1972 Citroën D Super 5

The D Super 5 stands exactly where Citroën was most exciting: straddling revolutionary comfort and genuine everyday drivability. To properly understand it, it's worth taking a step back. The DS family (1955-1975) was so technically unusual that Citroën pursued two parallel lines from the start – the „DS“ as the high-tech flagship and the „ID“ as its simplified, more affordable sister. The differences lay less in the look than in the hydraulic systems and technical complexity. Keyword: brake mushroom on the DS versus more conventional solutions on the ID derivatives.

From 1969/1970, the naming convention was modernized: the ID19 became the D Spécial, and the ID20 became the D Super within this logic. During this phase, the D-series also received a standardized dashboard layout and several ongoing detail upgrades, which are recognized today as the typical „late DS generation.“.

And now we get to the core of the D Super 5: it's the variant that sharpens the DS feeling not just through comfort, but also through its gearing and long-distance sovereignty. The D Super was available with an optional 5-speed gearbox, and later it became its own variant: the D Super 5 – with the 2,175 cm³ engine from the DS21 and a 5-speed gearbox. It's precisely this recipe that makes the Super 5 so popular in the scene: the more relaxed engine speed, the better ’travel elasticity,„ and the feeling that the car runs more easily and calmly at speed, without losing its Citroën character.

Technically, like all D models, it remained part of the DS „magic“: the hydropneumatic suspension as comfort DNA, the distinctive DS design by Bertoni and Lefèbvre, and the overall hydraulic concept by Magès, which made the car feel „alive“ even when stationary. At the same time, D models are often described as „almost a DS“ because they offer a very similar DS experience, but can be less complex in their construction than the fully equipped DS variants – a point that is a real advantage for many owners in everyday life and maintenance.

So, the D Super 5 is the „driving feel upgrade“ within the later D series. DS comfort as a base, plus the 5-speed transmission and the more powerful engine as arguments for long-distance travel. It is therefore not a nostalgic object, but a very independent answer to the question of how one wanted to travel modernly in the 1970s: smooth, stable, confident – and completely different from everything else on the road.