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CITROËN CELEBRATES 80 YEARS OF THE TRACTION
AVANT
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GOING LONG
DISTANCE
WITH FRANÇOIS
LECOT…
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Above
After the death of André Citroën on 3 July 1935,
François Lecot, a
restaurant owner from Rochetaillée-sur-Saône, drove
400,134 km in an
“11A Légère“ from 22 July 1935 to 26 July 1936. Over
the course of that
year, he drove day and night in all kinds of
weather, and almost
exclusively on France’s famous national 6 and 7
roads!
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Above
From 26 September to 4 October 1934, François Lecot
and Maurice Penaud,
a former mechanic in the Citroën Croisières
expeditions, accomplished
the first postal link between Paris and Moscow.
Transporting diplomatic
mail, they drove the 3,200 km from Paris to Moscow
in 70 hours,
stopping only to fill up the tank of their “7S“. At
an average speed of
45 km/h, the outward journey took three days. After
two days in Moscow,
the return journey took longer, with a stop-off in
Warsaw, and finished
on Place de la Concorde on the day before the
opening of the Paris
Motor Show.
André Citroën, wearing his bowler hat, is
photographed here with the
two heroes, Maurice Penaud on his right and François
Lecot on his left.
Below
François
Lecot (left) and Maurice Penaud (right) are welcomed
by André Citroën
in person in front of the Citroën dealership on
Place de l’Opéra in
Paris on 5 July 1934. The two men have just
completed a 5,007-km tour
of France and Belgium with no stop-offs in 77 hours
at an average 65
km/h!
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JAVEL…
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Above
in late-summer 1934, to prepare for the upcoming
Paris Motor Show in
October where the entire Traction Avant range was to
be displayed, this
photograph was taken in the delivery hall of the
newly-built Quai de
Javel plant. Eleven brand new Traction Avant models
– four “11s“ and
seven “7s“ – are shown in the entrance hall,
underneath André Citroën’s
office.
This shot was used to make an impressive colour
illustration for the
Paris Motor Show catalogue presenting all the models
in the Traction
Avant range – the “7“, “11“ and, above all, the
“22“.
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Above
Traction Avant production began in a recently
constructed cathedral of
concrete, glass and steel in April 1934. The new
Quai de Javel plant,
completed in August 1933 and equipped with
cutting-edge tooling, fully
lived up to the ambitions of André Citroën and his
Traction Avant.The
site could produce up to 1,000 vehicles a day!
Below in
October
1955 the Javel plant became home to the assembly
line for the new DS.
As shown in this picture from June 1956, the
Traction Avant shared
“its” plant with the DS for almost two years.
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THE LAST
TRACTION AVANT…
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Above
and below the last Traction Avant ever
produced was delivered to Citroën’s dealer
in Saint Malo, Mr Dufour, in the hall of the Javel
plant on 25 July
1957. The word “fin” (end) was painted on the number
plates of the “11“
Familiale and, in a moving gesture, a bouquet of
flowers was attached
to the windscreen. The car was driven to Saint Malo
in Brittany the
same day to be delivered to its owner. After 23
years, four months and
15 days of production, the Traction Avant bid its
final adieu, making
way for another legendary Citroën: the DS.
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THE TRACTION
TODAY
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Above forty-one
Traction Avants come
together in the arena in Nimes on 30 November 2013.
The
event was organised by Laurence Battani and Jacques
Boudet for the
regional assembly of the Languedoc section of the La
Traction
Universelle club.
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People are still taking about the Traction Avant
80
years after launch! Why is that?
First of all, because of the enthusiasm stirred
by the
car. That enthusiasm is kept alive by countless
collectors, who never
stint on sharing their passion with as many people
as possible and
showing them that their vehicles today remain
impressively robust and
reliable. Numerous gatherings and events are
planned for the 80th
birthday year, with plenty of opportunities for
Traction Avant fans to
meet up. The Brand’s Citroën Heritage entity is
fuelling the momentum
by backing a number of initiatives to keep the
legendary model alive in
the collective consciousness.
People are also still talking about the Traction
Avant
because it paved the way for the modern automobile
with the idea of
front driving and steering wheels.
Since 1934, all the models produced by Citroën
have been
front-wheel-drive. And carmakers around the world
followed in the
Brand’s footsteps, underscoring Citroën’s innate
ability to create and
innovate. That ability is cultivated every day by
the Brand with a view
to providing the right solutions to the needs of
customers today and in
the future.
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