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Jury of top car designers sound off: What's the most beautiful (and assassin-foiling) sports car of all time?
It's a tall order: Classic & Sports Car magazine asked a panel of the world's leading car designers--among them Giorgetto Giugiaro and Ian Callum--to name the most beautiful sports car of all time. Above are the nine runners-up, in no particular order: The Jaguar XK120, the Ferrari 275GTB, the Cord 810/812, the Ferrari 250GT Lusso, the Ferrari 250GT Short-wheelbase, the Jaguar E-type, the Lamborghini Miura, the Lotus Elan, and the Lotus Elite.
Below is the rather surprising winner, the Citroen DS.
Historical footnote: The DS is, like the 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible, a car tied through history to an assassination attempt (two, actually). Charles De Gaulle was, however, luckier than the ill-fated JFK:
Sept. 8, 1961: ...A bomb made from a propane cylinder stuffed with just under 100 lb. of plastic lay buried in an innocent-looking sandpile alongside the road. With the bomb was a canister containing 15 liters of napalm. When De Gaulle's car came alongside, the bomb would be detonated by wires strung to a nearby thicket.
De Gaulle's car (a Citroen Deesse) sped toward the sandpile at 70 mph, driven by his favorite chauffeur, Francis Marroux. As it came abreast, the sand exploded, causing the Deesse to lurch sharply and throwing a sheet of flame across the roadway. De Gaulle ordered Marroux to drive straight through the flames. "Faster!" he commanded, as the car plunged straight for the inferno. "Faster!"
Neither the De Gaulles nor Marroux was hurt. They continued on their way, merely stopping to change cars at a military barracks nearby.
Aug. 22, 1962: On the Avenue Petit-Clamart, OAS agents stationed cars loaded with sharpshooters armed with submachine guns, grenades and Molotov cocktails. Because the night was dark, however, they failed to see the fast-approaching convoy soon enough to block it off; they could only fire at the Deesse as it passed. With a front tire and its rear window shot out, De Gaulle's car skidded out of control and nearly collided with an oncoming auto, but again chauffeur Marroux righted the Deesse and rocketed to safety.
After surviving both of these attempts on his life, De Gaulle reportedly ignored security recommendations that his car be switched to an armored Rambler (a sturdy, now defunct, US marque) and insisted on sticking with the Citroen.
via classic rallies, trivia library, and psa peugeot citroen
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