Price: £0.00 - £19.99, Price: £30.00 and above | Traction Avant Light 12 1939

Citroen Traction Avant Light 12 1939

UK built version of Citroen's trend-setting saloon. Built from 1936 to 1957

The original standard tyre was a 165x400, the best radial equivalent is a 165R400.

The Citroen Traction Avant isn't easy to chart concisely as there were so many derivatives, with French-built cars getting one designation while Slough-built models got another. So this is just a brief overview of Citroen Traction Avant production, which started in 1934, with right-hand drive cars offered from the outset.

The first UK-market Traction Avants came with a 1303cc engine, but French buyers got a 1628cc powerplant. For 1935 there were two new derivatives: the Sports 12 and the Super Modern 15 which both came with a 1911cc four-cylinder engine, but from 1938 a 2866cc six-cylinder powerplant was offered.

The biggest Traction Avant facelift came in 1953, from which point there was an extended boot, which now housed the spare wheel. A year later all six-cylinder Traction Avants gained hydropneumatic suspension at the rear, in preparation for the introduction of the DS which arrived in 1955. That was the year that the Slough factory built its last Traction Avant with the last French-made car rolling off the lines in 1957.