The Citroen SM is one of those vehicles that is tantalizing to enthusiasts for completely obvious reasons. Yes, its looks are off-putting to some, but overall, this car has all the ingredients that help to explain why good men make bad decisions around this car: unusual styling, with long, low proportions; the heart of an Italian thoroughbred; limited production numbers, which translates to exclusivity; and being completely over-engineered, which somehow makes us think that it’s our civic duty to bring it back to life. Whatever the motivations, owning a Citroen SM gets even more tempting when it’s one of the relative few equipped with a manual gearbox like this car is. Find it here on eBay with bids to $2,150 and no reserve.
The SM doesn’t appear to be alone in its dimly-garage of Italian dreams. When you look at this photo in full-size form, the backdrop will remind you of why the Midwest is a great place to be a car enthusiast; the Citroens are in a huge expanse of a steel building that I’m guessing occupies plenty of acreage, free from the annoying eyes of neighbors that frequent suburban settings. The seller sounds like a Citroen enthusiast, as he seems to have multiples and certainly plenty of parts. One downside to having too much of a good thing is, however, that it becomes hard to find needed parts, and the seller claims he’s having a difficult time putting his hands on the carburetors at the moment.
The carbs and the air conditioner compressor have been removed; nothing else was supposedly disturbed. However, the seller does acknowledge that he was in the middle of an electronic ignition conversion that sounds like it stopped halfway through the job. The interior is complete and features brown leather that looks very usable in the other listing photos. The SM is a famously complex vehicle that can challenge even the most seasoned of restorers; suffice to say, bringing this one back will not be cheap, but if the seller’s claims of minimal rust hold true, it could very well be worth saving one of the SMs with three pedals. Rust is said to be limited to the bottom of the fenders at the door junction.
The engine is a 2.7L Maserati unit shared with the Merak and the Quattroporte II. It always gets a lot of love for that reason alone, as if nothing else, it will make some extremely nice sounds once it is put back together. Lesser cars have been restored solely for the noise they will someday make, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see this SM get rescued on the basis of having the 2.7L V6 and the manual gearbox. Many of these cars were equipped with the automatic owing to their excellent highway cruising capabilities, so this one is a standout that should absolutely be brought back to life if the rust is as limited as the seller promises and no other parts have gone missing. Sure would be nice if he could dig up those carbs, though!
Leave a Reply to Richard Kirschenbaum Cancel reply