If there’s one car that defines Citroën’s long-lost spirit of innovation, it would have to be the SM. It’s perhaps not as iconic as the landmark DS, but for sheer ambition, this oddball Maserati-powered sports coupé was unmatched.
Where else in the 1970s would you find features like speed-sensitive power steering, allied to hydro-pneumatic suspension and swivelling headlights from the DS? And the suave, streamlined Robert Opron-penned design – still spaceship-like after all these years – remains as peerless as it was 54 years ago.
Until now, that is. Because DS – the company that bears the initials of that car’s predecessor, lest we forget – is celebrating its tenth anniversary by creating an homage concept called simply the SM Tribute. If the goal was to bring the majestic two-door kicking and screaming into the 2020s, then the firm has succeeded – and then some.
All the hallmarks of the SM’s groundbreaking styling are still present and accounted for – the glassy front fascia, the long bonnet, the aerodynamic chopped-off Kamm tail, the cigar-like tapered body and even the faired-in rear wheels, making the SM appear to glide on the road. That’s still the case here.
Of course, like all modern cars the Tribute has ballooned in size, now three centimetres longer at 4.94 m – although the commensurate two centimetre increase in height to 1.34 metres has kept the proportions largely similar. This pales in comparison to the width, which has grown by a massive 14 centimetres to 1.98 metres, giving the car a more muscular stance in concert with the massive 22-inch alloy wheels.
Beyond that, DS has kept the modernisation of the SM’s design to a relative minimum. The clean and crisp side surfacing remains unadorned by fussy lines or superfluous design details – just a single crease that cuts through the rear spats before fading into the doors – although some gloss black surfaces have been applied to help hide the bulk.
At the front, the glassed-in number plate has given way to an illuminated three-dimensional graphic that integrates the headlights and DS logo, bookended by Lamborghini-like three-prong light signatures. At the back, cutouts in the rear fenders reveal a little of those huge wheels, while the black shoulders creates a floating rear deck that surrounds the rear windscreen.
The simplified rear end, also finished in black, is the most distinctive part of the Tribute, with slim taillights that mirror the front light signatures – stretching all the way to the rear wheels. The two-tone colour scheme utilises a reinterpretation of the original SM’s Gold Leaf paint option, with a satin finish and hand-applied “patina” for a weathered look.
The car you see here doesn’t appear to feature an interior, but DS has rendered what the inside would look like on a fully-fledged model. The laser-engraved ivory leather and Alcantara cabin carries over the twisting dashboard design, the lounge-like seats and even the oval instruments of the original, although like almost everything these days, the meters are now shown on a full-width display.
Adding a further futuristic touch is a transparent curved centre screen that rises up from the centre armrest, housing the rotary gear selector. One unfortunate sacrifice in the service of a tech-forward aesthetic is the original SM’s single-spoke steering wheel, replaced by the usual concept car oblong ‘wheel with a race car-style centre display.
Does this look like something you’d want to buy? Well, don’t get your hopes up, because DS has no plans to put this stunning SM Tribute into production. However, the car will inspire a range of future models that will be coming…at the end of the decade. That’s still a long, long way away, but imagine driving a zero-emission coupé some time in the future that looks like this. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.
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