The final flagship of the model line
Equipped with manual gearbox and air conditioning
Long-term ownership by a DS specialist
Extensively overhauled by him
Attractive colour combination
When Citroën unveiled the DS in 1955, almost everything else on four wheels suddenly looked rather old. Hydropneumatic suspension, streamlined bodywork, inboard disc brakes and a shape that seemed to have come from another planet – the “Déesse”, the Goddess, certainly lived up to her name. That she still looked futuristic almost twenty years later says plenty about just how far ahead of her time she had been.
In 1964, Citroën went one better with the Pallas version. Named after the Greek goddess Pallas Athena, it brought precisely the measure of luxury the DS had previously lacked: better upholstery, often in leather, more elaborate trim, extra chrome and altogether rather more grandeur. If you were going to float, you might as well do it in suitable style.
Then, in 1972, the DS 23 arrived as the final major evolution. Its four-cylinder engine had grown to 2,347 cc and produced 115 bhp with carburettors, or as much as 130 bhp with electronic fuel injection. That may sound modest today, but it was enough for thoroughly respectable performance. Speed was never really the point of a DS anyway. What mattered was the way it went about it: serenely, comfortably and with that peculiar mixture of technical sophistication and French eccentricity.
As the DS 23 Pallas, it combined almost everything Citroën had perfected over two decades: hydropneumatic suspension, power steering, hydraulically assisted brakes and, depending on specification, the famous semi-automatic transmission. Since 1967, there had also been the twin headlamps behind glass, with the high beams turning with the steering to look around corners.
In 1975, it was all over. The Goddess never really received a true successor. Perhaps because it is rather difficult to invent a revolution twice.
This DS 23 Pallas, finished in Blanc Meije, originally came from Italy. Its current owner brought it to Austria 20 years ago, having found several things that appealed to him as a DS specialist. First there was the five-speed manual gearbox, which connoisseurs are often only too happy to choose over the semi-automatic and fully automatic alternatives. Then there was the original factory-fitted air conditioning, which seems all the more appealing after this year’s summer. And finally, the Pallas was in such good condition that the decision to buy it was easily made.
Even so, he went through the latest addition to his DS stable from front to back. In the process, the temperamental Bosch fuel injection had to make way for a conventional carburettor – by no means an unusual conversion in DS circles. Although it has never been registered in Austria, its owner has driven this final flagship regularly and kept it ready for use to this day.
The DS 23 Pallas was not simply the end of a model line, but the culmination of an idea. This one makes a compelling case for why.