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A 1970 Citroën DS21 IE convertible with no clutch pedal is live on Bring a Trailer through Thursday, October 29 at 1:05 p.m. ET. Bidding stood at $62,000 with 11 bids in on Tuesday morning. Check the listing for the current number.
The convertible body and the factory paperwork are part of the appeal. The part worth your attention is the gearbox. It has four forward gears, a lever on the steering column, and nothing at all under the driver's left foot.
A Gearbox With No Clutch Pedal
Citroën called it the BVH, short for boîte de vitesses hydraulique. The listing describes it as a four-speed, semi-automated manual transaxle. In practice, the driver flicks a column-mounted lever to the next gear and eases off the accelerator, and a hydraulic controller does the rest: it disengages the clutch, swaps the gear, and re-engages the clutch again. According to Wikipedia's summary of the DS, how quickly the clutch takes up is governed by engine speed, accelerator position and brake input.
There are some odd consequences. Braking drops the idle speed below the point where the clutch engages, so the car does not fight its own brakes. Lift off the brake and it creeps forward like a modern automatic. There is also no Park position, so the parking brake has to hold the car on its own.
Why Citroën Built It
The short answer is that Citroën wanted an automatic and could not easily get one. Ate Up With Motor notes that the company had wanted a true automatic transmission since the 1930s but could not afford to develop one, and buying one from an outside supplier was apparently out of the question. So the engineers used what they already had: a high-pressure hydraulic system.
That system was the heart of the car. The same hydraulics that handled the self-leveling suspension also ran the power steering, the brakes and the BVH gearbox. Our earlier look at why the Citroën DS may be the most innovative car ever built covers the suspension, the brake button and the swiveling headlights. The gearbox is the same philosophy applied to shifting.
Why It Faded Away
It was not beloved by everyone. Ate Up With Motor describes the operation as slow, with drivers having to plan ahead when overtaking or climbing a grade, and it says smooth shifts demanded a delicate touch. Citroën offered a conventional manual on the cheaper ID19 from 1963. Wikipedia lists a five-speed manual arriving in September 1970 and a Borg-Warner 35 three-speed automatic on the DS21 in September 1971, which it says was not sold in the U.S. After that, the hydraulic semi-automatic had little reason to stay, and the DS itself gave way to the CX in 1975.
The Car Itself
The listing says this is one of 1,325 Décapotable Usine cars, the factory-built convertibles made with coachbuilder Henri Chapron, and one of roughly 40 believed to have been built in 1970. The seller says it was sold new through Carrier Motors of Montreal in 1971. It was originally Swan White over red leather, then refinished in metallic red over tan leather during a six-year rotisserie refurbishment completed in 2017.
The 2.2-liter four was, per the listing, factory equipped with Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection, good for 115 horsepower and 126 lb-ft of torque when new. Wikipedia says Bosch electronic fuel injection arrived on the DS21 for 1970, making the DS one of the first mass-market cars with it. Power goes to the front wheels through the BVH. The car rides on the hydropneumatic suspension and has directional headlights, Jaeger instruments, a digital clock, an Autovox radio and a brown Haartz soft top.
On the factory question, the listing says it comes with a copy of an attestation issued by Françoise Chapron listing the original color scheme, build dates and car numbers, plus photocopies of a Citroën dossier. Those are the documents to read before you bid. The listing describes the gearbox and injection as original to the car, and the paperwork is how you would confirm it.
What to Know Before You Bid
The odometer shows 85,000 miles, but the selling dealer says the true total is unknown. The California title is marked "Title Only" with Planned Non-Operation notations, the registration expired on September 20, 2026, and the listing says the title is in transit, so transfer may be delayed. Bidders in the comments had asked for driving and hydraulics videos, and the seller replied that more videos and photos would be posted this week. A DS with a working BVH and hydraulics is a specialist's car, so it is worth asking how the system has been maintained and whether it has been run lately.
More Citroën and French Cars on Motorious
If you like the DS, we have followed a few more. A 1972 Citroën DS21 sold at Lucky's Spring Classic in 2023, a set of French cars from the Mullin collection offered at Amelia Island, and Citroën's forgotten BX 4TC Group B car all show how far the brand was willing to go.
The 1970 Citroën DS21 IE Chapron Décapotable is live on Bring a Trailer until Thursday, October 29 at 1:05 p.m. ET. Do your own inspection, read the comments, and check the listing for the current bid.
