Citroen XM Forum

HI All

In my search for ABS history I have come across a reference to Citroen trials with Bendix ABS in 1973.
The quote is:-
"In France in 1973 the Bendix subsidiary DBA was readying an ABS called Autostable.
It was to appear on a Citroen, but the oil crises halted production of the car, and neither that car nor the Autostable ever made it to market."

Anyone know more about Citroen 1970's prototypes and can offer more information please.

I have taken the above quote from a book by Ann Johnson called "Hitting the Brakes".
Ann attributes her quote to: "How ABS was Born" by J P Gosselin.

Guess that is another book I need to search for.

John

I would guess it was the SM, which stopped production in 1975.

I have seen somewhere a photo of a late DS development car that was said to be testing a mechanical ABS system, I guess somewhat similar to the system fitted to the Jenson FF. Perhaps it was destined for a DS successor that never made it off the drawing board due to the financial trouble Citroen had at the time.

The Jensen FF had the option of being fitted with the Dunlop Maxaret anti-skid device.
For cars this device was first introduced commercially in 1966 on the Rolls Royce silver shadow.
It the became available on selected Rolls Royce, Jaguar and the Jensen model in 1968.
Fewer than a hundred Maxaret systems were ever sold.
Dunlop Maxaret was originally developed (about 1943 -1950) as an aircraft anti-skid device to avoid tyre blow out.
A system that cost over £1000 at 1965 prices.
A major problem was the slow response rate (6 times per second) of the hydraulic valves used.
In the next few years separate developments produced valves 10 times as fast.
Bosch in 1973 bought half the small company responsible for developing the faster valve.

John

I would agree it would be the SM. It fits the dates and what happened to it. ..or maybe something to do with CX possibly. Birotor prototypes ect.....

As the SM was the flagship Citroen, it would be that car got ABS.