“Homage to the Goddess” — Testimonies from the Veterans on the birth of the DS (Citroën Information No. 740, 1975)

In this document

This article from Citroën Information No. 740 (September 1975) follows a first installment dedicated to the end of the DS, by collecting the memories of “Veterans” who experienced its birth. Notably cited are Messrs. Bérody, Dallet, Guyard, Leblond, Martin, Meignan, Retsch, as well as Mr. Cadiou, former head of the Design Office p. 1.

Genesis and spirit of the project

The text mentions the V.G.D. project (voiture de grande diffusion - mass-market car), launched before the war, with an “egg”-shaped body and for a time envisaged with an air-cooled flat-6 engine p. 1. Mr. Cadiou insists on an approach of “seeking real progress” rather than “sensational novelty”, carried out with the support of Mr. Boulanger, General Manager p. 1.

Hydraulics and Paul Magès

Mr. Boulanger “gave Mr. Magès carte blanche to get whatever he wanted out of hydraulics”. The text specifies that the first hydraulic block (gearbox and clutch control) was designed in July 1953 and mounted on a first prototype as early as December 1953, at the B.E.A. rue du Théâtre p. 1-2. This milestone is part of work begun much earlier by Magès, who had already filed plans for differential interaction hydropneumatic suspension as early as 17 February 1944 (Hydropneumatic suspension plans).

Workshop anecdotes

Several delightful memories are reported: Périneau protecting himself from oil splashes during pump tests p. 2; 26 hours of repairs on a jammed clutch release fork before a presentation at the “Bocal secret-833” p. 2; the secret kept even from the Supercontrôle; the prototypes hidden at La Ferté-Vidame under the supervision of Loridan; the stylist Bertoni, working at night; the “micron-level” precision achieved thanks to an anonymous worker from the Central Tooling department and then industrialized at the Asnières factory by Messrs. Bernard and Goussard p. 2. Other anecdotes concern the assembly of the 32 DS for the Motor Show, Gina Lollobrigida's car, the “hood-therapist” Baudin, the bursting of a curved windshield during the first run off the line, and the emotion of the Javel workers applauding the DS finally unveiled p. 2.

Context

The DS was presented at the Paris Motor Show on 6 October 1955, causing a sensation with its style signed by Flaminio Bertoni and its major innovation, the hydropneumatic suspension developed by Paul Magès. This hydraulic technology, embryonic here with the gearbox control block, would later be extended to braking, power steering and suspension, then used on the SM, the GS and the CX — as recalled by the testimony of Mr. Meignan p. 2, who would later send Magès a letter for his retirement in September 1974 (Handwritten letter from Mr. Meignan). These general context elements are not developed by the document itself.

Archivist's perspective

This document is of particular interest because it precisely locates, from the memory of engineers, a key stage in the hydraulic genesis of the DS: the design of the first hydraulic block in July 1953 and its mounting on a prototype as early as December 1953 p. 1-2. It seems that this collective testimony, collected twenty years after the launch, seeks to fix an oral memory threatened with disappearing with the departure of the “Veterans”.

The place of Paul Magès is discreet but significant: it is to him that Mr. Boulanger entrusts the freedom to experiment, and it is his deputy Meignan who testifies to the genesis of the industrial precision necessary for hydraulics. Magès, who joined Citroën in August 1925 and remained there for 49 years before retiring to Ramatuelle in 1974 (Autobiographical notes), appears here at the heart of a collective adventure that this issue of Citroën Information intends precisely to celebrate. This text probably echoes the first chapter of this “Homage to the Goddess”, which should be consulted for a complete vision of the tribute paid by Citroën at the end of the DS.