A Tale of Two Concept Cars Two Years Later

With Citroen about to show its next stunning concept, the Numero 9, to the public next week at the Beijing Auto Show it seems appropriate to revisit a similar Citroen concept from two years ago. The Numero 9 is essentially a shooting-brake version of the equally stunning Metropolis Concept. Back when the Metropolis first came out I called it a better concept than the BMW Gran Coupe concept mainly because the Metropolis was a more radical concept than the BMW. Nearly two years later the Gran Coupe Concept has evolved into the 6 series Gran Coupe losing very little of its styling in the process. My fears about the Gran Coupe concept being watered down into production turned out to be largely unfounded. As expected, the Metropolis concept has yet to materialize into a production version. However there is hope that the Numero 9 will eventually join the DS lineup as its flagship. Two years ago I was praising Citroen for creating a concept for the sake of creating a concept and nothing else, yet now I am left wishing for Citroen to finally give me a production version of one of their awesome concepts.