This is a US ad, so the car is shown with US headlights.  US headlights were different as archaic laws meant headlights that turned with the steering were not allowed.   Nor were lights that adjusted with the suspension.  The car in the ad has panel gaps better than any new DS21 ever did!

Citroen introduced front wheel drive, chassis-less construction, replaceable wet cylinder liners, large-amplitude independent suspension system… as far back as 1934… The company possesses and apparently bottomless source of brilliant technical solutions to the rest of the world’s motor industries have either never noticed, or have pretended don’t exist in the hope they might go away.

So there are really only two kinds of cars in the world today: Citroen and the rest.

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The other light 15 has an ID motor and four speed gearbox installed which probably helps, but the slow progress is part of the charm of these cars.  On a humid Sydney day, the ability to open the windscreen was a life saver!  While waiting in Traffic one person asked us for a business card as she wanted to use the cars for her wedding later in the year.   I don’t do weddings other than for friends, but it does show there would be interest.

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While Andre Citroen is probably better known for his ability to get publicity for his car company, he was an extremely competent organizer and was able in only 4 months, to get a munitions factory going in WWI that produced more shells than all the other factories in Paris combined.   It was this experience that led him to look at mass production techniques for his car company, and Citroen realized that in order to sell the cars at a reasonable price, you needed to either produce cars at a massive scale (ala Ford) or amortize the tooling over a long period of time.   For the latter, that meant not changing the model very regularly.   And the only way you could keep the same model in production for an extended period of time was to produce a car that was so far ahead of the competition at launch that it remained relevant for many years.

It was with this plan in mind, that the Traction Avant was born.   Doing away with a traditional separate chassis, and focusing on a monocoque meant a lighter car, resulting in a cheaper build, smaller engine and many other benefits.   Moving to a front wheel drive design offered differentiation from the competition and similarly reduced materials needed and allowed the car to be lower and look more modern.  Further innovations included Rack and Pinion steering, independent front suspension, overhead valves etc.   None of these innovations were new to Citroen, but they had not come together on a single, mass produced car before.

However, Citroen was not a man to do things by halves, so he also rebuilt his factory from scratch and spared no expense.   All this innovation at the same time, coupled with the new factory and uncertain economic conditions caught up with Citroen and in the end he lost his company and never saw what a success his car would ultimately become.   The Traction would, in the end be available from 1934 to 1957 (with a pause for the war) and more than 760,000 cars manufactured.

As with the DS twenty years later, Andre Lefebvre and Flamino Bertoni were integral to the design, and again like with the DS, the Traction Avant was built for a long time with a plethora of options and model types, making it very difficult for somebody new to the car to understand the different models and where they fit in.   This article will concentrate on the post war models as you could write a whole book on the pre-war cars (and there are many excellent books available).

Outside of special models (covered later), you could have your traction avant in two main body sizes, the larger car being longer by 200 mm and wider by 140 mm.   An easy way to tell if the cars are not sitting side by side is that the rear windows do not roll down very far on the small bodied car due to the curvature of the door for the wheel arch.   The cars in RHD form were produced either in Slough (UK) or Paris.   Model names were derived from the fiscal horsepower system in use in Europe at the time, and the main differences were that Slough cars were more luxurious (leather, wood trim etc), used many English parts (lights, handles, gauges etc) for tax reasons and had 12v electrics.   Paris built cars were more spartan and had 6v and cost less when new.

The table below illustrates the most common models, with the Light 15 being by far the most common.   Most of the Tractions sold in Australia were sourced from Slough, but there were some French builds too, in particular a batch of 11BLs in 1951 during a dock strike in the UK.   In the main, French built Tractions were sold as a cheaper more ‘entry level’ option due to the trim differences.   Certainly 11BLs were imported, but I am not sure of other models.

In addition to these, there were other variants including a 9 seater, and the 6H, which had the hydro-pneumatic suspension on the rear axle that would later appear with the DS in 1955.    The cars constantly changed during the production run, but the most obvious change was the big boot, introduced for the 1953 model year.   While today, the small boot models are a more popular, the lack of boot space was an issue when these cars were in everyday use and it was a welcome change.

Hopefully this article has explained a little of the background of these cars and simplified the available models.  Despite their age, most parts are still available through independent parts suppliers in France and Holland.

A pair of tractions.  The one on the left is a French 11 Normale and the one on the right a British Big 6.

Paris built interior

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The pick of the auction for me was the Traction Avant.   Almost in my ideal spec.  (I would prefer a year older with the small boot).   As well as this there were some other interesting cars for sale including:

Lot 1: 1980 Volvo 242GT

The 242 is a real cult car and probably the squarest two door car ever made.   For an expected price of $6-10,000 you can look evil and sensible all at once.

Lot 2: 1974 Citroen D Special

Unlike the last D for sale, this is a lovely D Special that has not been partially converted to a Pallas spec car, or a DSuper 5, it is just a good honest D Special.   A D Special is a great way of getting into DS ownership, and this car looks like it has been fairly well maintained over the years.   Somewhat troubling is the sealant applied to the roof to fix probable water leaks, hopefully here is no rust in the roof rail or behind the C pillar trims.   I think it is worth more than the $8-$12,000 indicated.

Lot 4: 1973 Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 Coupe. 

While this car isn’t perfect, I think these Alfa’s are great cars and well worth a look.   They are reasonably price, and I’m told, great to drive.  Something to own at some point.

Lot 6: 1952 Citroen Light 15

This Traction Avant is almost the ideal spec in my view.   All it needs is to be a year older and have the smaller and more elegant boot.   It looks apparent that somebody has looked after this car, the paintwork is older, but nice, as is the interior, and the engine has had money spent on it recently.   I’m not in the market for another car at the moment, but if I was, i would be bidding on this car.    A Traction Avant is a car I want to add to the garage at some point.   The price guide is $15-18,000, which seems very good buying and this car could easily go for more.

Honorable Mention:

Melbourne Summer Auction Lot 30:  XK140 FHC

This car is in Melbourne, so I didn’t see it in the flesh, but this is my perfect XK.   It is an XK140 FHC, with a 5 Speed and A/C Fitted.   This car is listed with a price guide of $70-$80,000.

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