By "Grobmotorix" - the guy who created those wonderful design studies above - I was pointed to this site. Sorry to be late in bringing this up again, but I felt a few commentes needed to be made on the Ami6.
First of all, the Ami6 was not a design of it's own. It is based on requirement specifications given by other departments within the company, customer feedbacks and also on market developments, as well as restrictions from both technology and regulatory bodies.
To mention a few points:
* as some of you might know, the first studies around the Ami6 were made 5 years before it hit the market. Already 1956 the first drawings appeared to bridge the gap between the prestigious DS and the "bread-and-butter" 2CV. At that time, design was far away from what the Ami later on turned out to be.
* Flaminio Bertoni has been a lover of curves and smoothness, when you look at his sculptural and architectural works you will discover that waves and flowing design dynamics has inspired him for decades.
* Requirement specs from the General Manager and customers were pushing lots of pressure onto a natural evolution of own design ideas. Headroom for back passengers, length of car, practicalities such as a big and easily accessible trunk as well as the requirement from the CEO to *not* create a utility shape (known as estate car) defines an ambitious list of "don'ts" while the "do's" are left to the genius.
* The US market always has been inspiring for Citroen evolution, both from technology, production and design. When you look at highly remarkable blogs such as the "BACKWARD-SLANTED REAR WINDOW"
http://autos-lunette-arriere-inversee.blogspot.com/ you will discover that many back-slanted windows have been brought to US customers and have proven to be successful. The website lists several dozens of designs even into nowadays. Why not adapt that successful style to Europe?
* Restrictions such as the French Type Approval regulators (Departement des Mines) have also left their traces on the Ami (the early front series of Ami6 was supposed to be designed like the later 1976+ Citroen DS Cibie invented the first rectangular reflectors for the Ami6, 26% more effectiveness due to auxiliary reflectors at top and bottom): This first design was not approved and thus Bertoni simply had to "morph" the front lights upwards, in order to meet THEIR requirements.
* The car been addressed to women at that time, and to "young budding families with kids and a dog" who live in the vicinity of larger cities (this is what Automobiles Citroen defined as the market segment for potential buyers).
The big success of the Ami came by the Estate version of it, the Ami6 Break made it to the market in 1964. Now, the car became usable for small companies and craftsmen who found their demands being reflected at a low price tag.
Sure, polarizing design is not everybodies darling. But certainly the majority of designs in that Space Age era had been way more brave and courageous than nowadays, when rather revenues and market share define a cars shape than during those decades...!
My $.02
www.ami6.de 
