Citroën Traction Avant

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/08/2008 (6311 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In more than a century of automobile history, few cars have introduced as many ground-breaking features as the Citroën Traction Avant.

To this day, the car stands as a milestone of automotive achievement and a benchmark of advanced design that has been copied by most manufacturers, even years after its retirement.

André Citroën, a gear maker by trade, had built his fortune manufacturing munitions for the French army during the First world War. Inspired by a visit to Henry Ford’s Model T assembly line in Detroit, Mich., Citroën launched his own car company in 1919 with the Type A, a small, basic car that quickly became a best seller. In the years that followed, Citroën’s fortunes rapidly increased and, by 1929, his company had become the third largest in France (behind Peugeot and Renault), producing around 100,000 cars a year.

As successful as he was with building relatively conventional automobiles, in the early 1930s Citroën focussed his energies on creating a radically new model. His inspiration came from two key sources, both American. One was the Budd company of Philadelphia, Pa., a rail car and automotive body supplier that had developed a welded one-piece body and chassis that did not require a conventional steel frame. It was Citroën’s plan to marry the Budd body with a front-wheel drive system similar to one developed by the Indiana-based Cord Automobile Company and displayed for the first time at the 1929 Paris auto show.

Over 18 months, Citroën and his designers worked around the clock developing the complex engineering and tooling needed to bring the new car to life. When the dust settled, there sat a car that was some 45 centimetres lower to the ground than many of its competitors. The wheels were also placed at the outer edges of the fenders, which added interior room and aided overall driving stability.

Further breaking with tradition, running boards, common on virtually every car at that time, were conspicuously absent.

The 1934 Traction Avant (French for Front Drive), as the car was called, also featured an advanced independent front suspension and solid rear axle that used torsion bars instead of leaf springs. Advanced hydraulic drum brakes also provided more stopping power.

Underneath the dual-side-opening hood was a 1.3-litre overhead-valve four-cylinder engine that made 32 horsepower. It was to have been mated to a complex automatic transmission, but when serious reliability problems appeared, Citroën switched to a three-speed manual positioned ahead of the engine with a tiny shift lever poking out the bottom of the dashboard.

The Traction Avant made its debut in February of 1934. Initially, the public was shocked at the car’s revolutionary design and the press was almost unanimous in its dislike for the car that broke nearly every rule of contemporary content and design.

The Traction Avant’s one major weakness, a lack of adequate power, was addressed almost immediately with increased engine displacement.

Unfortunately, the huge development costs associated with the Traction Avant, combined with André Citroën’s extravagant lifestyle (he was a frequent visitor to the gaming tables at Monte Carlo), left the company virtually bankrupt. In early 1935, the Michelin tire company, Citroën’s largest creditor, took over the operation, leaving its founder completely out in the cold.

Already in poor health, André Citroën died a few months later.

Under Michelin’s control, the newly acquired automobile company began to flourish, led by the Traction Avant. In addition to the standard four-door sedan, a two-door coupe and 2+2 convertible appeared, as did a commercial version with a hatchback-style rear door. Even stretch limousines were manufactured.

During its 23 years, the Traction Avant received only evolutionary changes in body styling. By the late 1930s, a six-cylinder engine became available and, beginning in 1946, customers could order their Traction Avants in a colour other than black.

In its final four years before production ceased in 1957, a hydraulically controlled self-levelling suspension became standard on all six-cylinder models.

Although he didn’t live long enough to see it, André Citroën’s beloved Traction Avant gained wide public acceptance with worldwide sales exceeding 750,000 units. It would also be many decades before his pioneering development of front-wheel drive and unitized construction would become an automotive industry standard.

Malcolm Gunn is a feature writer with Wheelbase Communications. He can be reached on the Web at www.wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html. Wheelbase Communications supplies automotive news and features to newspapers and Web sites across North America.