With the
abandonment of Projet F
in April 1967, Projet G was rushed into
production.
The budget for Project G was minimal and as much
as possible had to be carried over from its
still-born predecessor.
Probably the most significant legacy of Project
F was Dupin’s flat four, air-cooled engine.
When the brief for Projet G was agreed, it was
felt that an engine of less than 1 litre would
not satisfy customers in the mid range market,
so the 950cm3 unit was expanded to 1015cm3.
An early priority was for smooth and quiet
running so the cylinder head and combustion
chamber were optimised with this in mind, even
though fuel economy suffered as a result.
The Wankel
engine did finally made it into production, but
only 847 GS
Birotors were made and the majority were
subsequently bought back & crushed by
Citroën, anxious to avoid provision of spares
backup for a tiny number of vehicles.
Above
and below the GS was one of the
first cars to employ computers to assist in the
design.
Below
to achieve reasonable performance great importance
was attached to aerodynamics
Below
are some design studies for Projet G.
Studies for a coupé
continued into the early 80s, together with a
monocorps based on GSA running gear above. Below
interior mock up.
Below
proposal for the dashboard
Above and right
Pininfarina designs
Above
this car is a GS prototype, housed in an Ami 6
Estate body, lowered and widened to accommodate
the GS
mechanical bits.
Above full
size plaster model showing proposed three door
variant
Above
and belowRobert
Opron was responsible for the bodywork
design
Above
the GS was built in the factory at Rennes Below
are some design studies for Projet
GY - an enlarged variant of the GS.
Robert Opron was
undoubtedly influenced by Pininfarina's design for
replacements for the BLMC 1100 and 1800 'Landcrab'
and many of the styling motifs were carried over
to Projet L