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Always looking forward

From the spaceship futurism of the 1955 original to the new Nº8, DS has always looked towards an exciting new world. Here are just some of the amazing explorations of possible DS futures, where visionary style meets advanced technology

Partnership content, funded by DS AUTOMOBILES Bauer Media Registered Company Number LP003328 (England and Wales) Registered Office: The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PL

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Words: Phil Bell I Images: DS archive

DS19 In his 1957 book Mythologies, Roland Barthes wrote: ‘The Déesse has all the features of one of those objects from another universe which have supplied fuel for the neomania of the eighteenth century and that of our own science fiction.’ He had a point. Beneath flying-saucer bodywork shaped by sculptor turned industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni lay a hydropneumatic system running self-levelling suspension, power brakes and semi-automatic transmission, decades before other manufacturers attempted similar sophistication with electronics. And it was front-wheel drive. In 1955.

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SM Tribute In 2024 DS referenced the radical grand tourer of 1970 with its SM Tribute. Frédéric Soubirou, DS head of exterior design, said: ‘We were inspired by several SM models. They gave the impression of flying on the road - they were very aerial.’ It reinterpreted for a new age the signatures of the original: its tapered form with wider front track, large glassy nose section and rear hatch, skirted rear wheels, single-piece curved seating, a lozenge-shaped dash, advanced power-assist systems, and more. On the Tribute the nose section is a 3D screen; the instrument cluster is a projected information display; and directional control is steer-by-wire.

DS Numéro 9 Fast forward to 2012, and DS design director Thierry Métroz teased the world with Numéro 9, an ideas car predicting the direction for flagship models. ‘Look at the grille - it is much more three-dimensional,’ he told CAR. ‘The lights, the sense of sculpture and the way we incorporate the day running lights. This is the future face of DS.’ Its slippery shooting-brake form referenced original DS features such as the floating roof and high-mounted tail lights; and beneath, the plug-in hybrid future. It combined a 225bhp 1.6-litre petrol turbo powering the front wheels with a 70bhp electric motor driving the rears. And, naturally, hydraulic active suspension.

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