When the SM was sold in the early 1970s, its advanced engineering and style made it irresistible to Bob Deimert, a Canadian aviation pioneer.
Born in Morden Manitoba on October 4, 1938, Deimert owned and operated movie theaters in Winkler and Carman Manitoba. A self-taught engineer, in the early 1960s he began to restore antique aircraft, including a North American Harvard training aircraft used by the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War.
He became internationally known when, between 1963 and 1964, he restored a Hawker Hurricane fighter plane, one of only five left in the world. In 1968, he shipped it to England and flew it in the film “Battle of Britain” where he was the lead stunt pilot.
That same year, he acquired the remains of a rare Japanese Aichi D3A-2 (Val) bomber and two Zero fighters from sites on the Solomon Islands. They were loaded onto a military cargo plane and brought to Deimert’s property in Carman Manitoba.
Diemert was also famous for creating and constructing his own fighter plane “The Defender” — a counterinsurgency aircraft that he felt would felt would be cost-effective asset during the height of the Cold War. (The National Film Board of Canada produced a 55 minute documentary film on the project:
(For more background information on this 1988 film, directed by Stephen Low, visit the NFB.ca blog: https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2009/07/27/how-to-fighter-airplane-defender-bob-diemert/. And this link goes into detail about the Zero: https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/a6m2/5356.html).
Deimert’s worldwide reputation as a genius at restoring “warbirds” enabled him to finance his dreams. When not working on aircraft, Deimert turned his attention to tinkering with his 1973 automatic transmission Citroën SM to increase performance, while adding even more complexity its hydraulic suspension.
Bet you’ve never seen a SM engine bay like this….
Deimert replaced the SM’s original suspension spheres with aircraft hydropneumatic brake accumulators off of a A-7 Corsair ll. (It appears that he kept the original front SM pistons and cylinders for lifting the car. We wonder what benefit this actually added as the SM spheres cost less and are readily available and rechargeable.)
The SM’s original 3 Webber carburetors were destroyed by an engine fire prior to Deimert’s ownership. He proceeded to build his own intake manifold that adapts to the original so he could mount a Marvel-Schebler (borg-warner) Ha-6 aircraft carburetor from a 1968 Beechcraft 23 Musketeer while also adding power by means of forced-air induction via an AiResearch T04 turbo. Diemert built his own after-cooler to help cool the turbo-charged air making the turbo work more efficiently while providing more horsepower. To extract even more horsepower from the SM’s Maserati V6, he also added a Nitrous Oxide System (NOS), significantly increasing its horsepower output. Diemert’s daughter recalls her and her father reaching speeds in excess of 300kph (186mph) on the flat open highways of southern Manitoba. (We hope he modified the standard hood latches as they would most likely not hold the hood closed at 300 km/hr!)
Bob Diemert passed away on January 11th 2024 at the age of 85.
Subsequently his daughter posted a Facebook ad for the SM that drew the attention of Trystn Vacek living in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
He hitched up a trailer and drove to Carman to recovered the SM from one of Diemert’s old aircraft hangers.
Trystn has been a car guy for years and although he is done more muscle cars than anything, he has had a few Triumph’s and a Porsche 944, but says that this Citroën is unlike anything he has encountered before.
Trystn plans to preserve the car with the all the modifications that Bob Diemert made and promises to update us on his progress. We look forward to learning more…!
Wow, what a great story about someone who obviously “danced to his own drum’ from an engineering point of view. I wish Trystn well, and I know the Citroënvie community will stand by, ready to answer any questions he may have. I look forward to future updates.