The CITROEN Collection.

Welcome to The Citroen Collection.

This is the Citroen SM (093000) text.

This is a major project for us and to be honest, we were not sure if it would ever get to this stage. It has taken us some 25 years to research and draw these cars which comprise this Citroen Collection. There is still a long way to go.

I truly hope you enjoy this web site, and if you have any information which we can add, please let us know. If you find any information which is incorrect, we would also appreciate you letting us know. We have noted the respective copyrights of most of the information in this web site. I do not claim that this information is mine, far from it, there are so many Citroen Fanatics out there. I do claim that the drawings and Blueprints in this web site are mine, and have been copyrighted accordingly.

If we have missed in our duty, we apologise as some web sites no longer exist, and some of our earlier research, we had not recorded the source.

In one's life, you sometimes take things which other people have done. To truly make your mark on this world, you need to contribute something back to it. We have collected here as many images, information, artwork, posters, brochures and statistics relating to every known Citroen. In return, I have drawn technical drawings on each of these cars. We have researched printed material, verbal and Internet sites.

We are attempting to draw every Citroen ever made!

We are not there yet, but have achieved about 60% of known models. To the best of our knowledge, there are some 1600 different makes and models which have been made by either Citroen themselves, or by various Carrosseries, such as Henry Chapron.

The Citroën SM was not designed as an all out sports car. It's refined, long distance and luxurious profile means an unfavorable power to weight ratio in motorsport terms. Citroën chose to exploit the "Citroën" qualities of the SM for it's competition program. Long distance events over rugged terrain were chosen to demonstrate the car's potential.

Première sortie, première victoire

"Première sortie, première victoire" (first outing, first win) that's how Citroën announced the victory of the SM in the Morocco rally of 1971. This rally, were Citroën was very successful with the DS for a number of years, was chosen for the competition debut of the SM. 2 cars were aligned at the start. One SM piloted by Jean Vinatier-Pierre Thimonier started the race aggressively trying to lead from the start. They realized very good times but were forced to retire with transmission problems. The other SM driven by Jean Deschaseaux-Jean Plassard took a more conservative approach and won the event. The car behaved impeccably only requiring brake and tire changes. Both SMs were equipped with the new Michelin RR (roues en résine) wheels, later offered on the production SM as an option. Both cars were entered under group 4 rules and were very close to the production models. The engines (2,7 liter) had a slight power increase (5hp DIN) due to a redesigned exhaust system. The cars were lightened by stripping out the interior but driveline protection plates and a substantial rollcage brought the weight to 1680 kg. Citroën produced a film by Claude Caillet celebration the SM's first victory.

1972

Citroën returned to morocco in 1972 with three SM's. That year the event was particularly grueling and only 9 cars reached the finish line. The DS piloted by Robert Netret won, but none of the Sm's finished.