Citroen DS. April 09

Always bound to be controversial, the answer is the Citroen DS pictured above. Personally I find it bog ugly, but then I was never asked! The Citroen DS was chosen in a survey conducted of the world's top car designers.

It is noteworthy that the last time a survey was conducted to find the world's most beautiful car, the E-type Jaguar triumphed and it was a result with which few car fanciers could argue. This time round the result has placed the legendary E-type in a lowly seventh position.

The latest winner - the Citroen DS was the car that helped save the late President De Gaulle from assassination and the star of the film the Day of the Jackal.
The selection panel ranged from Car designer of the Century Giorgetto Giugiaro - the man behind the Maserati Bora, VW Golf, Fiat Panda and Lotus Esprit - to current Jaguar design chief Ian Callum the creator of the Jaguar XF - and each picked their top three cars.

As a marque, Ferrari secured the most votes but they were spread across nine different models - a fact that made it hard for any one Ferrari to be successful.
In order, the top ten most beautiful cars were the Citroën DS, the Jaguar XK120, Ferrari's 275GTB, the classic Cord 810/812, the Ferrari 250GT Lusso, the short-wheelbase Ferrari 250GT, the E-type, the Lamborghini Miura and cars nine and 10 were two from Lotus - the Elan and the 1957 Elite.

Citroën spokesman Marc Raven said: "It's great to see the iconic DS getting such recognition amongst such an august group of car designers, and with the amazing news that a new DS range from Citroën will appear over the next few years, it's clear we have lost none of our styling panache or instinct for innovation."
Judge Giorgetto Giugiaro describes the DS as "… the only example of a car really conceived 'outside the box'. It is just impossible to imitate."
Former Pininfarina design chief and the man behind Ferrari's Daytona, Dino and 308GTB, Leonardo Fioravanti, says the Citroen was a real road car that, at its time and perhaps still now, has represented the 'dream' in its extreme progress.
Peter Stevens - the designer behind the remarkable McLaren F1 and second-generation Lotus Esprit - said: "I have always considered the fact that this car was first drawn in 1955 to be extraordinary."

The Citroen DS was launched way back in 1955 and it derives its name from the word Déesse (French for Goddess) and the car's innovative design was styled by Italian sculptor Flaminio Bertoni.

Its futuristic shape amazed the motoring world and over the next two decades more than 1.5 million cars were sold in a range of specifications.
As well as its revolutionary design, under the car's skin there was a complex self-leveling suspension system and power steering, clutch and brakes.