Car number three on the list of world’s greatest cars is little known in the US, but a standard of European styling and engineering: the Citroen DS.

Introduced in 1955, The Citroen DS19 was radically different from any car on the road in the mid 1950s, both in terms of the styling and the technology that it offered.  Some likened it to a spaceship but its styling attracted fans.

“That was an important car because it had sort of both odd looks but also had high style combined in it at the same time. It was very stylish, and it was purposefully stylish but in just an avant garde way that I think appealed to a lot of people,” said Hagerty.

This car wasn’t the product of a focus group.  It sprang from a car company that was still guided by the idiosyncratic principals of its founder Andre Citroen.  His motto was, “As soon as an idea is good, the money is of no importance.”  This attitude can lead to stunning failures or to a brilliant success.

“It was significant not just in its design, which was two or three decades ahead of the competition, but it was technically amazing. It pushed the envelope at just about every level,” said Eisenstein.

The heart of the car’s new technology was quite literally, a pump.  Which powered the suspension, steering, semi-automatic transmission, and the first disc brakes ever fitted on a French production automobile.  The self-leveling hydro pneumatic suspension even made it possible for the DS to operate with one wheel missing.

The DS19 was an instant success everywhere but in the United States. It started to rack up sales forty-five minutes after its debut at the 1955 Paris Motor Show, selling twelve thousand by the end of the first day.

When imported to the US in 1957, its "quirky" looks and "oddball" suspension, underwhelmed most buyers. Citroen’s engineers didn’t seem to mind.