THE HISTORY

Enter the Revolutionary Citroen

One of the best car designs of the 1930’s was the Citroën “Traction Avant” - an astonishing leap forward by a firm known for producing cars for the masses. It was revolutionary having front wheel drive at a time when the vast majority did not and had unit construction when most others relied on separate chassis frames. It had “torsion-bar springing”, known up to then only by smokers who had snap-closed cigarette boxes. It even had rack-and-pinion steering. Low-slung, with a wheel in each corner, it simply looked right. The man behind the car was André Citroën, who had quickly become one of France’s major motor manufacturers. Introducing such an advanced design on borrowed capital was asking for trouble, and by the end of 1934, only a few months after it was introduced, Citroën lost control of his company - selling it to Michelin. The Traction, as the French lovingly called it, was in production from 1934 to 1956.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS