Citroën Traction Avant : la voiture qui a ruiné son créateur

Citroën Traction Avant: The car that ruined its creator. On October 8, 1933, André Citroën gathered 6,000 guests in a brand-new factory where not a single machine was yet running. He was celebrating a car that didn't exist. Fourteen months later, he had lost everything. Twenty-one months later, he died, ruined, taken by cancer, convinced he had failed. He was wrong. The car he was celebrating that evening would become the most important French automobile of the 20th century. Front-wheel drive, monocoque body without a chassis, hydraulic brakes on all four wheels, torsion bars, rack and pinion steering: designed in just 18 months by André Lefebvre and Flaminio Bertoni, the Traction Avant was packed with technical innovations and plunged its creator into bankruptcy. On December 21, 1934, the court ordered the company's liquidation. Michelin, the main creditor with 60 million francs, took over the Citroën brand. It was the tire manufacturers who saved the car. With its reliability improved by 1936, Traction Avant production increased from 15,000 to 55,000 units per year. In 1938, the 15-Six arrived with its 77 horsepower, the Queen of the Road. The legendary 3822 cc V8 of the 22 CV, however, was destroyed on orders: some twenty prototypes wiped off the face of the earth, which collectors are still searching for 90 years later. Then came the war. Occupiers and the Resistance drove the same sedan, the one whose flat floor so cleverly concealed weapons. After 1945, it became the car of choice for the Traction Avant gang and Pierrot le Fou (a French comedian). In 1954, the 15-Six H and its hydropneumatic suspension foreshadowed the DS. Production ceased in July 1957, after 23 years and nearly 760,000 units. Today, almost all automobiles in the world are based on the architecture it established. André Citroën, however, rests in Montparnasse Cemetery. He never lived to see his triumph. Music: Eyes of Glory - Aakash Gandhi; When Johnny Comes Marching Home - Cooper Cannell. The photographs are from archive.org and are in the public domain.