CITROEN (France) 1919 to date
Engineer André Citroën had spent many years in the automotive industry
making gears; during the war he manufactured munitions.
His first car, the Type A launched in 1919, had a sv 1327cc engine.
In 1922 came the Type B of 1453cc. The same year saw the first of
the famous Citroën expeditions with the Cìtroën-Kégresse half-track
across the Sahara. It was also the year of the popular "Cloverleaf"
Type C of 855cc. This remarkable car was very popular, due to its
low price and high reliability. Between May 1922 and May I926, 80,232
Cloverleaves were built, but Citroën's record during the vintage
period was for the C4 with 134,000 cars built in a little more than
four years.
Citroën introduced mass production on the American pattern into
France. With the B10 in 1925, he introduced France's first all-steel
body. The C-Series followed, of which the most interesting was the
C6 six-cylinder available in two versions (2442cc and 2650cc).
In 1934, Citroën presented the revolutionary 7 cv "Tractìon Avant",
but its development costs bankrupted him, and the firm was taken
over by Michelin. Between 1934 and 1940 the factory made the Traction
Avant in no fewer than 21 different versions, the three basic models
being the 7 cv and 11 cv fours and the 15 cv six. It also presented
a prototype of a sensational V8-engined front-wheel-drive which
never saw production.
After the war, Citroën resumed production with the 11 cv and the
15 cv, sold only in black. At the Paris Motor Show of 1949, Citroën
launched the amazing 2 cv, a strange and spartan car, front-wheel
driven with a 375cc air-cooled flat-twin engine. For many years
the Traction Avant and the Deux Chevaux were the only models; in
1954 the 15 cv was equipped with hydropneumatic suspension.
The year after, Citroën presented the car of the new era, the immortal
DS 19. The old "Traction" nevertheless remained in production until
1957. A simpler version of the DS, the ID 19, was presented in 1956,
and 1961 was the year of the Ami 6, a sort of "super 2 cv". The
DS 21 followed the DS 19 in 1967, and the year after the Dyane appeared,
still with the air-cooled flat-twin.
In 1968 a strange vehicle left the works, the plastics-bodied Méhari,
which ressembled a Jeep. The most significant car of that year was
the GS, with a flat-four engine, and 1969 saw the luxurious SM with
the dohc Maserati V6 of 2675cc. In 1975, the DS gave way to the
CX 2000, later enlarged to 2200cc, 2400cc and 2500cc.
Having come under the control of Peugeot, Citroën presented the
LN, a marriage of a Peugeot body with a Citroën engine.
The
Ottawa Citroën Club
All Vintage European Automobiles
Club Citroëns ©VEA
|
