Citroën Traction Avant

Terence McAuley spotted his 1956 Traction Avant Commerciale for sale at the side of the road whilst travelling in France. A week later, it was on its way to a new life in the UK.

Rare Commerciale version comes to the UK.

Occasionally, a classic car enthusiast ends up acquiring a rare vehicle almost entirely by chance. In 1990 that happened to Terence McAuley when he was en route to visit a friend in France and encountered his first and only Traction Avant. 'I had no intention of buying the Citroën,' he says, 'but when passing through Brittany, I noticed a For Sale sign outside a farmhouse. There were in fact two Tractions for sale – a Legère that had been done up and this example.’

Naturally, Terence could not resist such intriguing machines, and the vendor took him for a test drive in the second Traction Avant. He recalls: 'Her condition was at best running- ish in the French manner. There were holes in the floor, but at least the engine still functioned and I was driven around the village. I paid a deposit on it and returned the following week with a trailer to bring the Traction to the UK.’

Any Traction Avant merits the term special, but Terence’s latest car was one of the rarest variants you could hope to find. Citroën launched the 11CV Commerciale in April 1938, four years after the saloon. It shared its long wheelbase with the nine-seat Familiale, and the primary sales feature was a horizontally split tailgate. Buyers could even specify a pair of ramps for rolling wine barrels into the load bay as Citroën marketed the Commerciale to winemakers, hoteliers, butchers, dairies, bakers and farmers.

As Terence notes: ‘Citroën intended that the Commerciale would be used for business during the week and then to transport the owner and family to church on Sunday.’ It was capable of carrying 500kg of bread or milk churns, and one brochure photograph displayed the Traction ready to take cows and six sheep to market. However, just 3500 examples left the factory before the outbreak of the Second World War, and production of the Commerciale did not resume until 1954.

The post-war Commerciale now sported a single-piece tailgate with the ‘big boot.’ Production ended in 1956, a year before the last Traction saloon and two years before the launch of the D Safari. Terence’s Traction is one of the last of 9258 post-war examples, and to see it is to be reminded how different it was from the Humber Hawk and the Standard Vanguard Phase III. Terence says: ‘ The UK assembly plant in Slough did build 24 Familiales and one Commerciale, but they were sent off to Australia and never marketed in Britain.’

To ensure his Commerciale was a car for ‘ semaine au travail... Dimanche en promenade’ (a week at work... a Sunday outing) Terence had to undertake a considerable amount of refurbishment.

In his words: ‘I did meet the original owners and they told me their brother ordered the Traction new, but the waiting list for delivery was so long that he died before he could take the wheel. His siblings subsequently used the Commerciale around their farm for the next 30 years, and they then left it on their property. As they parked the Traction on a slight slope, this allowed water to gather in the

bodywork. A friend of mine remarked that it looked like it had been stored underwater, and I had to spend about a year with a MIG welder setting the bodywork to rights.’

The Commerciale may have been Terence’s first Traction, but he soon learned – as had many an owner before him – that Citroën did not feel the need to install sill drain holes into the main bodyshell of any version. In addition, the floorpans are susceptible to corrosion, and signs of rust on the outer sills can denote serious problems hidden from view. The attachment of the rear suspension also needs careful checking, as do the bottoms of the C-pillars behind the rear doors. Tractions also frequently suffer from inadequate sealing on the scuttle vent in front of the windscreen. The result is often an ingress of water, and of course yet more rust. However, overall the Traction is not as rust-prone as this litany makes it appear because the steel is of good quality.

Terence observes: ‘I never quite resolved the vent issue, but at least the Commerciale does not suffer from some of the issues known to plague Slough-built Tractions. French cars had flashing indicators,

while the British models had trafficators, and the vertical slots on the B-pillars were prone to letting in water which ran down to the sills. Body flex was a common fault with the early long-wheelbase models with symmetrical doors, with ripples in the panels behind the rear ones denoting this problem. Fortunately, cutaway doors as on the standard saloon were soon fitted, which largely sorted the problem.'

But the bodywork was far from the end of Terence’s concerns. ‘The engine was completely shot, and the front subframe had to be removed to access the running gear. I had to send the motor away to a restorer, and the front suspension was also in a terrible state because it had not been maintained for so long,' he said. 'But I still managed to have the Commerciale taxed and MoT'd within a year.’ At this point, the purists should avert their eyes as this Traction now features several modifications for ease of driving, including modern CV driveshafts. 'The original set-up wears out quickly and gives a vast turning circle' says Terence, 'but the CV shafts last forever and allow a significantly smaller turning circle, making the car easier to manoeuvre.'

The most significant change was the gearbox. The standard Traction transmission is a three-speed unit controlled by a ‘mustard spoon’ dashboard-mounted lever. Terence decided to fit the DS four-speed gearbox on the grounds of reliability. ‘It does not make a great improvement to performance, but it is also far more durable,' he explains. 'The box looks the same and bolts to the same engine, but it is quieter and virtually bomb-proof. The Traction’s gearbox was cobbled together in a hurry in 1934 when an early attempt at an automatic gearbox proved unworkable, and it is prone to blowing up without warning. There were linkage problems, a slightly odd rod arrangement and the synchromesh on second and top gears was beatable. But my car now has the DS column change hidden behind the dashboard, and it functions very well.’

Further modifications include fitting seat belts at the front and installing a radiator shutter for easier starting in cold weather. ‘It is an industrial unit with eight vanes controlled from the dashboard, and the shutter really does help with winter motoring,' says Terence. 'Consequent on the gearbox change, I also installed a DS water pump and dynamo, but the latter now blocks the heater pipe.’ The Traction’s (minimal) heating was achieved via a tube from the radiator to the cabin. Meanwhile, depending on the season, the opening windscreen provides demisting, air conditioning and climate control.

Terence has also equipped his Traction with a high torque

starter motor, but decided against an aftermarket electronic ignition on the grounds that it could go wrong, and he did not relish the prospect of fiddling about with that by the roadside on a dark night. But a new distributor and starter make the Commerciale go even when it is stone cold, whereas the old set-up used to whirr around ambiguously. KSL 246 now features a 12-volt electrical system in place of the original 6-volt SEV Marchal/ Ducellier set- up. ‘ The Slough cars were 12-volt from the outset, but the Lucas electrics were not always reliable,’ says Terence.

Twenty-five years ago the Traction received a respray, with further work on the wings and tailgate undertaken since then. It suffered a minor crunch in 2021, but there have fortunately been no such incidents since then. As the Commerciale shares nearly all its parts with the Normale saloon, Terence finds sourcing most of them as easy as finding spares for a Morris Minor 1000 – the owners’ club operates a comprehensive parts service, while there are also various European suppliers in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Obviously a new tailgate and complete bodyshell can be very hard to obtain, but otherwise there are few problems.

On the road, Terence finds the Traction to be wonderful to drive. 'It is like a modern car, albeit slower,' he says. 'That said, one advantage of the last post-1955 Tractions is that they have the slightly more powerful 11D engine. There are no real challenges, and the drum brakes are good when they are properly maintained. The rack and pinion steering is excellent, light (once on the move) and precise, and you can understand why people used their Tractions for decades. The ride is soft and compliant, and the suspension still feels as if it can cope with any challenge.’

In fact, the Traction’s road manners belie its pre-war appearance. Terence believes: ‘It would have been hard for Citroën to sell the post-war Commerciale in the UK as it seemed completely outdated in terms of creature comforts

and looks, if not performance. But while a large British estate handles like a ship in a gale, the Traction never feels it is about to tip over. It is a lightweight car as there is no chassis, and you never feel that you have to slow down for bends. I also find the suicide front doors excellent for the older driver. Rolls- Royce again use them on their latest cars, and they do make for an elegant exit. The story that they are prone to flying open is nonsense as the Traction bodyshell is rigid. The whole side is a one piece pressing, rather than the ash frames of a typical 1934 design.’

As a 1950s Commerciale, this Traction has the same light grey cloth trim as the saloon. 'The pre-war models were more spartan,' he explains. 'The interior was in dark green washable Rexine, and Citroën also fitted a drain tap in the floor for easy cleaning and draining. The post-war Commerciale upholstery was not ideal for transporting pigs or irate farm animal and there was a sense that the original concept had been diluted, but the post-war cars are easier to live with, and I did once mock up the Citroën advertisement with wine barrels on a ramp.’

If the Commerciale looks imposing from the outside, the cabin is a mixture of simplicity, Art Deco and mysterious switches that appear to have been borrowed from The Nautilus. Slough-built versions sported a veneered dashboard and leather seats, which many French enthusiasts believe is an after-market modification ( c’est du bricolage!). Instead, French cars are the Traction au naturelle with an interior décor that is several shades of grey. Another minor point of preference is that RHD Tractions have all three pedals squashed into the footwell. On LHD cars, the accelerator is out on the firewall, giving more space for big feet.

It virtually goes without saying that the Commerciale attracts a vast amount of attention. Terence uses it as Citroën intended during the week – as a workhorse. ‘I regularly take it to the supermarket, garden centre and even to the local tip laden with garden rubbish. It has also frequently been taken abroad, and I have visited Spain, Switzerland, the Pyrenees, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.' At home, the Commerciale regularly stuns members of the public, and Terence is now used to his Citroën being photographed when he visits the petrol station. A few Britons of a certain age instantly associate the Traction with the 1960-1963 BBC adaptation of Maigret, but the books used a 15/6H saloon. Terence further notes: ‘ The recent Rowan Atkinson ITV series did feature a Commerciale, but of course Inspector Maigret himself would never have been seen dead in such a car!’

The debate about whether or not the original Commerciale was the first hatchback is as tedious as being forced to watch 3000 editions of EastEnders. Instead, Terence's Citroën should be celebrated for its versatility and road manners that belie its age. His Traction may have lines that are almost 90 years old, but it is utterly at home in 2023 traffic. It is a car that seems to transcend time.

With Thanks To: Terence McAuley and The Traction Owners’ Club – https:// traction-owners.co.uk/