1972 Citroën SM

Initially, owner Dominic wasn’t looking for an SM, but when he saw this long low purple dart in the background of another ad (for a DS), he suddenly became quite interested. Apart from the colour, the Citroen had another thing in its favour.

‘It was living in the very classic-friendly climate of Arizona (hence the fixed lights), so it had no rust when it came,’ Dominic recounts. ‘But it was tired and the interior was tatty - the back seats were totally shot.’

He has had the back seats retrimmed and the sagging headlining replaced. The boot was also relined. ‘Some of the wiring was also redone,’ he adds; ‘to make it legal for the UK.’

The SM was also treated to a new distributor cap (plus HT leads) and the Maserati engine heads got the testarossa red paint treatment.

He and his son-in-law (a rather handy mechanic) have helped to maintain the car, keeping on top of fluid changes (SMs are big on fluids) and improving it as they went along.

For a time, Dominic had the SM almost as his main car.

‘You can totally live with it,’ he says. ‘It runs nicer and nicer the more you drive it. And the performance is excellent - it’s perfect for motorways.’

Well here’s a colour you don’t see every day on a Citroen SM - or anything else come to think of it. However, if you’re thinking it might be hard to replicate should you ever want to get some/all of the car repainted, don’t despair. ‘It’s actually a Ford colour,’ Dominic points out. Well, that’s a relief.

Also good to know is that the bodywork is in pretty good shape, with a consistent paint finish across all of the car. ‘It wasn’t great when it came into the country,’ he recounts. ‘We had a couple of panels painted and the whole car buffed.’

The car maintains a good gloss and there are no signs of rust coming through anywhere. Wheel arches look sound all round. There are flaws of course; there is a crack in the paint on the top nearside corner of the bonnet, and some (small) places looks a little uneven, such as under the rubbers seals (near side boot cavity near the Citroen badge). The door handles and finish close around them (and around rear pillar Citroen badges) are a little untidy if you’re close up and some edges - joins between metals - are a bit dirty or discoloured, but there is no evidence of rust.

Most of the brightwork is actually aluminium, not chrome. It is well polished and not dented. Joins in the metal are clean, as are the screws. There is a little discolouration as the metal disappears into recesses, but nothing to suggest these won’t clean up nicely. The mirror ball mounts look very solid.

The panelwork of this long, loping shape also hangs together nicely. Panel gaps and shut lines are consistent and the metalwork smooth as you look along the flanks. The rear spats fit nicely and the long doors open and shut freely without creaking or sagging.

The interior of the SM is as racey as the exterior, low-slung with a whiff of concept car. As Dominic recounted, there has been some work already done to the interior. That new headlining is looking very smart and clean, and the new leather on the back seats (and rear side panels) manages the trick of looking good while not being at odds with the rest of the interior. That probably says something good about the existing hides, which retain their colour nicely, both on seats and door panels. The front seats don’t show much scuffing to the leather - the odd edge - but the stitching has come apart in small spaces on the front corners of both. Their centre panels are uneven and the foam below them is showing a little.

The centre console is quite good; the veneer is holding up well. There are scratches to the bright metal (the black top of the gear stick is scratch-free) and the radio is very presentable. The steering wheel again shows no significant scratches, but does look a little weathered.

The sides to the transmission tunnel make a snug buttress - the stitching is very neat here too, but the carpets going down into the footwells, both here and on the sills do get a bit threadbare in places. The carpets and mats in the back are in very good shape, but those in the front are a bit worn. There is nothing to suggest dampness.

The door panels and furniture appear robust and the bright strips along the bottom are in good shape. There are a few untidy slightly edges and a couple of small tears around the mounting of the off-side door handle, but the big structures are firmly mounted and show no real wear. There is a tear in the fabric below the off-side rear window. The rubber seals around the door cavities are in good shape.

The extensive rear parcel shelf and its attendant structures look to be in very good shape and the boot below it is very smart in its new grey trim.

It can be a bit intimidating opening that long bonnet, there’s a lot going on under there. At the back of the bay is the Maserati V6 - you could say the SM is almost mid-engined - and at the front, those famous Citroen hydraulics, which, by the way, continue to raise and lower the car very smoothly (this reviewer also saw and photographed the car).

Reassuringly, everything looks clean and in the right place. Hoses look to be in very good condition as do the HT leads, which, like the distributor, are new. Those tidy-looking long black gaiters are also new. The wiring (there looks to be quite a lot of it) appears pretty sound. There is tape binding some of it, and that looks tidy.

There is a distinct lack of accumulated crud or oil residue in any of the numerous nooks and crannies of this large engine bay; that in itself suggests a certain level of vigilance. The red-painted heads are clean and give the V6 quite some presence. The carburettors have just been dismantled, reassembled and re-tuned.

Ancillaries look healthy and well-mounted – just one or two slightly rusty mounting brackets. The battery is new; which is a blessing considering the palaver you have to go through to change it. There is a tiny bit of surface corrosion around underside of the bonnet vent, but the under-bonnet sound-proofing looks to be in good shape. That under-nose grill looks to be in fair shape - couple of screws out - and the components behind, horns and radiator appear in good health.

The car looks very strong underneath, the undertrays of the bodywork retaining most of their undersealing, though it’s peeling in places with the odd patch of surface corrosion. The undersides of the doors are in pretty good order. There is some light corrosion under the driver’s door - near-side, remember, but there are no structural worries. The hinges and struts on both sides look clean and strong, as is the surrounding metal.

The undersides of the sills look fine, as do the jacking points. The exhausts are a little rusty, and their caps pitted, and there is the odd dab of surface rust on suspension parts. The brighwork on the wheels looks generally good, though the outermost (black) rims are a little pitted. Tyres are good.

There isn’t a huge amount of paperwork with the car. It retains its import documents and registration correspondence paperwork, MOT reports and a few bills. These include receipts for a re-manufactured gear knob in 2015 - nice to see an owner taking the trouble over a proper, and not inexpensive, replacement and for the distributor cap. Both those bills are from the equally not inexpensive McGrath Maserati no less.

From 2018 we have the new battery, suspension repair and brake overhaul bill, as well as the receipt for the work on the interior; a cool £1650.

That’s not the whole story - remember that Dominic’s son-in-law was also a mechanic and that the two of them together have done much of the tweaking and routine maintenance, without necessarily logging it all.

Also, though it’s not exactly in the history file; did you notice the sticker/label placed under the bonnet by a garage; SM World (California)? It’s a specialist also used by Jay Leno - so not a bad address to have in your service records even if there are no invoices to specify.

The Citroen SM is exotic on so many levels without exposing its owner to the full extent of Italian GT expenses. It also carries that whiff of Seventies jet set-ness and a coolness slightly outside of periodic trends. This one has been well looked after, garaged and driven just enough. It could do with further sprucing up but is very solid and presentable. You could take it and use it quite happily without the threat of imminent expense.

SMs are in limited supply and quite a niche vehicle. With all that in mind, we would expect this one to sell for between £22,000 and £27,000.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located in Mansfield; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.