- 6,967
- South Africa
...Tell me, when you talk about ultra-rare automobiles in the history, do you think a Citroën DS stands a chance?
You'd be forgiven to think "no, DS may be an motoring icon, but a rare one? Not really".
Well, then let me SHOCK you for a moment: in between 1959 to 1965, ONLY 12 of these cars were produced. And the experts suspect only TWO survives to this day. Just TWO.
Let that sink in for a sec.
Italian coachbuilder Frua was tasked with designing, then building first couple of running examples by one Mr. Hector Bossaert.
See. But this partnership didn't last long. Story goes, in 1960, the "production" moved to GÉTÉ at Meteren, near Lille.
The under-the-hood mechanicals were slightly massaged from a normal DS19. There were new cams, conrods, revised cylinder heads with higher compression ratios, plus wilder exhaust and carburettors all helping to push the rather modest original power of 83 bhp to a whooping.....97. Wow.
Of course, this ain't only "special" DS that were built: there's even rarer convertible version, which I can't even confirm if any have survived. Here's a black-and-white:
When this car went on sale, it cost nearly twice the amount of a regular DS19. In fact, its price tag put it squarely at the crosshairs of Jaguars and Mercedes Benzs.
Do take note though, that the car in the pics have extra fog lamps attached to her, apparently by the owner. They didn't come from the, ahem, "factory".
So here's a pic of a Bossaert coupe without them:
As usual, if you can find more info, do share!! Thanks. 👍👍
You'd be forgiven to think "no, DS may be an motoring icon, but a rare one? Not really".
Well, then let me SHOCK you for a moment: in between 1959 to 1965, ONLY 12 of these cars were produced. And the experts suspect only TWO survives to this day. Just TWO.
Let that sink in for a sec.
Italian coachbuilder Frua was tasked with designing, then building first couple of running examples by one Mr. Hector Bossaert.
See. But this partnership didn't last long. Story goes, in 1960, the "production" moved to GÉTÉ at Meteren, near Lille.
The under-the-hood mechanicals were slightly massaged from a normal DS19. There were new cams, conrods, revised cylinder heads with higher compression ratios, plus wilder exhaust and carburettors all helping to push the rather modest original power of 83 bhp to a whooping.....97. Wow.
Of course, this ain't only "special" DS that were built: there's even rarer convertible version, which I can't even confirm if any have survived. Here's a black-and-white:
When this car went on sale, it cost nearly twice the amount of a regular DS19. In fact, its price tag put it squarely at the crosshairs of Jaguars and Mercedes Benzs.
Do take note though, that the car in the pics have extra fog lamps attached to her, apparently by the owner. They didn't come from the, ahem, "factory".
So here's a pic of a Bossaert coupe without them:
As usual, if you can find more info, do share!! Thanks. 👍👍
.....
Well you voted so it's cool. I guess. 
