“Birth of a myth”: the DS 19 as seen by L'Auto-Journal (2013)

In this document

This is an article from L'Auto-Journal signed by Thierry Emptas, titled “Birth of a myth”, dedicated to a retrospective test of the Citroën DS 19 (vintages indicated “19 56 / 19 62”).

The car test

The author describes the shock caused by the DS upon its arrival: “A masterful slap!” p. 1, with its “body that kneels at rest” and its dashboard worthy “of a science-fiction comic strip” p. 1.

The lever and the hydraulic control

The text details the operation of the steering column gear lever, operated “with a simple flick of the wrist”, connected to a hydraulic unit that “does the work for the driver to declutch, change gear and then re-engage” p. 2. The author sees in it “the stroke of genius of the DS”: the hydraulic power that “assists the steering, multiplies the braking force and filters out road defects” p. 2.

The suspension

The “four spheres filled with nitrogen act like four soft cushions” giving “the illusion of being carried by a duvet” p. 2.

Technical specifications

The article concludes with a handwritten quote, in the form of a comic strip speech bubble, paying tribute to “Flaminio Bertoni, André Lefebvre and Paul Magès, the three musketeers who imagined and created this work of art” p. 2-3.

Context

Presented at the Paris Motor Show in October 1955, the Citroën DS effectively marked a major technological and aesthetic break in automotive history, with its hydropneumatic suspension, power steering and power braking — all systems developed in particular by Paul Magès within the Citroën teams. These elements of general context, well-known in automotive history, do not necessarily appear as such in the article transcribed here.

Archivist's perspective

This document is not an internal technical archive of Paul Magès but a retrospective press article (2013), intended for the general public passionate about vintage cars. Its interest for the Magès collection lies above all in the explicit tribute paid to the engineer, associated with Bertoni and Lefebvre as one of the “three musketeers” of the DS p. 2-3 — a rare recognition of his role in the specialized press.

It seems that this piece was kept in Magès' personal archives precisely for this quote, which highlights his contribution alongside the two more publicized figures of the design (the designer and the chassis engineer). The detail given on the hydraulic control and the suspension p. 2 also offers a concrete educational insight into the systems that Magès helped to develop.