A few months ago I managed to damage the front of the DS while parking it. Insurance will cover the repair to the front of the car, but instead of having the insurance repair match the faded paint, I would prefer to have the front of the car painted well and then pay extra to have the rear panels painted to match. So...
This week features a great ad highlighting the Hydropneumatic suspension of the Citroen DS. This car has its ups and downs. Moody? No. French, and logical. When road conditions change, you can change the height of a Citroen car to suit the road. Citroen can do it, and only a Citroen. Deeply rutted road, heavy snowdrift? Uo you go, and pull away with plenty...
After my unfortunate DS crash I was able to locate a new old stock bonnet for my DS. The bonnet for the DS is aluminium which makes repairing the current bonnet rather difficult. I have heard that at least in 1955, this was the largest single aluminium panel on a car, but I don’t know if this true or not. I can...
This weeks ad focuses on how innovative a car company Citroen was before it was merged with Peugeot. The two cars shown are very similar to my two Citroens – the Traction on the top and the DS21 below it. They are not quite the same as this is a French made Traction and the DS21 is a Pallas model unlike mine. ...
Today I went to the Citroen Car Club meeting to get the historic rego signed for my Traction Avant. I am not often able to attend these meetings so it was good to catch up with the members. The club had a raffle at the meeting and I even won a prize! I took the DS and it was running really nicely on...
This weeks ad a great summary summary of all the safety features of the DS and a nice cutaway. These days they try and sell cars with lifestyle shots, but this ad delves deep into some of the technical features. The Citroen… a safe car you should look into. Safety “No Spoke” steering wheel. Rugged hemi head engine, built to maintain high cruising...
Today I started troubleshooting a potential engine issue in my Traction Avant. When the engine is hot, it will sometimes smoke out of the valve cover and there is a single pulse of black exhaust like it is being caused by one cylinder. My first test was to check the compression of the engine, quite easy on a traction engine as the spark...
This weeks ad is interesting that it tries to take the biggest weakness of the DS – the engine and try and turn it into a strength. I prefer the other ads that focus on its real strengths like the economy, suspension etc. In sales trying to turn a weakness into a strength can work well, but not sure if this approach...
This weeks ad covers the launch of the DS21 – still on the 2nd nose. The introduction of the DS21 started to address the concerns about the lack of power in the DS, the main point of criticism over its 20 year life. The car was originally supposed to have an air cooled flat six, but that never panned out.
Today was the 2016 French car day. As usual a good day out, including my Traction Avant taking out 1st place in the pre-1955 category. Attendance was down this year compared to last year as the weather was a bit iffy this morning. But it turned out nice enough in the end. A humorous side show was a member of...
This weeks Ad covers the face lift of the Citroen DS that gave us the 3rd nose. This is the American version, so it unfortunately depicts the ugly American version of the lights – covered lights were not allowed, nor were turning or load leveling headlights.
This Citroen Ad from 1963 covers a key selling point of the DS which was that its Aerodynamic Styling allows it to have a fairly small engine giving good fuel consumption but still allowing a 100mph top speed. This shows a 2nd nose DS and shows various streamlining features that allow this performance and fuel consumption. Citroen’s Aerodynamic Styling Pays Off How Citroen...
The Traction Avant has a fairly large oil cap that at least on my car is a loose fit. Underneath it there is a metal plate with holes in it which let the oil drain into the engine when filling and presumably stop the oil from splashing out. Unfortunately on my car, these holes had been significantly enlarged and that means oil was dribbling...
When I purchased my Citroen DS21, what attracted me to it was that it was the model I wanted and virtually rust free. It provided a solid foundation, but needed a bit of attention on some cosmetic items to get it where I wanted to be. This post is meant as a summary of some of the improvements that I have done since I...
I helped out a friend today for a wedding with the Traction Avant. Tractions are not often seen as wedding cars, but they are rather striking and work pretty well. For this wedding two Light 15s were used. The big bodied cars would probably work better, but the light 15 was roomy enough for five people. You do notice the...
October 18, 1953 The Citroen is as stable as it appears possible to make a car under our present design technique. Un-doubtedly the out-standing characteristic of the car is the way it holds on to the road surface, particularly on corners and bends. Although the Citroen was designed in France about 19 years ago, it has persisted essentially in its original form, with the...
The front indicator lenses on the DS were badly cracked and discoloured, so it seemed like a good idea to replace them. They are available aftermarket and are quite easy to change over. I had started what I assumed would be a quick job a while ago, but the new lenses used spade connectors instead of bullet connectors and I did not have...
Driving a car from the 50’s often means impatient drives roaring around you when you set off from traffic lights, especially uphill. Sydney drivers are particularly bad for this. Traction Avants, as with most 50’s cars are only fitted with a small interior rear-view mirror and no outside mirror. This makes parking and lane changing a challenge. I had seen many tractions...
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