DS SM Tribute Reveal - Citroen SM Inspired Concept [4K]

The message conveyed by the DS Automobiles community has been listened to. The DS Design Studio Paris team worked as if SM had continued to develop over the past five decades.
The SM, born at the beginning of the 1970s, embodied the pinnacle of French automotive innovation. This grand tourer was a real concentration of technology. Its aerodynamic styling, designed by Robert Opron, was both elegant and avant-garde. Beneath the bonnet, a powerful V6 offered exceptional on-road performance. But what really made the SM a remarkable car was its hydropneumatic suspension, inherited from the DS, which gave it unrivalled driving comfort and exemplary road holding. The SM remains a cult model today, sought after by collectors around the world. Its unique blend of comfort, performance and innovation makes it a true automotive legend.
If the SM has made an impression, it is also thanks to its luxurious and meticulous interior. The high-quality materials, the precision build and the calculated ergonomics created an especially refined atmosphere inside. The dashboard, with its circular instruments and distinctive steering wheel, was both functional and aesthetic. The SM was also very well equipped for the time, including air conditioning and power-assisted steering. In addition to its dynamic character, the SM was a car capable of offering first-class comfort to its occupants.
This lightness, suggesting dynamism and efficiency, is reflected in the slender yet muscular silhouette of SM TRibute. The direct relationship is characterised strongly by an iconic front end and a profile dominated by a long bonnet.
The extended bi-tone look was worked around a reinterpretation of the Gold Leaf colour that was in the brochure in 1971, featuring a satin varnish worked with a handmade patina and combined with a specially coloured black.
The SM did not have an obvious upper grille, which was replaced by a very large glass section that revealed the headlamp modules and registration plate. Fifty years on, this glass section becomes a 3D screen that lights up to its middle, framed by a light signature made up of three modules on each side - as in the past - enhanced by eight diamond-tipped and vertical DRLs based on a triad shape meeting at a point like a ship's bow.
The profile retains the characteristic lines of the SM following the airflow from the front to the narrower rear. Behind two large windows, the rear quarter panel is cut in half and goes on to make the rear part float in an S shape. Naturally, the rear wheels are partially faired with removable parts.
While the iconic proportions of the SM are maintained with a length of 4.94 m (+3 cm) and height of 1.34 m (+2 cm), SM Tribute gains primarily in muscularity and presence with a 1.98 m width (+14 cm). In search of efficiency, ground clearance changes to 12 centimetres (-3.5 cm). SM Tribute sits on large 22-inch wheels embellished with aerodynamic inserts.
The interior also continues the language of the 1970 SM
Inside, the 1970 design has also been reinterpreted with the characteristic shape of the top of the dashboard and even the oval design of the instruments. True to the avant-garde soul of the SM, the information display is through projection and the curved “screen console”, connected to the steer-by-wire steering wheel, completes this spirit that’s dear to the brand. Sound and lights envelop the occupants.
The interior is very light with an ivory colour made up of leather and Alcantara. A large display case on the front of the dashboard provides an extraordinary setting to accommodate an almost infinite range of finishes and materials! The seats continue the iconic upholstery of the SM, with its horizontal cushions.
SM Tribute at Chantilly Arts et Élégance
A partner of Chantilly Arts & Elegance from its beginning in 2014, DS Automobiles is introducing SM Tribute on the tenth anniversary of the concours held in the French gardens of the Château de Chantilly.
Positioned in a 120 m2 setting alongside an original SM, SM Tribute will take part in the Concours d'Elegance on 15 September. DS Automobiles is already on the list of winners of the most prized competition in France with DS E-Tense in 2016.
At the previous event, DS E-Tense Performance won the Innovation Prize and several models from DS Automobiles' past have also won the Concours d’État over the years, including the SM Mylord (two trophies) and DS 19 LA Croisette (one trophy).
For this year, SM Tribute will be accompanied by a wide range of SMs on show in the collectors' village. Visitors will be able to see or rediscover a four-door SM Opera, an SM Mylord cabriolet, a racing SM entered in the 1974 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, an SM Proto already seen at the 2023 Rétromobile and other SMs in different colours from the Euro SM Club, thanks to l’Aventure DS.