Heritage Days, Police Headquarters, Part-II, Citroën Traction Avant 11 cv

Let's start

with some history to start with (source Wikipedia)

The Traction Avant, French for "forward traction", was designed by André Lefèbvre and Flaminio Bertoni in late 1933 / early 1934. While not the first production front wheel drive car - Alvis built the 1928 FWD in the UK , Cord produced the L29 from 1929 to 1932 in the United States and DKW the F1 in 1931 in Germany - it was the most successful.

Not only was the Traction Avant's drive train innovative, so was its arc-welded monocoque (unitized body). Most other cars of the era were based on a separate frame (chassis) onto which the non-structural body ("coachwork") was built. Monocoque construction (also called Unit Body or "Unibody" today) results in a lighter vehicle, and is now used for virtually all car construction, although body-on-frame construction is still suitable for larger vehicles such as trucks.

This method of construction was viewed with great suspicion in many quarters, with doubts about its strength. A type of crash test was developed, taking the form of driving the car off a cliff, to illustrate its great inherent resilience.

The novel design made the car seem very low-slung relative to its contemporaries — the Traction Avant always possessed a unique look, which went from appearing rakish in 1934 to familiar and somewhat old fashioned by 1955.

The suspension was very advanced for the car's era. The front wheels were independently sprung, using a torsion bar and wishbone suspension arrangement, where most contemporaries used live axle and cart-type leaf spring designs. The rear suspension was a simple steel beam axle and Panhard rod, trailing arms and torsion bars attached to a 3-inch (76 mm) steel tube, which in turn was bolted to the "monocoque".

Since it was considerably lighter than "conventional" designs of the era, it was capable of 100 km/h (62 mph), and consumed gasoline / petrol only at the rate of 10 litres per 100 kilometres (28 mpg_-imp; 24 mpg_-US).

Some summarized history

about the one on display during Heritage Days on September 19th and 20th.

The Traction Avant was quickly noticed by the Police-Headquarter which then shopped around for a sturdy, access friendly, fast and road capable car. Selecting the Citroën was not a surprise.

In 1939, the first cars were put in use. Together with strenghened torsion bars and an hydraulic braking system, the cars delivered to the HQ came along with a bulbed custom arranged grille, which concealed an advanced radio set for communication while batteries were fitted in the boot.
Last but not least, deilivered cars were powered by the 11 CV/1911 cc engine. The car on display was restored in 2008.

Main missions conducted with the Tractions were escort and security over a long period of time.

From 1945 ownwards, the Traction-Avants became a must among the pieces of equipment in use by the "Police Judiciaire" or "PJ" as most refer to the department. As the detective division of the national police, the "PJ" is the French equivalent of the Yard.