DS celebrates first decade with amazing SM Tribute

Long live the mad French concept car!

By Matt Bird / Wednesday, 11 September 2024 / Loading comments

For many, the SM represents Citroen at the peak of its powers. Beautiful, innovative, quirky and bold, it has long been held up as the pinnacle of French engineering ingenuity on four wheels. So with DS Automobiles celebrating its first decade at the upcoming Chantilly Arts & Elegance concours, a concept to mark the occasion was only ever going to be inspired by one car: say hello to the SM Tribute.

DS makes no secret of the fact that this car pays homage to that most famous of Citroens. Indeed this has been in the works for some time, DS first sharing sketches and the #SM2020 hashtag four years ago to mark 50 years. Work has continued on a car since then at the Paris design studio, the aim to create something that looked like a SM that Citroen ‘had continued to develop over the past five decades’. So it means some familiar cues from the classic for this Homage - including a reinterpretation of the 1971 Gold Leaf colour, a 3D front screen that looks like the original glass section, and partially faired wheels - with a few modern details.

Primarily, as is often the case with modern tribute concepts, that’s in the size of this SM. While just 30mm longer (at 4,940mm) and 20mm taller (1,340mm), it’s a substantial 140mm wider than the '70s Citroen. Plus there’s 120mm less ground clearance, ostensibly in the name of efficiency; probably doesn’t hurt that a long, low and wide SM looks absolutely brilliant as well. The wheels are now 22-inch diameter. Hopefully some of the spectacular lighting technology seen front and rear can make it to future DS production cars.

For the moment, the interior is only visible in renders, presumably as there was so much to do getting the incredible exterior to look how it does. Again there are nods to the past with the horizontal cushions for the seats and a familiar dash shape, with modern flourishes like the cascading centre stack and a driver’s display that’s entirely a projection. “The setting is more immersive while being less restrictive for the driver and occupants” said Luc Quirin, DS Interior Designer. The SM couldn’t be anything but a French concept car, and is all the better for it.

DS hasn’t shared anything so plain as what might be underneath the SM Tribute, because that’s not really the point. Gawp at the silhouette, drink in the details, admire the audacity of a 2024 take on a universally loved classic rather than think about what an electric DS flagship might be in modern times. Because it ain’t gonna happen. Like all the best French concept cars - see the recent DS E-Tense Performance and Peugeot Inception - what’s taken into production will likely be a door handle or paint colour. But the world would also be a far duller place without the avant garde French concept car, so long may they continue.

“It's not just a portrayal of the SM,” said Thierry Metroz, DS Design Director. “The DS Design Studio Paris team had fun with an ambitious project. We have respected the original design through its spirit and details. We have done a transcript and reinterpretation of the SM. But as it is not our habit to disconnect from our other work, we have included a lot of details about what DS Automobiles models and our future projects are.” So there might be hope just yet. But for now, those after a true SM fix - once having seen the Tribute in France this weekend - will be best served by the original. This one boasts a manual gearbox and a rebuilt V6 - quite the way to spend £50,000.