"In 1961, Citroën began work on 'Project S', a sports variant of the revolutionary Citroën DS. As was customary for the firm, many running concept vehicles were developed, increasingly complex and upmarket from the DS. Citroën purchased Maserati in 1968 with the intention of harnessing Maserati's high-performance V6 engine technology to produce a true Gran Turismo car combining the sophisticated Citroën suspension. The result was the Citroën SM, first shown at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1970 and which went on sale in France in September of that year. Factory produced cars were all left hand drive, although right hand conversions were available in the UK and Australia. The origin of the model name 'SM' is not completely clear. The 'S' may derive from the Project 'S' designation and the 'M' perhaps refers to Maserati, hence SM is often assumed to stand for ‘Systeme Maserati’ or ‘Sports Maserati’.
Exported new in 1973 to the United States of America, this SM was believed to have been owned by a French diplomat. This would explain the incredibly rare specification of it being a 3.0 litre car, but with a manual transmission. Most 3.0 litre cars were supplied with the automatic gearbox rather than the manual and most of the total production were supplied with the smaller 2.7 litre motor, (thanks to the French 'puissance fiscale' taxation which made large displacement vehicles too expensive to sell in any quantity in France). The vendor acquired the car from Octane magazine Editor David Lillywhite, who had catalogued a long and often painful restoration of the car to its now beautiful state in the magazine. Included in the car's history file along with import documentation, is a full print out of all the articles mapping David Lillywhite's restoration journey. It appears he went through every element of the car and had the car resprayed to match the restoration, as well as replacing the American specification front light clusters to the prettier Perspex covered European units. The vendor reports the car to run and drive very well and is now selling only as part of a downsizing of his considerable collection.
Supplied with a V5C registration document along with import papers, original owner's manual and a record of the Octane magazine restoration articles. You would be hard pushed to find another manual 3.0 litre SM, let alone one which has had such love and car lavished upon it as well as having the restoration process followed by the leading classic car magazine."