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Citroën M35 - Hotrod with sugar water wankel engine

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Created on September 27, 2012

Text:

Peter Ruch (Radical-Mag)

Photos:

Dominique Fontenat

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Dominique Fontenat

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Archiv

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the M35 was probably not as fast as advertised

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the car sits higher when driven

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Front of the Ami 6

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Citroën M35 (1970) - unconventional coupé rear end

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Citroën M35 (1970) - has something of a hotrod about it

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Citroën M35 (1970) - on the Citroën test site

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Citroën M35 (1970) - large trunk, but spare wheel takes up space

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Hydropneumatics - the hotrod sits low in the rest position

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Citroën M35 (1970) - unusual perspective

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Citroën M35 (1970) - taking the bends

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the whining noise disturbs the driving pleasure a little

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Citroën M35 (1970) - does not shy away from bends, but leans heavily in the process

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Design borrowed from the Ami 6, but independent rear end

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Citroën M35 (1970) - independent rear design

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Leather interior and rev counter as luxury attributes

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Citroën M35 (1970) - gear stick like in the 2CV

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Note on the significant oil consumption - Check every 250 km

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Gearshift diagram à la Citroën

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the Wankel engine is barely visible among the auxiliary units

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Citroën M35 (1970) - number 169, one of 267 examples

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Citroën M35 (1970) - reference to customer testing

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Door opener from the series

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Combination of Ami 6 and coupé rear end

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the resemblance to the Ami 8 is clear from the front

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the coupé rear was independent

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Citroën M35 (1971) - with an independent silhouette, here presumably one of the rare light yellow examples

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Typical Citroën dashboard

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Steering wheel and dashboard, gearshift as usual in the small Citroëns

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Citroën M35 (1970) - additional rev counter on the left

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Citroën M35 (1970) - View into the engine compartment with the Wankel from Comotor

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the Wankel engine - front view

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the compact Wankel engine with the auxiliary units

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Citroën M35 (1970) - the Wankel engine - view from the gearbox

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Citroën M35 (1970) - How the Wankel engine works (sketch)

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Wankel engine in constant rotation

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Wankel engine - in rotation 1

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Wankel engine - in rotation 2

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Wankel engine - in rotation 3

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Wankel engine - in rotation 4

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Wankel engine - Oil scraper rings

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Wankel engine - Gaskets and oil scraper rings

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Citroën M35 (1970) - Wankel engine - the rotary piston

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Summary

At the end of the sixties, Citroën believed in the future of the Wankel engine and invested generously in corresponding models. The first commercially available Citroën Wankel vehicle was the M35, which was loosely based on the Ami 6/8 but priced several classes higher. Citroën wanted to gain experience with this car and sold a limited number of them to "test drivers". It was not a success, although the silky engine still impresses today. This report describes the history of the Citroën Wankel vehicles and provides driving impressions on board the M35, illustrated with current and historical pictures.

This article contains the following chapters

Perfect concentricity
Farm horse instead of racehorse
Expensive development
NSU-Citroën cooperation
Based on the Ami 6/8
With single-disc Wankel engine
Made by hand
Over one million test kilometers in customer hands
At the wheel of the M35
Silky but whining running
Not a consumption artist
Further information

Estimated reading time: 8min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Rotary piston machines already existed in the 16th century. The principle that moving parts only move around a center of gravity was already used back then in the construction of water pumps. However, it was to take a few centuries before the first engines worked. In 1932, the name Felix Wankel (1902-1988) came to the fore. Wankel was an autodidact and non-mathematician, and because of his extreme short-sightedness he was never allowed to drive a car. But he had an ingenious spatial imagination - and after initial experiments with conventional combustion engines, he soon turned his attention to rotary piston engines. In 1933, he was granted a patent for the first rotary piston engine.

Welcome to Zwischengas!

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