Shitroen

CAR ZOMBIE FROM THE DRIVING DEAD

How bad can a car get before it's finally junked? At what point do you finally call it quits with a parts car because there's just no more meat on the bone? These are some of the questions I was asking myself as I gazed upon this pitiful wreck:

Oh MAN! At one point this was a Citroen DS; the car exclusively driven by the hitman in Le Samourai. It is also the car piloted by Al Pacino in Scarface when he shot the hitman who would go on to become Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad. Unfortunately this car looks like somebody took out a hit on it. At least a long bungee chord is holding the entire front together!

When the DS was unveiled in 1955 it instantly made every other car on the road seem archaic. The list of innovations is staggering, but the signature development was the hydraulic self-leveling suspension. When parked this car looks like it is sitting on the ground. Fire it up and the suspension lifts the car to the proper ride height. Have your 400 lb friend sit on one side of the car and the suspension will level it out for you. The handling was light years ahead of other cars.

I'm thinking this bucket is from 1967, which is the first year for the quad headlights (before '67 there was 1 round headlight on either side making this very French car look like a frog). We can tell that this was the U.S. import model because the headlights are exposed. In the rest of the world there was a glass cover over each set. *There was an option in the late '60s which made the middle set of headlights steer back and forth with the front wheels! I believe the center lamp of the Tucker was the only other instance of this feature.
I reckon this color is Vert Charmille, which translates to Green Arbor.

This thing obviously has a broken back and looks like the Iron Sheik got a hold of it. Why is the roof in such great condition? Because it's made of fiberglass! This also made the roof extremely light and gave the DS a low center of gravity to further improve handling. You've gotta love those turn signals mounted on the top corners of the roof.

When these are parked the rear wheel is indeed way up into the wheel well, but this is too much. My guess is that this thing was rear-ended and someone decided to remove the suspension components. There was a Citroen DS-shaped car under a car cover in this shop so it's obvious where the parts were going, but how many can be left at this point?
*This shop also has a '60s/'70s Rolls Royce on the roof painted yellow as a sign.

Usually I try to snap pics of cars either still on the road or at least in somewhat complete condition, but this beast hypnotized me with the extent of its damage. If this was literally anything besides a 47 year old French car it would've long been scrapped, but scarcity of its parts is sparing it so far.

Well there we have it; the most heavily used and abused car in NYCHoopties history! I thought this would be the perfect spooky Halloween post but pumpkin carving took precedent. Tomorrow I promise something nicer will be featured.