July 10: Beauty in the eye

 Ah, that old cliche.......beauty is in the eye.........  Recently the original Citroen DS was named one of the most beautiful designs to ever hit the open (or closed) road and also named the Product of the Century. Quite a prestigious award for this space age looking car.............

Space age at least when it was introduced way back in 1955. Want proof? Check out its typical, back in the day, competition...........

Hard to believe they came out at the same time. Hard to believe the Citroen came out at all. Over here in North America the look of this DS was as foreign to us as it was to the more open minded Europeans. Regardless, this minimalistic, aero design has stood the test of time. It also came in a further out there convertible version.........

Oh to be French. This car also had the ability to raise and lower itself depending on the road surface. Even further out there for its time.

Citroen ran with this design for (too?) many years, replacing it with similar but much less futuristic designs. Makes one wonder what the DS could have looked like if only it had maintained its styling edge.......

If only.......

Want to see the other side of the Citroen corporate coin? Want to know what those DS designers were doing when not designing the Product of the Century? Their wild child must have been a one off inspiration, as this is what also came off their drawing boards..........

This 2CV was a boon for French farmers. For them they designed a very basic, one headlighted car, that any practical farmer could load up with pigs or produce and head to market. This was the original design, but in 1948, it became much better finished, a real car so to speak, or as real as this car as appliance could be......

This farmer special went on nearly forever, which would be 1990! Impress the neighbours with how easy it was to clean, in case those hogs figured out that they were going to market and all that implied.......

Now after many years of relatively normal designs, Citroen appears to be taking a few risks again. I know that on this of the Atlantic, we could care less, as it's about as likely we'll see Citroen back over here, as it is that Tesla will meet its ambitious production goals. But a quick peak at a recent Citroen, in this case the prickly Cactus, shows us the this formally daring company still has some of the old vibe remaining, although probably at this time none of the old designers.

Beauty is in the eye, but I love this model and if I were a pig, I'd be proud to be taken to market in it. But fifty or sixty years from now will this be another Product of the Century for Citroen? Unlikely, but I'll never know.

Until next time......