The Goddess is back…

4th September 2010

By Anthony Peacock

History has a funny habit of turning around in circles. Citroen’s latest and eagerly anticipated rally challenger is of course the DS3. The road car it is based upon is cute, funky, and according to a series of television ads that are on at the moment starring John Lennon (before he died), “anti retro”.

Wrong. The name DS dates back to the 1950s. It’s a bit like Kodak bringing out a new Brownie and calling it cutting-edge. There’s nothing wrong with retro though, providing that the past you are basing it on is sufficiently glorious.

It would be a mistake, for example, for Skoda to re-introduce a heritage model called the Favorit: a car whose only redeeming feature was to break down so frequently that the agony of sitting in it was inevitably brief. Or for Estonia to bring back communism.

But the DS was another thing entirely. For a start it was a sophisticated play on words: the letters DS in French are pronounced ‘day ess’ – which is the same word as déesse, meaning ‘goddess’. It was a car that broke the boundaries, both aesthetically and technologically, with Citroen selling more than 1.5 million of them over a 20-year production run. What they are probably less proud of is the fact that this ferociously Gallic totem, General de Gaulle’s favourite car no less, was actually designed by an Italian. But we’ll let that pass.

The DS was also a surprisingly effective rally car. It won its class on its first outing, the 1956 Monte Carlo, despite being on paper too big, heavy, complicated, unreliable and slow. In 1961 it was one of only two cars to finish the Tour de Corse, held under blizzard conditions. The same year was when a reasonably unknown Frenchman, Bob Neyret, made his debut in a Citroen DS – winning his class on the Acropolis Rally.

He would go on to become one of the manufacturer’s most loyal factory drivers. But it was in Africa that Neyret and Citroen made their mark. In 1965 the DS rallied outside of Europe for the first time. It was a baptism of fire: only 16 cars from 18 that took the start finished. Five of them were Citroens. With such a proven record of durability, it’s hard to know exactly how the BX happened, nearly two decades later…

Neyret’s crowning glory was two victories on the Rallye International du Maroc, in 1969 and 1970. It was on the roads through Morocco – more varied than those seen in the Safari – that the DS came into its element.

Now, 30 years later, it will all over again. The now 76-year-old Neyret will be back behind the wheel of probably the world’s most surprising rally car on the Rallye International du Maroc from October 9-16 this year. And he even found time to take us out for a ride in the DS that he will use.

First surprise: it’s automatic, or a semi-automatic to be precise. “I’m an old man now, so it’s perfect for me!” he jokes. “But actually, in the conditions of Africa back then, an automatic was best as it reduced strain on the gearbox and clutch and it was also less tiring to drive.”

With the wand-like lever spouting from behind the steering wheel, it’s an unusual driving experience to say the least. But Neyret shows that he’s nowhere near ready for his bus pass yet by stroking it along with eye-opening alacrity, helped by the DS’s hydropneumatic suspension and power-steering (which was truly intergalactic technology at the time).

The suspension has the effect of flattening out the bumps on the road so that the DS seems to waft along with just a very gentle up and down motion, a bit like a plane in the lightest of turbulence.

“Surprising, huh?” says Neyret, no doubt used to bamboozling most of his passengers. “In Africa nothing’s better, really. It makes me laugh when everyone talks about how good Citroen is in rallying now, like it’s something new. The truth is they were there years ago!”

Just like Citroen and the DS, Neyret is aiming to turn back the clock.