When the TV ad displayed a Citroën GS rolling notarized with only three wheels it is that this car was not running. Here is today the history of this legendary family.

The Citroën GS can be attributed the dubious honor of getting Citroën cars were considered "complicated" by mechanics and, by extension, for the general public. Perhaps they were right, because there is nothing more complicated than what is not understood. Because when ordinary cars were overheating, when it was not uncommon to see one or two cars stopped on the hard shoulder in "costs of partridges" -the touchstone for everyone who premiered and went to try their car to friends in Madrid taking steam expansion vessel like a pot, how to understand a was not wearing car radiator, no water circuit, that did not require the eternal flagon of water or antifreeze to face any summer trip?

You had time to go with the Freeway on hand to explain to your skeptical friends "the behavior of this car has caused a sensation throughout Europe from the time of its appearance, and has received all kinds of praise from the specialized press" (Literal, highway number 662, October 1971).

Citroën GS: atypical from start to finish

Not worth anything to lift the Citroën GS hood at the time to show off the engine, because there only one spare wheel looked, I was not like everyone else in the trunk. Beneath it was the motor bóxer, like a beetle, or a Porsche, I must say -… "But what engine is this?"It was the best thing you heard. True, reach spark plugs (especially one) down there was the task of mechanics.

Change the clutch, with the longitudinal engine, forced to dismantle the entire front of the Citroën GS and remove the engine, the problem was that the 40,000 km and had changed the timing belt and lazy … go back to the mechanic if not conseguías stretch until the next 40,000. Clutches are spent quickly, because its own engine driving a mill getting a huge turning smoothly, but also weighed down him with a sloth in improper accelerations. "Lack of power at low engine speeds"Then we said in Highway. Why many users learned to skate GS clutch (and devour) to live up to what they expected from their 65 hp.

The second Citroën GS defects, "very high consumption"It was also atypical own engine. Although the yokes with hemispherical cameras, as must be, air cooling required a low compression ratio and that means low thermodynamic efficiency and, therefore, the high consumption. It also favored their "good top speed"Thanks to excellent aerodynamics, even better than his older brother, even though the big man call him Citroen CX.

Aerodynamics and tires very narrow even for the time, 145, getting the Citroën GS was a matagigantes … downhill. his "excellent braking", With disc brakes on all four wheels helped these daring by their drivers, with support from the "very secure stability", As we said in Highway. It looked like a dart, not even stopping at the curve conseguías move one iota the rear. Directly, the car was where You put the steering wheel, immune to driving techniques.

He brake feel was amazing in the Citroën GS, almost without moving pedal and powerful braking. The problem is that all this only knew the driver, because the accompanying connoisseurs only repaired in his doubts had not seen front brakes (they were on wheels, but the output of change, such as Lotus F1 at the time ). In the long run, and that’s not what we said in Autopista, it was revealed that the handbrake on those disks (In the front, another rarity! With independent tweezers) sometimes caused the pills liberasen and contract when cooled.

Also, in very demanding use in hot weather, He appeared fading in the Citroën GS, there locked discs by the motor. Those who did not understand anything about cars, most were more afraid of a car with this strange wheel of a single radio (what if it breaks?), Because they were not the ones who were at the controls and did not feel that "smooth and precise steering". However, what were topping the GS-law. And small children. And almost all the passengers, who were determined to stop because you dizzy.

What for all specialists was a "Very good suspension", that hydropneumatic evolution of DS "Shark" that seeped all, that swallowing potholes, leaving his body floating and did not like at all. Remember that it was a time when cars smelled of gasoline and exhaust fumes were slits without knowing how (well yes, the bill body and "an elementary finish"Then we said), why invade the cabin. A lever between the seats allowing to increase the ground clearance and into a SUV 20 years before inventing; a third even higher suspension location you could change a wheel without cat.

even he admitted roll with only three wheels without losing the horizontality, as seen in ads and as our editor and rally champion Spain, Ricardo Muñoz, it was found when it was official Citroen driver. Those were times in which Rolls and Mercedes paid for to use this suspension in their best models. ¿Complicada? Even without tools, with a chisel and a hammer, I saw how these areas could be changed in minutes and already had spring and cushioning for a while again. Unmerited (at least partly) bad reputation for car great personality.

A ship…

… It’s what they thought those They boarded the Citroën GS, a spaceship, with a handle in the middle of the dashboard and handbrake, a magnifying glass behind which an illuminated drum speed was displayed or a hipercómodos seats for the time. The ship dizziness caused many of its occupants, who understood perfectly well that was due to the rear axle when the rear felt like up and down at stoplights looking horizontality. Insensitive to load, it could also raise your body to overcome an obstacle.

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