Citroen

1960 Citroen DS

Ten years ago, an alien spaceship--or so it must have seemed to the technologically deprived, woebegone inhabitants of postwar Europe--descended to earth and landed in the ornate Belle Epoque Grand Palais near the Seine on the recently renamed Avenue du General Eisenhower, France's tribute to her recent liberation by America. A genuine flying saucer wouldn't have created greater excitement.

At a time when cars were crude, stylistically prosaic (at least in Europe: America was just discovering extravagant spaceship-style fins), and still suffering from a postwar rations-and-restrictions hangover, the Citroen DS--it was called the Deesse (Goddess), which summed up its ethereal qualities--was a glimpse of a braver, brighter future. Nothing as radical as this had ever been seen on four wheels; it was a profound technological leap and unlike any car built before.

Apart from the space-age styling, the DS featured self-leveling hydropneumatic suspension, high-pressure hydraulically controlled power steering, front disc brakes (the first mass-produced road car so adorned), a hydraulically controlled auto-clutch manual transmission, elegant single-spoke steering wheel, and, in later versions, self-leveling headlamps and directional headlamps that swiveled with the steering. Less celebrated, but no less noteworthy, the DS was the first car to make widespread use of cabin plastics (and did so better than more than a few "moderns").