I add the CX at the risk of making this list the ultimate collection of French cars! The CX however, the car that superseded the legendary and evergreen DS, was so successful and unique as a seventies saloon and so quirky in its styling that I simply cannot ignore it.
Robert Opron, the bespectacled bow-tie wearing designer who came from designing stoves and refrigerators for Arthur Martin, had the unenviable job of becoming the head of Citroen styling after the legendary Italian Flaminio Bertoni had passed on. Bertoni was the creator of the Traction Avant, the DS and the Ami, arguably Citroen's three most classic models. Bertoni was the first stylist to use clay models, and relied greatly upon them, using only minimal drawing to convey his ideas. Opron on the other hand, was a great drawer, being able to express entirely his concepts and ideas to clay stylists.
The CX was released in 1974, and its production run lasted until 1991, one can imagine how the CX looked along side its contemporaries. It was certainly never copied. It could be nothing if not a French saloon, low and broad with Opron's signature faired-in headlamps, a nod to superior aerodynamics. The concave rear window on the fastback profile and adjustable side skirts that provided a road seal when the big Citroen was set on its lowest ride setting, helped to generate vacuum under the body.
The lure of the CX to its enthusiasts is much the same as all Citroens; they are eccentric and off beat. To own and drive a CX today is surely a little out of the scope of the 'normal' motorist and certainly employing an early car in a typically seventies hue as a daily hack will have you inducted into a unique club. Sure to turn every head on any high street, there are not many cars left like the CX.
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