Citroën Traction Avant: the bet Citroën lost How an aviation engineer, an Italian sculptor, a trip to Philadelphia and an impossible 18-month deadline gave birth to the car that made half the European industry obsolete, ruined its creator, and laid down the technical DNA of every Citroën that followed Paris, 18 April 1934. Motor Show. … Read more
Citroën Hydropneumatics: Changed the Auto Industry Forever The system a self-taught engineer designed in 1954, that Rolls-Royce and Mercedes ended up paying to license, and that Citroën kept in production until 2017 There are three ways to make a car absorb a bump. The first, used by 99 per cent of the world’s automotive fleet: … Read more
The Last Real Citroën. And the World’s Fastest Diesel. How a French saloon designed to replace the DS ended up setting world records, ferrying a communist head of state to his office, and being the last car with pure Citroën DNA before PSA homogenised the marque September 1974. Paris Motor Show. Citroën enters formal financial … Read more
The GT That Sank Citroën and Took Maserati Down Too Citroën SM: how an Italian V6, a steering system that wouldn’t talk back, and a French manufacturer’s ambition turned the most advanced Grand Tourer of its era into the most expensive industrial bill in seventies European motoring Geneva Motor Show, March 1970. Citroën stand. A … Read more
A War Ace Designed It. He Made It of Plastic. It Ran 20 Years. Citroën Méhari: how a Normandie-Niemen fighter pilot, a shampoo sachet and the presidency of Citroën put one of the first thermoformed-ABS-bodied production cars on the road Deauville, 16 May 1968. Golf course. France is on fire. Paris is shut down. Students … Read more
The Supercar That Dared to Be Comfortable: The Maserati Bora’s Secret French Heart Ask any supercar of 1971 the questions that actually mattered to an owner and you’d usually get a sneer. Can I climb in without wrecking my back? Can I drive it for two hours without going deaf? Can I park it without … Read more
The 2CV Wasn’t a Car. It Was a Spec Sheet Turned to Steel. Citroën 2CV and AK400: how Boulanger’s design brief wrote the car before anyone picked up a pencil You’re going to read it a thousand times. The 2CV was “four wheels under an umbrella.” It’s a lovely slogan and it sells itself, but … Read more
The Van That Stole Junkers’ Bomber Skin and Ran 34 Years Citroën Type H: corrugated steel, unibody construction, and the lesson the industry still hasn’t learned Paris, October 1947. Motor Show. There’s a beast on the Citroën stand that doesn’t look like anything else on Earth. Pig snout up front. Corrugated metal flanks like a … Read more
PSA XUD: The Indestructible Atmospheric Diesel That Moved an Entire Continent If any engine deserves the title “workhorse of Europe,” it’s the PSA XUD. It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t powerful. It had no turbo, no sophisticated electronic injection, nothing that could be considered remotely exciting. But it had something worth more than all of that … Read more
