Its been seen in the background for years on Jay Leno’s Garage, now his 1972 Citroën SM takes the spotlight in the latest episode of the show.
Jay waxes on about it’s virtues and how the overall balance of style, power and engineering makes it an automotive masterpiece.
Jay gives the impression that Jerry Hathaway at SM World is no longer working on them. Not so — 44 years on Jerry is still working his magic and gives this advice; “If you want an SM you should get it ASAP ! I do not think there is enough SM left to satisfy the demand!”
Obviously a bit frazzled from try to keep the series going during the Covid pandemic, Jay can’t quite recall how much the car has been altered from original, (The K&N air filter and the new stainless steel headers are sitting there staring him in the face in the engine bay), he talks about chrome but on the SM its stainless steel and, of course, the design of the SM is credited to Robert Opron, not Robert Oberon.
Nevertheless, Jay delivers a good overview of the SM, gives us on a look underneath and takes us on a drive with commentary about how contemporary a vehicle it is even 50 years on.
Watch the full episode here:
And if you’d like to see Jay interview Jerry about his famous world speed record SM race car along with the amazing hydropneumatic trailer he built, here’s a clip where they got together at the Woodley Park French and Italian Car Show a few years ago (at the 5:07 mark):
Also here’s a link to Jerry at Jay’s Garage discussing the stainless Steel headers.