I’ve started scanning another box of the vintage R&T’s sent to me by CC reader Lee J., these going back further to 1972. I still have a loooong way to go on the more recent ones, but maybe I’ll tackle it from both ends. So we’ll start with the January 1972 issue, which has a new car analysis of the “remarkable” Citroen GS. Well, that word certainly applies, as its efficiency and comfort really were in another league compared to other compact cars at the time. Remember, this is 1970, and those other cars are the rear engine VW 1600, RWD Ford Cortina, Opel Rekord, Fiat 124, and such. Citroen’s CX was still four years off, but the GS clearly showed the direction it would be taking.
I think the reason it never made it to the US is revealed in the spec sheet. It needed premium leaded fuel and no emissions controls to achieve 21(as much as 23.3 in other period tests) miles per gallon while needing 18 seconds to reach 60 miles per hour. Adapt the engine to not be a gross polluter and you’d be left with a gas-guzzler that can’t keep up with traffic.
Dr. Alex Moulton of suspension innovation fame was a big proponent of the Citroen GS. He admired it for the soothing nature of its opposed four as well as for its packaging and ride qualities. It always seems like an uncompromising combination of virtues that just don’t offer the expected returns.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/albums/72157633349730178/with/8680027741/
CAR magazine loved their first GS, which also returned 28 imperial MPG(23.3 US MPG). It then went on to finish second in comparison tests behind everything from the Alfasud to the Renault 12.
That’s not the reason it never came to the US. Citroen had left the US market some years earlier, and there was zero intention of returning, certainly not with something like this, at a time when gas prices were at historic lows. Why would they? It was not oriented to Americans in the slightest.
I guess I have my timeline mixed up as to when Citroen left the US. I would have sworn you could still buy a new SM stateside in ’72.
You’re right. You could still buy an SM through ’73 even. But the key point is that the GS was never intended to be sold in the US.
You could still buy a D “Super”(ID19-spec) or DS21 in the US in 1971. Some of them are still in US trim, revealed by uncovered non-steering headlights and high static ride height.
Yep. Saw this ’71 DS21 some years back with its original sealed-beam headlight setup (apologies for the poor photo).
It was adequate. When new. As soon as the pipework deteriorates (6 months) it becomes barely adequate. Still, better than the Ami Super which has even more cardboard in the system.
The ventilation isn’t great either as the wind goes over the car not through it.
Great feature! This what I liked about Road and Track, and also Car and Driver: well-written, informative, and even entertaining. This has many insights about the GS that I was not aware of.
RT tended to put the Europeans on a pedestal, and this is no exception. Citroen DS cruising at 100…. come on, with that rather old pushrod four? Or making a virtue of the “60,000 miles (100k km) between overhauls”. Vraiment? Maybe in France that was good… still, it’s a great Road Test, I enjoyed, thanks.
One could say Citroen put the money into the suspension and took it out of the powertrain, which is as minimalist (and cheap) as the suspension is sophisticated.
Quite a contrast to a period Corolla, which featured a leaf sprung live rear axle, but was available in the US with a zippy 1.6 liter making close to 100 hp AND a 5-speed.
It’s pretty obvious that “zero intention of returning” and “not oriented to Americans” went hand in hand.
One of the main reasons Citroen left the North American market was bumper standards. The 2.5 MPH (front) standard for 1972 was easy enough, if ugly. And so was the 5 MPH standard, front and back, for 1973 (I think I have those years right) was easy enough, too, if ugly. The real killer was that the bumper standards also mandated a height for them. VW hated that part, and it certainly wouldn’t work with a car that could change its ride height at the driver’s request. They could have put in some sort of doodad to make sure that the car couldn’t be driven except at one height, but there was hardly the demand to make that worth while.
Exactly right, and if my calcs are right, using the R&T data, this thing would be turning about 5000 rpm at 70 mph. In a pre-double nickel America, surely this would have been a 40,000 mile rebuild if treated well! The French cars of the time may have been driven at high speeds, but for relatively short periods and under less extreme temp conditions.
“…lovely September weather in France didn’t provide us with a test for the heater, which sometimes isn’t so good with aircooled engines.”
As a fan of aircooled cars, I’m curious. Can anyone comment on the design and/or efficacy of the GS heater?
My father bought a new ’73 GS. The heater was adequate in a British winter but our winters are usually relatively mild .
Thank you. I know some were imported on the gray market to Canada so they must have worked at least fairly well.
The only info I can find on them are pictures of the engine compartment with what looks like a heat exchanger on the exhaust manifold.
The first page had me confused – what’s this about a “Fiat-Citroen merger” I never knew about? Fiat, I just read, did have a minority stake in Citroen’s parent company for a few years but plans for further tie-ups fell through not long after this article was published, and Fiat sold their share. It looks like they’re at it again though with the proposed FCA/PSA merger.
You could get 98 octane in Europe in those days?
In France, before unleaded fuel, you had the choice between “Super” which was more or less 98, and “Ordinaire” which was more or less 95.
Keep in mind that’s 98 RON, not 98 AKI. US and Canadian octane numbers have been AKI since sometime in the mid-1970s. For any given antiknock level, the AKI number is about 4 to 6 lower than the RON.
So the “98 octane” gasoline they’re talking about is equivalent to 92-94 octane gasoline in today’s North American terms.
I knew a fellow who bought a new GS. He was a genius sort of guy and worked for CSIR Council For Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria. He never washed or cleaned the car inside, there was a thick layer of sand on the floor. Never changed the oil either. On day he added a liter of oil and then sold the car. No problems at all. He said the car was OK
It’s a great shame they never made a more powerful version of the GS engine. It would have been much more successful, but it was always too slow and thrashy. Issigonis (a good friend of Moulton) wanted to build something like this for the Morris Minor, flat 4 with all round independent suspension. He was frustrated by the bean counters who lumbered him with cart springs and an antique engine and a huge sales success, whereas Citroen’s designers got what they wanted and a relative sales failure. There’s a moral in there somewhere..
They did, as a matter of fact the GS was destined to receive a twin rotor Wankel engine, Citroen already made a deal with NSU for the production, this car had a wider front track and slightly bigger wheel arches, it is said the Bi-Rotor GS has the same track as the later developed and larger CX.
The GS bi-rotor was not a success : people were aware of the poor reputation of the NSU R0 80, the car was expensive and to top things up it was thirsty and the oil crisis came around the corner. This was 50% more expensive as a normal GS 1220 and was sold in special color and a normal Jaeger sports dashboard here’s one
The Jaeger dash :
That interior is something else. I like how Citroen used to make a few cars that weren’t incredibly underpowered and then treat them like Group C homologation specials. The Ami Super is another example.
Great photo of the Bi-Rotor interior, Rammstein. What am I to think of two pedals and a normal-looking shifter ?
Citroen’s C-Matic, a three-speed semi-auto with an automatic clutch and torque converter.
Tatra87 did a Deadly Sins piece on the GS BiRotor:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-three-french-deadly-sins-part-3-citroen-gs-birotor/
By of the way, Louis Malle made a documentary about the production the GS titled “Humain, trop humain”. I recently watched it on YouTube.
thanks very much, fascinating movie!
Has there ever been a more interesting low powered car than the GS? It still looks modern today. All it needed was more power, but the standardisation of the dashboard with the conventional round gauges and a hatchback, which was which it eventually received with the GSA.
I’m always amazed how the GS had a lot in common with the Alfasud. Same profile and basic shape (again with a hatchback added later) , FWD, boxer engine, and 4 wheel discs.
I never found either my GSA C-Matic nor my 1982 Club estate to be underpowered- at least not on UK roads. These cars ‘sing’ and the engine note does probably give a greater feeling of speed than reality. They are some of the ‘most’ engineered cars ever- the amount of thought that went into these was really astounding. The result, is one of the most comfortable cars ever made, especially in Pallas trim. The only negative is poor rear foot room due to a cross member under the front seat. Otherwise, supremely comfortable. The wagons are also great with loads- the tailgate inculdes the bumper, allowing a liftover of about a foot on the lowest setting, self levelling, and with the spare wheel in the front and no spring towers, a more capacious load area than a Volvo 200.
And these have another thing in common with the ‘Sud- shockingly poor rust protection. My ’82 was from the south of France so was quite rust free, but the C-Matic had lots of filler under a recent respray. I didn’t have it long enough to see the horrors that were lurking beneath, but I tried to keep it dry as much as possible.
Quite a few sold in Israel as well as the no less interesting (and far more rewarding to drive) Alfa Sud. The Citroens soon died when their engines blew up, the Alfas turned into rust after a few years (yes even in Israel), and all along the 3rd, and unmentioned, flat four of the period, Subaru’s, watched and laughed. Back then I fancied a Sud, was indifferent to the Citroen and abhorred the Subaru as an infinitely boring device, but looking back – from the PoV of the Israeli motoring scene – I have to acknowledge its simple genius…
Perhaps the car I’ve always most wanted. Small, clever but not gimmicky, roomy, super-comfy, super brakes, fine grip, and reputedly able to cruise fast because of the aero. It helps that I think they’re beautiful to behold.
Citroen were pleased to make a little engine that they were confident of being able to do 60Kmiles before rebuilds, but I reckon not4one above is right: 80-90mph for a few hours on a summer’s California freeway would bring that way, way down.
In Oz, with high tariffs, these were very, very expensive little indulgences, and you’d have to be an aficionado. (For Aussies here, these were top-line Statesman money in ’74, so something like $70K today for you to be derided in your weirdo one litre wonder!)
Remarkably, the kind climate means that there’s still a few around, all either mint or utterly shabby.
A wagon for me, one day, I will.
Thankfully all the Australian GSs received the Birotor’s sporty dashboard.
I haven’t seen a GS in ages. I was very young when they came out but I knew they were very expensive for a small car in Australia. Even so, there were a few of them around back in the day. The wagon with the feature of the bumper lifting with the tailgate pre-dated the Holden Camira wagon.
As a long term 2CV owner, I know many other Citroën owners, including some with GS and GSAs. Several years ago I had the opportunity to hitch a ride in an early one to Citroën Rendezvous in Saratoga Springs. It was about a 5 or 6 hour trip each way. I was amazed what a great highway cruiser it was. Not many cars passed us, and it was reasonably quiet and the ride was superb. All in all it is amazing for such a small displacement.
There were larger engines available later, but they were not that much more powerful (66 hp). I think the 5 speed would make more of a difference.