1937 Citroen 7C Traction Avant

The Traction Avant was introduced in 1934 to showcase a new design by Flaminio Bertoni and André Lefèbvre. Born in 1894, André Lefebvre was the father of most of the important early Citroëns, such as Traction Avant, the Type H, the 2CV, and the DS. He was a brilliant aeronautical engineer who learned the essence of his art for 15 years with Gabriel Voisin, and a brief stint at Renault before beginning his career at Citroen, lasting until 1958. During his career, he would revolutionize the emerging world of the automobile industry due to his foresight and independence of thinking.

The 'Traction Avant' name denotes its front-wheel-drive configuration. With its monocoque body and unique front-wheel-drive design, the Traction Avant 7CV introduced a rakish new low-slung silhouette, accomplished by the absence of a separate frame. The all-independent suspension was sprung by torsion bars and wishbones in the front while the rear used a steel beam axle and a Panhard rod, trailing arms, and torsion bars. Stopping power was by hydraulic brakes. The four-cylinder, wet-linter engine had overhead valves and was backed by a synchromesh transmission. The worm and roller steering system was used through May of 1936 when it was replaced by a rack and pinion setup.

Initially, the Traction Avant saloon, called the 7A, rested on a 2,910 mm wheelbase, equipped with a 1,303cc engine, and had front suicide doors with rear conventional doors. The 7A was succeeded in June 1934 by the 7B which came equipped with a 1,529cc engine and the prior single wiper was replaced by two windshield wipers. By September of 1934, with 15,620 examples of the 7B having been built, it was succeeded in October of that year by the 7C with a 1,628cc engine. The 11CV joined the lineup in November of 1934 and used a 1,911cc four-cylinder engine, and the 15/6 was launched in June of 1938 equipped with a 2,867cc six-cylinder engine. The Traction Avant 11 was launched in two forms, the 11 B (Normale) and the 11 BL (for Légère, or Light) with a slightly smaller body.

The example on display at the 29th Paris Motor Show in October of 1935 displayed several restyling revisions including a painted front grille replacing the previous chrome unit. In the back was an opening luggage hatch/lid making it no longer necessary to reach over the back seats to get at the luggage space at the rear of the passenger cabin. The new latch made it necessary to reposition the rear license (number) plate which had typically resided centrally above the bumper. Its new location was now on the rear wing on the left side.

A Familiale (family) model was introduced in 1936 which had three rows of seats and could accommodate up to nine adults. When the middle row was not in use, it could be folded away, providing ample rear legroom for the back rows.

Along with four-door body styles, the factory also produced a convertible and a two-door coupe, both with a rumble seat.

Numerous modifications and upgrades were introduced over its 27 years production lifespan and over 760,000 examples were built including 69,500 examples were 7C models. In 1957, it was supplanted by the Citroën DS model that had been introduced two years earlier.

by Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2021