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Citroën 'Traction Avant' 11 BL from 1954 - pre-war avant-garde

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Created on November 20, 2011

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

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Bruno von Rotz

21

Balz Schreier

17

Archiv

33

Bruno von Rotz

21

Balz Schreier

17

Archiv

33

Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Functional and purpose-oriented

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - the TA was eventually replaced by the DS

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - The 'Légère' version with four side windows

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - wears the trademark proudly and clearly visible

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - the rear-opening doors are called suicide doors

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - The trunk is accessible from the outside, which was not a matter of course

Bild von Partner Porsche AMAG Mai Foto-Galerie 2026

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - to gain access to the actual trunk, the spare wheel has to be removed for the first time

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - looks extremely sympathetic

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Not all 'Traction Avants' were black, on the contrary ...

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Free-standing headlights and curved fenders indicate the age of the design

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - the Traction Avant still has something carriage-like about it

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Hardly anything has changed visually in over 20 years of production

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - View of the interior

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - View over the straight hood

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - this front was omnipresent on the streets of Paris in the 1950s

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Simply designed wheel under curved mudguard

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Headlights of the Légère

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - View over the front fender

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - free-standing mudguards

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - functional workplace

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - speedometer up to 140 kmh, with a little tailwind an 11 CV even reached this speed

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Jaeger instrument cluster

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - simple controls, the gearshift is moved up and down and to the left and right

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - entering the French wonder is easy

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Counter-opening front and rear doors

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - simple interior

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Window crank with style

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Door traps worthy of the name

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - protruding door handles, lamps and mirrors

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - beautiful air vents

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - As is usual with pre-war vehicles, the hood wings are folded over sideways

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - The engine of the '11 CV' is 1911 cm3 in size

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - the hood wings are opened sideways

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - The hatch and access from the outside were added later

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - Spare wheel standing in the trunk

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - also performed mundane transportation tasks

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - probably one of the most famous classic cars ever

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Citroën Traction Avant 11 BL (1954) - this figure adorns many Traction Avants

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Citroën 7 (1934) - an early 7 CV with a 1303 cc engine, instead of air vents there were flaps

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Citroën Traction Avant (1934) - To show how modern the bodywork of the new Citroën was, an illustration of a conventional frame like that of a competitor ...

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Citroën Traction Avant (1934) - ... while the Citroën had a self-supporting body

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Citroën Traction Avant (1937) - at a car show

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Citroën 15-Six D (1951) - Steering wheel and dashboard of the "big" version with six-cylinder engine

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Citroën 15-Six D (1952) - blessed with good driving characteristics in the snow

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Citroën 11 Familale (1939) - three side windows and three rows of seats in the family version

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Citroën 11 (1939) - Engine of the front-wheel drive Citröen

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Citroën 7 (1939) - Steering wheel and dashboard of the smaller pre-war version

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Citroën Traction Avant (1939) - monocoque construction, all steel - illustration in a sales brochure

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Citroën 11 Légère (1946) - side view of the post-war model

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Citroën 15-Six (1947) - exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show of 1947

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Citroën 11 CV Légère (1948) - a post-war model

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Citroën 15-Six D (1949) - easy to drive apart from the stiff steering, but still unusual for the time: woman at the wheel

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Citroën Traction Avant (1947) - Advertising image from 1947

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Citroën 11 Légère Cabriolet (1951) - very rare, with bodywork by Carrosserie Langenthal

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Citroën 11 Légère (1952) - thanks to its low height, the Traction Avant did not need running boards

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Citroën 11 Normale (1952) - spacious for its size

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Citroën 15-Six D (1952) - New: Disc wheels with four slots and indicators on the front fenders and on the rear edge of the roof

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Citroën 15-Six D (1950) - now with straight bumpers, but still with hanging windshield wipers

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Citroën 11 CV Légère (1952) - with shortened wheelbase and heavily cut-out rear door

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Citroën Traction Avant (1952) - even after 20 years of production, Citroën advertises its good driving performance - seen in a brochure from 1952

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Citroën Traction Avant (1952) - photo from a sales brochure

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Citroën 11 CV (1954) - Cover picture of a contemporary sales brochure

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Citroën 11 (1952) - the spare wheel had to be 'circumnavigated' to load the trunk

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Citroën 11 (1952) - a trunk accessible from the outside with a protected spare wheel was a welcome improvement for buyers

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Citroën 11 Légère (1952) - steering wheel and dashboard with gearshift - note the wiring diagram

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Citroën 11 Légère (1952) - filled trunk and spare wheel

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Citroën 11 CV (1950) - a low center of gravity was possible thanks to the self-supporting design

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Citroën Traction Avant (1939) - Demonstration of the effect of the hydraulic brakes - from a sales brochure

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Citroën Traction Avant (1939) - also available as a false cabriolet (faux cabriolet, same as coupé) and cabriolet

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Citroen 7 CV (1939) - body appearance unchanged over the years

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Citroën 7 CV (1934) - the early models did not yet have a trunk, so a luggage rack proved to be very useful

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Summary

The Citroën Traction Avant was nicknamed the "gangster limousine" because its excellent driving characteristics for the time made it the ideal getaway vehicle, and to this day black Citroëns from the 7/11/15 CV series are often shown in movies and commercials when bad guys have to flee from the good police. Almost 760,000 of the Traction Avant were built for 23 years and these vehicles continue to delight their owners and the roadside public to this day. This report goes into the history of this revolutionary vehicle, shows many historical and current photographs, eight original sales brochures and even gives an impression of the background noise.

This article contains the following chapters

The sensation of 1934
Successful combination of state-of-the-art technologies
Front-wheel drive and monocoque construction
The eight-cylinder version - the "blue Mauritius" among the TAs
Model diversity right from the start
On the road with a wood carburetor during the war
Post-war revolution
Front-wheel drive in the snow
Pleasant driving in the post-war model
Replaced by the goddess
Hardly any pre-war vehicles to be found
Further information

Estimated reading time: 10min

Preview (beginning of the article)

The Citroën Traction Avant was known as the "gangster limousine" because its excellent driving characteristics for the time made it an ideal getaway vehicle, and to this day, black Citroëns from the 7/11/15 CV series are often shown in movies and commercials when bad guys have to flee from the good police. Black was just one of many colors in which the elegant saloon - there were also convertible, estate and coupé versions - could be purchased. However, the expensive development, which began in 1933, almost broke Citroën's financial back. André Citroën had set himself the goal of creating a revolutionary car: it had to be fast (100 km/h), economical (10 liters per 100 km) and safe (low centre of gravity, independent suspension, front-wheel drive, hydraulic brakes) and also easy to drive (automatic transmission). Andé Lefèbvre and Flaminio Bertoni succeeded in fulfilling these objectives, which in the 1930s were probably more reminiscent of science fiction than the vehicle standard of the time, at least almost.

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