It’s always the way. You wait ages, then two incidences of Citroën SM’s tail lamp units crop up on the same week – on two vastly different cars.
Firstly (as we saw earlier) on Maserati’s 1976 Kyalami, and now here on Frua’s 1977 Rolls Royce Phantom VI Drophead. Of course the common strand here is Frua themselves who plainly had a job lot of SM lens units knocking about. Regardless of the merits (or otherwise) of this vast open tourer’s aesthetics, it’s interesting to see how adaptable a humble lens unit such as this can be. I can’t help feeling I’ve seen the SM tail lamp elsewhere. Any thoughts?
You can read the full story of the Frua Phantom here.
It’s the first time I see those SM lamps looking really small.
And why are they running this car on one of these tiny motorcycle numberplates?
Lamborghini Faena to make it a hat trick.
Personally, I’ve never found the SM’s rear view its best point, though I’ve grown to be fond of it in time. The lights look bigger on the SM, because it tapers in so much at the back. That’s a great practical advantage when driving forwards. If the front wheelarches clear a gap, the rest will fit fine.
Spot the odd one out!
Goddammit, the Benzes were reserved for another thread…
THIS is what I was actually trying to post:
Maserati Kyalami, Rolls Royce Phantom VI and Lamborghini Faena – they all were made by Pietro Frua. Maybe he simply had bought too many of those french tail – lights…
I wonder if he still has some? One of my SM indicators has a slight crack…
The housings of both of mine are in a sad state but I guess that vacuum metalised plastic wasn’t really designed to last 40 years. Still, if I’d commissioned those Phantoms, I’d feel a bit short-changed.
Hello pitshangerpoets. Nice to see you here.
The Frua Rolls is news to me. It’s so Italian – didn’t they have any other idiom?
Incidentally, I believe the red one was a 4 door convertible.
Yes, I believe it was completed latterly – following Pietro Frua’s death. I have to say neither the addition of doors or indeed the colour do it any favours. It would have been more interesting to do it as a saloon in my view. There’s elements of Lady Penelope’s FAB 1 from Thunderbirds about the cliff-face grille arrangement too, don’t you think?