Citroën Traction Avant (France, 1934-1957)

Citroën introduced the very innovative and ‘avant-garde’ model Traction Avant in 1934 and kept producing it during the following 23 years. The car was even named after its front-wheel drive system, as “Traction Avant” is French for “front-wheel drive”.
When Citroën withdrew the Traction Avant from the markets, in 1957, around 760 thousand units had been built.

The Citroën Traction Avant was launched in 1934 and its production remained nearly unchanged until 1957, with only one generation to have been lived.
In a time of very few cars with front-wheel drive system, the Traction Avant was one of the most successful amongst them in the 1930’s, becoming a symbol of such technology.
Around 760.000 copies of the Traction Avant were sold during its 23-year lifetime.

The Traction Avant model cars, depending on their versions, were powered by either mid-mounted or front-mounted engines, which existed in 1.3-, 1.9- and 2.9-liter displacement units.
While the first cars to come out achieved a 55 mi/h (88 km/h) top speed, later models could reach up to 62 mi/h (100 km/h).
The car’s own name tells us that it is front-wheel driven and it runs through a 3-speed manual transmission.

André Lefèvre and Flaminio Bertoni were the designers of the Traction Avant, which was made in five different types of bodyshells: a 4-door sedan, a 2-door coupe, a 5-door ‘Commerciale’ hatchback, a convertible and a model with 3 seat rows.
The car was significantly lighter than the average car from that epoch.