Greetings from Berlin: Ralph Mantel and Stefanie Schmidt with the Sestriere.

Story by Ralph Mantel
Photos by Blazej Zulawski at Classic Driver

July 8th, 2023, a hot summer night in Berlin, one of those nights you don’t want to go to bed but rather go out and enjoy the temperatures with cold drinks and wonderful people, perhaps attending the Berlin Flitzer Club and Classic Driver Meeting. The Club is gathering together and inviting their people for an privately held event called “Gran Futurismo.“

It is happening inside an Industrial Power Substation built in 1924, located in the former East Berlin, just around the corner from Checkpoint Charlie. Have you ever heard about CPC? During the cold war CPC was a guarded gate inside the Wall of Berlin. The gate connected Berlin’s American sector to the Russian district. Numerous spy movies play around Checkpoint Charlie. Now, after the German reunion the area is right in the heart of Berlin (Berlin Mitte) and hip and cool.

What is this? Brandes has the answer below.

Story by Brandes Elitch

Read Part 1

A series of unfortunate events transpired to seal the fate of Citroën’s SM.

This year at Retromobile, Hugues Vanhoolandt photographed a rare example of the SM on display. Heuliez, a coachbuilder, produced two examples of the SM “Espace,” which is a pillarless targa top convertible. The rear quarter windows do retract into the bodywork, unlike the SM.

By Brandes Elitch
All photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt unless otherwise marked.

“That the car was a moonshot didn’t concern our judges. Rather it invigorated them. Viewed in the perspective of the last 21 years, the SM fits more precisely in the spirit of the COTY, maybe better, than anything else being made in the world today.”