Citroën Traction Avant
An early French motor that managed to continue production through those dark years of World War II, and would later become the basis for what would arguably be Citroen's greatest car, the DS.
The Traction Avant, French for "front wheel drive", was designed by André Lefèbvre and Flaminio Bertoni in late 1933. While not the first production front wheel drive car (Alvis beat them to it with the 1928 FWD in the UK) it was the world's first front-wheel drive steel unitary body frame production car. Along with DKW's 1930s models, the Traction successfully pioneered front-wheel drive on the European mass car market.
The Traction Avant's structure was a welded unitary body/chassis. Most other cars of the era were based on a separate frame (chassis) onto which the non-structural body was built. Unitary construction results in a lighter vehicle, and is now used for virtually all car construction, although body-on-frame construction remains suitable for larger vehicles such as trucks. This method of construction was viewed with great suspicion in many quarters, with doubts about its strength. A type of crash test was conceived, taking the form of driving the car off a cliff, to illustrate its great inherent resilience.
The novel design made the car very low-slung relative to its contemporaries – the Traction Avant always possessed a unique look, which went from appearing rakish in 1934 to familiar and somewhat old fashioned by 1955. The suspension was very advanced for the car's era. The front wheels were independently sprung, using a torsion bar and wishbone suspension arrangement, where most contemporaries used live axle and cart-type leaf spring designs. The rear suspension was a simple steel beam axle and a Panhard rod, trailing arms and torsion bars attached to a 3-inch steel tube, which in turn was bolted to the main platform.
Since it was considerably lighter than conventional designs of the era, it was capable of 62 mph, and consumed fuel only at the rate of 28mpg, which even today is pretty good.
However, in 1939 France declared war with Germany and in 1940 the German Army invaded Northern France. The conflict drastically reduced the civilian sector's availability of raw materials, as well as petrol that was supplied to the occupying armed forces.
The Paris Motor Show scheduled for October 1939 was cancelled at short notice, but Citroën’s own planned announcements had involved the forthcoming 2CV model rather than any significant changes to the Traction. For the Traction, the last “normal” year in terms of production levels was 1939, and 8,120 of the 2910mm wheelbase 1628cc engined 7C models were produced. This tumbled to 1,133 in 1940, which was the first year when the plant suffered serious air-raid damage - on this occasion caused by a German attack - on 3 June 1940.
Production of the cars was suspended in June 1941, by when a further 154 had been produced in the six-month period just ended. The 7C would continue to appear in Citroën price-lists until March 1944, but production of this smaller engined “7CV” version of the Traction was not resumed after the war. For the more powerful 1911cc engined 11 B-light models, the equivalent figures were 27,473 units produced in 1939, 4,415 in 1940 and 2,032 for 1941, though for this model production in 1941 ended only in November 1941 so the figure for that year represents 11 months of production.
In 1945 production restarted only slowly: the 11 B-light reappeared very little changed from the 1941 cars except that headlight surrounds were now painted rather than finished in chrome. By the end of December 1945 the year’s production had reached 1,525. Currency depreciation was evident from the car’s listed price which had been 26,800 francs in January 1940, and had risen to 110,670 francs in October 1945. In 1945 the car was the only model available from Citroën, and as another sign of the times, customers not able to supply their own tires were charged an additional 9,455 francs for a set of five. In May 1946, reflecting an easing of the war-time tire shortage, the car could at last be purchased with tires at no extra cost, but by now the overall price of an 11 B-light had risen to 121,180 francs.
Construction of the car continued until 1953 when Citroen's new flagship motor, the DS, was launched, with many of the parts behind its world renowned and critically acclaimed suspension being derived from those pioneered on the Traction Avant. Today there are a fair number of these cars still on the go, thanks largely to their robust design and construction which is admirable even by modern standards. A running competition amongst Traction Avant fans occurs every 4 years, where owners ship their cars to an exotic location and then proceed to have a tour as part of the International Citroen Car Clubs Rally (ICCCR).
Citroën Traction Avant
An early French motor that managed to continue production through those dark years of World War II, and would later become the basis for what would arguably be Citroen's greatest car, the DS.
The Traction Avant, French for "front wheel drive", was designed by André Lefèbvre and Flaminio Bertoni in late 1933. While not the first production front wheel drive car (Alvis beat them to it with the 1928 FWD in the UK) it was the world's first front-wheel drive steel unitary body frame production car. Along with DKW's 1930s models, the Traction successfully pioneered front-wheel drive on the European mass car market.
The Traction Avant's structure was a welded unitary body/chassis. Most other cars of the era were based on a separate frame (chassis) onto which the non-structural body was built. Unitary construction results in a lighter vehicle, and is now used for virtually all car construction, although body-on-frame construction remains suitable for larger vehicles such as trucks. This method of construction was viewed with great suspicion in many quarters, with doubts about its strength. A type of crash test was conceived, taking the form of driving the car off a cliff, to illustrate its great inherent resilience.
The novel design made the car very low-slung relative to its contemporaries – the Traction Avant always possessed a unique look, which went from appearing rakish in 1934 to familiar and somewhat old fashioned by 1955. The suspension was very advanced for the car's era. The front wheels were independently sprung, using a torsion bar and wishbone suspension arrangement, where most contemporaries used live axle and cart-type leaf spring designs. The rear suspension was a simple steel beam axle and a Panhard rod, trailing arms and torsion bars attached to a 3-inch steel tube, which in turn was bolted to the main platform.
Since it was considerably lighter than conventional designs of the era, it was capable of 62 mph, and consumed fuel only at the rate of 28mpg, which even today is pretty good.
However, in 1939 France declared war with Germany and in 1940 the German Army invaded Northern France. The conflict drastically reduced the civilian sector's availability of raw materials, as well as petrol that was supplied to the occupying armed forces.
The Paris Motor Show scheduled for October 1939 was cancelled at short notice, but Citroën’s own planned announcements had involved the forthcoming 2CV model rather than any significant changes to the Traction. For the Traction, the last “normal” year in terms of production levels was 1939, and 8,120 of the 2910mm wheelbase 1628cc engined 7C models were produced. This tumbled to 1,133 in 1940, which was the first year when the plant suffered serious air-raid damage - on this occasion caused by a German attack - on 3 June 1940.
Production of the cars was suspended in June 1941, by when a further 154 had been produced in the six-month period just ended. The 7C would continue to appear in Citroën price-lists until March 1944, but production of this smaller engined “7CV” version of the Traction was not resumed after the war. For the more powerful 1911cc engined 11 B-light models, the equivalent figures were 27,473 units produced in 1939, 4,415 in 1940 and 2,032 for 1941, though for this model production in 1941 ended only in November 1941 so the figure for that year represents 11 months of production.
In 1945 production restarted only slowly: the 11 B-light reappeared very little changed from the 1941 cars except that headlight surrounds were now painted rather than finished in chrome. By the end of December 1945 the year’s production had reached 1,525. Currency depreciation was evident from the car’s listed price which had been 26,800 francs in January 1940, and had risen to 110,670 francs in October 1945. In 1945 the car was the only model available from Citroën, and as another sign of the times, customers not able to supply their own tires were charged an additional 9,455 francs for a set of five. In May 1946, reflecting an easing of the war-time tire shortage, the car could at last be purchased with tires at no extra cost, but by now the overall price of an 11 B-light had risen to 121,180 francs.
Construction of the car continued until 1953 when Citroen's new flagship motor, the DS, was launched, with many of the parts behind its world renowned and critically acclaimed suspension being derived from those pioneered on the Traction Avant. Today there are a fair number of these cars still on the go, thanks largely to their robust design and construction which is admirable even by modern standards. A running competition amongst Traction Avant fans occurs every 4 years, where owners ship their cars to an exotic location and then proceed to have a tour as part of the International Citroen Car Clubs Rally (ICCCR).