The Car Hobby: Engines - Citroen SM C114-1

In the late 60's Citroen was designing it's one and only entry into the GT arena, the SM. It is hard to understand how a company like Citroen could build such complex cars like the DS but could not develop advanced power plants that matched the rest of these advanced automobiles. The SM was going to need a sophisticated engine in order to compete in the market. Their solution? Get their newly acquired subsidiary (Maserati) to build them an engine that would complement the SM platform. The task of designing this engine went to Giulio Alfieri and by the spring of 1968 it was ready for testing.

Front View

The result was a new 90 degree V6. A compact design that was not simply a Maserati V8 of the era with two cylinders cut off like it is commonly believed, but a bespoke design. A compromise Maserati had to accept to take advantage of existing investments in tooling. Originally a 2.7 liter design fueled by carburetors (more about those on a separate post), it evolved into a 3.0 liter fuel injected version in later years. Although it had a very short production run, a derivative of this beauty lived beyond the SM in the Maserati Merak. Another icon of the 1970's.

Specs:

Machined from a single piece of Aluminum for maximum strength.
A wet liner design.
Block length: (12.2 in / 310 mm)
Cross-flow hemispherical aluminum heads.
Four main bearings.
Bore x Stroke = 87 x 75mm.
Displacement = 2670cc.
9.0:1 compression.
Triple Weber downdraft 42 DCNF twin choke carburetors (Fuel injection in later versions)
Developing 170bhpDIN (180bhp SAE) @ 6250rpm.