DS Automobiles reimagines the Citroen SM for today

Citroen's most iconic machines run a thoroughly broad gamut from the humble 2CV to perhaps the most striking car it ever produced, the Maserati-powered personal luxury coupe called SM. It's this latter car being revisited by DS, the luxury brand spun off of Citroen with the name of the equally important mid-century Citroen DS. More specifically, it's being re-revisited, as the company revealed back in 2020 a bunch of renderings its designers put together imagining a modern version.

According to the Design Director of DS, Thierry Metroz, the company received many comments on those designs and learned that people were "very attached to the iconic models from our heritage" and "they didn’t want the original design to be spoilt." So it took those comments into consideration, and kept playing with the idea until they reached the SM Tribute concept you see above.

It's relatively close in size to the original in most respects. It's 1.2 inch longer, 0.8 inch taller, and has 1.4 inch less ground clearance. But it's far wider, gaining an extra 5.5 inches. It's crystal clear that most of its lines are pulled straight from the original, from the full-width headlight and daytime running light wedge at the front to the tapered kamm-style tail. The window openings are all shaped basically the same, including the wrap-around rear hatch glass. But there are updates found everywhere. Most notable are the reworked rear wheel spats that now have semi-circle cutouts to help highlight the 22-inch wheels. The ultra-thin taillights continue around the sides of the car over the top lines of those spats to emphasize the line. The car also features two-tone paint, with the black parts helping highlight the most classic lines of the car along the sides. It also helps hide the aerodynamic extensions and general heft of the SM Tribute's flanks compared to the original.

The interior is arguably a bigger departure from the original than the exterior. There are still echoes of the original, such as with the shape of the dash top and concave instrument display, as well as the seats with horizontally stitched cushioning. The concept departs with its concave monolithic center screen, which also adopts a small puck for shifting instead of a chromed lever, and the instruments also are shown on a screen. The distinctive single spoke wheel of the original gives way to a rectangular yoke, and the door panels feature intricately detailed "laser-engraved" leather.

We dig this modern SM, even if we're not sure it's quite as elegant as the precursor. We're not getting our hopes up for a production car, though. While it could happen, perhaps with enough good reception from the public, any kind of coupe seems to be a hard sell in our SUV-obsessed world. It's an even harder sell when all of Stellantis is already focused on modern gas and EV versions of its mainstream products. So for now, we'll just be satisfied getting to see anything physical instead of just some pretty pictures.

By Joel Stocksdale