When the car continued to run despite all four tires bursting and the French President was saved

August 22, 1962 was the historic day when French President Charles de Gaulle escaped an assassination attempt on his official vehicle.

A French paramilitary group called the OAS had long been planning an assassination attempt on President Charles de Gaulle, believing that de Gaulle had betrayed France by handing over Algeria to the Nationalists.

On the evening of August 22, DeGaulle and his wife were on their way to the airport from the presidential palace. His Stern DS (Citroen DS) vehicle was being driven at a speed of at least 110 km per hour when suddenly some gunmen attacked his convoy.

Two of the President’s motorcycle bodyguards were killed in the 140-gun fire, the rear window of the vehicle was broken and all four tires were punctured.

All four tires of the car were punctured but the car was still running. If your car gets a flat tire, seven or eight seconds later the tire will burst and the car will not be driven but the stern will run.

Charles de Gaulle’s driver sped away and rescued the president and his wife.

All this was thanks to the superior suspension system of this vehicle. DeGaul and his wife put their heads down on their knees and eventually managed to escape the attack.

Famous English novelist Frederick Forsyth dramatized these events in his best-selling novel The Day of the Jackal, which was later made into a film.

In 1969, DeGaulle, knowing that he owed his life to the French carmaker Stern, also tried hard to prevent it from being sold to the Italian carmaker Fiat, which was successful.

All this is fine, but how is it possible that all four tires burst and the car still runs? There were shocks, some invisible help was a little, filled the moving car in a swing and disappeared from the eyes of the enemies?

In 1952, Stern changed car suspension technology forever. They introduced their first vehicle with hydro-pneumatic suspension instead of shocks consisting of springs, coils or springs to absorb shocks during travel.

The shocks with bows and springs were as good as they could be, and the passengers felt jolts when the road was bumpy. In 1952, the hydropneumatic system was not only a leap ahead of its time, but also changed the concept of the ultimate ride. The tires are jumping in the potholes but the car is smooth, it was a Stern DS!

Simply put, shock-absorbing spring shocks were replaced by modern shocks that consisted of spheres containing compressed nitrogen gas on one side (think of something like a balloon) and hydraulic fluid on the other.

Sometimes Urdu fails. For convenience see this English text: (Spheres filled with nitrogen gas that were suspended in a hydraulic fluid)

Physics states that a gas can be compressed but a fluid cannot. So in these shocks, the gas acted as a spring while the hydraulic liquid acted to absorb the shocks. The car also had a pump to keep all four sides equally high or low, which in the event of a tire puncture on one side pushed more hydraulic fluid into the car’s suspension to raise the car to the same level as the other three tires.

On the contrary, this car even had the facility that if the tire got punctured, it could be changed without jacking it. In case of the fourth tire being completely blown, this vehicle could run smoothly on three tires as well. It was all because of this suspension. More details This video on YouTube I see, where at 10 minutes 34 seconds the car is also shown running on three tires.

Between nine and 28 cm you could raise or lower the car for fun. Sit in the car, press a lever and adjust the height to your liking. If you want, park it right next to the road and if you want, drive with full load on Pakistani type roads. The ground clearance you put spare packing in the shocks for was done respectably by Stern in 1952.

Turn the normal car at high speed and it leans to one side, the hydro-pneumatic suspension system keeps it level there too. There are post-World War II rutted roads, rickety vehicles and, you guessed it, a stern ds among them that what’s happening to the tires isn’t about the passenger, it’s the car that’s just floating.

Rolls-Royce licensed the system from Stern in 1965. Mercedes-Benz also came up with the same system in 1974, and Peugeot used it some forty years later in 1990. Stern himself abandoned the system in 2001.

Another fun thing about the Stern DS was that whenever you turned the steering wheel, the headlights would turn, just like a person turns their eyes. At that time, the steering wheels of common cars were of a larger size so that when you turn them with all your heart, it takes less effort to drive. The stern gave the DS power steering which was not only easier to turn but also smaller in size.

It was the first vehicle after the Jaguar Sports to not only introduce disc brakes, but this facility for all four tires.

Around 1950, when cars were like giant ships, it was a huge technological breakthrough to bring a car that was lighter in weight, faster and had countless amenities that we can’t even imagine today. On the first day of the car’s launch in the market, 12,000 units were booked. Over the next 20 years, 1.5 million Stern DS were sold in the market.