I guess most have heard about President De-gaulle was shot at in his DS ,and 3 of the tires were blown out,
but his driver was able to continue to get the president to his destination safely. because of its famous self level suspension.
As seen in the movie,----The Day Of The Jackel.
Here is the ambush in the movie " The Day of the Jackel " :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp0yPa0zcKwFor the ones who read French, here is an article describing the role of the DS in saving De Gaulle's life:
https://lexpansion.lexpress.fr/actualite-economique/la-voiture-qui-sauva-de-gaulle_484871.htmlHonestly, the biggest factor in favour of De Gaulle was that the attack didn't go as planned. Contrarily to what is shown in the movie the attackers did not see the signal with the news paper informing them that the convoy was approaching, and reacted late.
The second factor was the experience of the driver, who was already driving a DS in a previous attempt to assassinate De Gaulle. As soon as he realised the situation, he downshifted from 4th to third and floored it making it harder to aim and hit the car.
About 20 bullets still hit the car, blowing the front right tire in the process. A car from the attackers did not have the time to get in the way contrarily to what is shown in the movie, but started chasing the convoy which was now travelling at high speed and fired at it blowing the left rear tire of De Gaulle's car in the process. The chasing car then abandoned pursuit leaving the convoy to reach the Villacoublay airport at high speed.
The qualities of the DS that contributed making a difference are the following:
- the citromatic allows for dowwnshifting at a flick of a finger while flooring the gas pedal which had the car gain speed much faster than a conventional car. Also, the driver did not have to operate a heavy gear shift lever and a clutch pedal which allowed him to concentrate on his trajectory with a blown rear tire while gaining speed;
- the self leveling hydro-pneumatic suspension allowed for the car to keep its attitude with one and then two blown tires without altering the dynamics of the suspension as it would have been the case on a traditional sprung suspension car, and allowing for better control at high speed;
- the long wheel base also contributed to a better stability and control;
- the front inboard brakes allow for the steering pivot to be in the center of the wheel, eliminating bump steer and all kind of reaction in the steering due to the blown tire. This last specificity, in my opinion, is what allowed the car to escape at high speed with two blown tires while the driver was in full control of it.
Many specialists said that any other car of the era in similar conditions would have ended up spinning or getting out of the road given the speed the convoy was travelling at.
I myself blew the front right tire in a DS on the highway at a speed of about 140 to 150 km/h while passing another car. I was quite heavy as I was moving my student room from Toulouse to Paris. Apart from the noise and pieces of tire flying everywhere, I was able to keep full control of the car, finished passing the other car and then slowly came to a fully controlled stop on the emergency lane. Not sure of what would have happened in another car.
