroen fans in Miami, I’ve talked to him a few times, he and his wife are usually at every local show with either their DS or 2CV. Nice folks, very mellow, a break from the usual “Musta-maro-cuda-Ray SS GT Hemi” owners you usually encounter.
Us Dutch. we love our Citroëns
And we love our DS
We’re soley responsible for the fact that classic Citroën prices especially for the DS and 2CV’s are so high.
Coz there are more DS’és in Holland then anywhere else in the world.
It is us who’ll sell you a galvanized 2CV chassis and your blue Pallas upholstery.
We dug in the market.
We told the French we were Dutch scrap dealers when we scavenged their barns, not touching Simca’s or Panhards, we went for Citroëns.
And this is why the French do not let us near their barn filled countryside anymore.
The Swedish may have beaten us with American Classics, but this is classic Citroën country overhere !
Beware !
Coz the CX era is now coming !
It’s about time someone saved the CXs!!!
Now, start shipping some of those CX’s over to the US.
A galvanized 2CV chassis ? Small beer, coz us Dutch also molest a DS body and bolt it on a peasent’s Land Cruiser chassis. Comes with a FIA approved roll cage.
I like it
Like it? I LOVE it!
Time to see it in action then, a (too) short video:
No joke. I was recently in Amsterdam for the first time, and couldn’t believe the number of Citroens. After spotting precisely zero 2CVs or DSs in France, I saw a dozen in the Netherlands within the first few days, easy. And not beaters, either, these things were in gorgeous shape.
There was also no shortage of embarrassingly out-of-place looking American iron, but that’s a story for another day.
mcc.pj, I posted a link to a whole bunch of old pictures (fifties, sixties, seventies) with American cars in the Netherlands under your recent Paris topic. Mostly taken in the old cities, Amsterdam included.
As you say, quite a few of them “embarrassingly out-of-place” but certainly fun to see them!
If modern automakers could take away only one lesson from La Deesse…push the rear wheels back! Even compacts could have decent back seat room. Besides convention, is there a reason not to?
Plus the longer wheelbase gives a better ride.
Larger turning radius and less trunk room.
Yep then they added forklift style rear steering to their repetoire and my 98 Citroen will out corner anything you’ve ever seen
Modern PSA cars are designed the same way very short rear overhangs all the weight between the axles and passive rear steer.
Gorgeous looking cars,one of 2 French cars I like.
Before I was old enough to drive and look for cars myself I was reading about them in magazines. I started at such a young age that I did not know MT, CandD and R&T existed. I was reading my Dad’s old Popular Science magazines. Every month they had a really good comparison test (maybe they still do).
Anyway one of my favorites included a Citroen DS, Peugeot 504 and an Audi 100LS. I believe the Audi won but the cars that fascinated me most were the Citroen and Peugeot. I would love to find that article again.
Pallas pales in comparison to the Chapron versions.
Beautiful, a DS wagon was sighted yesterday but not shot sorry Tom I thought of you but too slow., nice cars and gettin real rare here now, Glad your seeing Brouhams from elsewhere.
I see a DS locally from time to time, and I still have to stop and stare. In 1955 it must have looked like something from Mars.
I still find the slender “A” pillars awesome, but the ultra-short rear overhang doesn’t do it for me.
A relative who owned one from new reckoned the build quiality didn’t match the design quality.
“don’t ask the man who owned one!” Nuff said. Except to add maybe beauty is only on the outside.
The DS was like a beautiful woman. Alluring, sensual, yummy. Except that every couple of months she required an expensive stay in the hospital.
I don’t understand your bad luck with Citroen DS cars. I had several old, ramshackle DS cars here in Canada when they were just plain old used cars available cheaply. Rust could be an issue, for sure, but reliability was never a problem. In my experience, if there were ever hydraulic issues with the DS cars, it was due to neglected maintenance schedules on the part of the owner or rust having attacked the piping and not being noticed in time to prevent a leak.
Any car, especially those made back then, requires a minimum degree of maintenance….if it isn’t done, problems occur.
I don’t believe that any company has been making truly bad cars for many, many years…with the possible exception of Lada, which seems to have created its own demise. (BLMC caused its own disaster as well….)
If there was a reputation here for unreliable cars among French makers in the 70s or 80s, I put it down to poor dealerships and uninformed customer base here in North America. (There was an exception where I live…we had an excellent dealer for Citroen, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, SAAB and even at one point, Panhard, all in the same place! Generally, buyers were pretty informed and demanding when they went to that dealer, and they appreciated the honesty and fair dealings that were offered there).
I had many old, beat up cheap cars over the years when I was a student or starting out. That included Renault 16TS, R5GTL, Peugeot 404, 504 or 505, or Citroen DS. Having a habit of buying what other people feared and treating them with a little care, I was always rewarded with good service for hardly any money. Then it got so the cars were becoming rare and so I started to grab good ones while I still could…and keep them.
I especially appreciated French cars because they always had far superior seating, rode and handled well, ran economically, and seldom needed ANY repairs. Those they did require I could do myself for little to no expenditure. I could drive them all very hard, and they’d keep coming back for more. It was always rust that terminated what had been a good relationship…and if I’d known then what I know now, even it could have been defeated before it got too far.
It’s true that more complicated cars make for more expensive repairs…and all makers are way over the top on complexity today, in my opinion.
It gets to the point way too soon in a car’s life span, when a proposed repair is simply not an economically feasible thing for most people to think about doing, so they scrap the cars. High labour rates do not help this situation….who can pay a consistent $90 or $100 an hour labour cost to keep an older car going unless they know how to fix things themselves, or the car is a valuable collectible?
So, now that there are so few good French cars available in Canada inexpensively, I drive the simplest model of disposable Japanese winter beaters that I can find, (to be sacrificed to the rust worms), and I keep the nice cars safe for posterity.
Conservative MP Alan Clark showed me a picture of his drop dead gorgeous convertible when I met him on an animal rights demonstration.He was an eccentric character who lived in a castle and had a collection of classic cars and mistresses
Thats who I want to be when I grow up!
+1, hell, +10!
He was quite a character and a Citroen DS enthusiast and had them featured in a few books.I’m sure anyone who was a car enthusiast would love to have spent time with him regardless of their own political views.Jane his widow was given a dark blue DS convertible which she still drives
Just beautiful! I love these cars. Great find, TK.
Mmmmmmmmm… sexy. Among the many odd cars of my childhood was a silver ’63 DS19 Cabriolet… oh, the memories of riding in that car! Alas, the N.E. Ohio tinworm ate the poor thing up…
In 1970, at the age of 16, I tried to convince my parents to buy a DS21 Pallais. At the time, they were going for Buick sort of money in Canada and there was one in the neighborhood. The parish priest drove one. Despite my efforts, with Buick sort of money to spend, my parents went for the Buick, a 1970 Lesabre four door hardtop, blue with a black vinyl roof. I thought that it was a sharp looking car but is was no Goddess.
The chrome badges don’t say “Citroen” No need to.
The late ’60s refresh, with those mean looking headlights, did only good to the DS (Pallas, as i called ’em when i was a kid !), this one in navy blue with tan interior it’s wonderful ! If only they made it with a better engine…
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful, right down to the color combination. This is my most desired car of all time, although I do like that little ponton Mercedes peeking into the photo.
Yes, Alan Clark was a remarkable character. He wrote that his Chapron DS21 was faster point to point than many hairy chested sports cars simply because the Citroen didn’t beat you to death, yet it offered superb roadability.