FUEL News

Jaguar announces plan to build six new ‘Lightweight’ E-types.

The Citroën Traction Avant celebrates eighty years in 2014. Launched in 1934 as the ‘7A, the new model was soon referred to by the general public as the 'Traction Avant' for its front-wheel-drive system – a first for a production model. The aim with the ‘7A’, developed in just twelve months, was to distance Citroën from its rivals and bring the brand lasting success. André Citroën pulled out all the stops to that end, setting up a team of ultra-talented individuals. The car was presented to the press on 18 April 1934. The very next day, the motorsport daily L’Auto wrote of the new model, ‘It is so new, so daring, so packed with original solutions, and so different, that it deserves the epithet ‘sensational’.’ A concentration of technologies, the Traction Avant was a game-changer, laying waste to existing technical doctrine to establish a new definition of the automobile. It was fast yet economical, boasted peerless roadholding, and featured distinctive styling in comparison to the square-shaped bodies of the time. Three models were produced over the twenty-three year lifetime of the car: the ‘7’, the ‘11’ and the ‘15 Six’. Some 759,123 units were assembled at Citroën’s Javel plant in Paris – the birthplace of the famous brand – and at production sites in Slough (UK), Forest ( Belgium) and Cologne (Germany). Eighty years later, people are still talking about the mighty Traction Avant!