From the 1930s to the 1970s, Citroën cars had a distinctive design that always looked typically French, usually quirky, often innovative, sometimes ugly, but at best very elegant. One of its creators was Robert Opron, who died of complications from Covid-19 at the age of 89.
Opron was Citroën’s chief designer from 1964 to 1974. During this time, he and his team were responsible for three groundbreaking cars: the SM Coupé and the small GS family car, both of which were introduced in 1970, as well as the larger CX sedan from 1974. All three were demonstrated to be preoccupied with good aerodynamics. In 1971 and 1975 the GS and the CX were voted European Car of the Year.
When the Italian design magazine Style Auto introduced the SM, they printed a technically dense, 20-page treatise on aerodynamics. The SM was equipped with a Maserati V6 engine that Citroën had taken over in 1968. It was France’s only luxury GT car since the fall of the Facel Vega and the fastest car in the world with front-wheel drive and a top speed of 140 km / h. Two special parade wagons were built for the French President Georges Pompidou. Other heads of state who supported the model were Leonid Brezhnev and Idi Amin.
In contrast, the GS was a humble family sedan, despite incorporating Citroën features such as hydropneumatic suspension, front-wheel drive, and the famous single-spoke steering wheel. The engine was only 1015 cc; Opron later said, “We really worked on it in the wind tunnel because we knew we were saddled with a small engine.” It is still debated whether the shape was inspired by the 1967 Pininfarina Berlina Aerodinamica Austin 1800, which Opron denied. The GS was hailed as the most advanced sedan in the world, selling nearly 2.5 million vehicles before production ceased in 1986.
The third Citroën designed by Opron, the CX, was launched in 1974 as a replacement for the aging DS / ID range. Styling followed the GS with the vertical cutoff rear and partially covered rear wheels, but the larger car had more generous proportions, including a longer bonnet and front overhang. It had an unusual concave rear window that claimed to be self-cleaning. The designation CX was the French abbreviation for drag coefficient. It remained in production until 1991, with more than 1m in production.
Opron was born in Amiens in northern France to Yvonne (nee Beaudenaille), a secretary, and Henri Opron, an officer. His father was stationed in French colonies in Africa, where Opron spent most of his childhood. After returning to France, Opron enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He wanted to become an industrial designer, but studied various subjects including painting, sculpture, architecture and engineering. He had an early job with the aircraft manufacturer Nord, but in 1958 he switched to the car manufacturer Simca.
Here he was commissioned to design a concept for a car of the future, which would become the Fulgur, in the best Buck Rogers spaceship tradition, with a glass bubble roof and tail fins, allegedly powered by a nuclear reactor, but more interesting with electric motors and a self-driving computer . For President Charles de Gaulle, he redesigned a Simca Vedette as a showcase car.
After a reorganization of Simca, Opron was fired in 1960. He then spent two years in a company that designed kitchen appliances before joining Citroën in 1962. Its chief designer, Flaminio Bertoni, known as the genius behind the DS, died in 1964 and Opron took over the reins, which resulted in his most productive period.
Unfortunately, Citroën’s finances deteriorated and in 1974 the company was forced into a government-sponsored merger with Peugeot. Rightly concerned about the independence of Citroën design, Opron decided to leave. Remarkably, he was able to move to competitor Renault in a similar position and spent the next decade there. The best of his Renault designs was the sleek 1983 25, but he was also responsible for the boring Renault 9 and 11 range and the banana-shaped Fuego coupe, neither of which has proven itself.
In 1985 he was back on the road, this time as head of a progressive design studio for Fiat in Italy. The most famous of his projects here was the 1989 Alfa Romeo SZ, a controversial “postmodern” design nicknamed “the monster”. In 1992 he retired from Fiat and moved into a house he and his wife had designed in Antony on the outskirts of Paris. Until 2001 he was a design consultant for the small car manufacturer Ligier. He was very interested in the preservation of the cars he designed and was a frequent and welcome guest at events for classic Citroëns.
Small in stature, the neat looking opron wore a mustache and usually a bow tie. His interests included music, from jazz to Bach, airplanes and flying. He kept a tailor-made convertible based on the Citroën 2CV. In 2004 he was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
In 1953 he married Geneviève Mercier, who survived him as well as her two children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Robert Maurice Jean Opron, car designer, born February 22, 1932; died March 29, 2021