This Citroen Ad from 1963 covers a key selling point of the DS which was that its Aerodynamic Styling allows it to have a fairly small engine giving good fuel consumption but still allowing a 100mph top speed. This shows a 2nd nose DS and shows various streamlining features that allow this performance and fuel consumption. Citroen’s Aerodynamic Styling Pays Off How Citroen...
The Traction Avant has a fairly large oil cap that at least on my car is a loose fit. Underneath it there is a metal plate with holes in it which let the oil drain into the engine when filling and presumably stop the oil from splashing out. Unfortunately on my car, these holes had been significantly enlarged and that means oil was dribbling...
When I purchased my Citroen DS21, what attracted me to it was that it was the model I wanted and virtually rust free. It provided a solid foundation, but needed a bit of attention on some cosmetic items to get it where I wanted to be. This post is meant as a summary of some of the improvements that I have done since I...
I helped out a friend today for a wedding with the Traction Avant. Tractions are not often seen as wedding cars, but they are rather striking and work pretty well. For this wedding two Light 15s were used. The big bodied cars would probably work better, but the light 15 was roomy enough for five people. You do notice the...
October 18, 1953 The Citroen is as stable as it appears possible to make a car under our present design technique. Un-doubtedly the out-standing characteristic of the car is the way it holds on to the road surface, particularly on corners and bends. Although the Citroen was designed in France about 19 years ago, it has persisted essentially in its original form, with the...
The front indicator lenses on the DS were badly cracked and discoloured, so it seemed like a good idea to replace them. They are available aftermarket and are quite easy to change over. I had started what I assumed would be a quick job a while ago, but the new lenses used spade connectors instead of bullet connectors and I did not have...
Driving a car from the 50’s often means impatient drives roaring around you when you set off from traffic lights, especially uphill. Sydney drivers are particularly bad for this. Traction Avants, as with most 50’s cars are only fitted with a small interior rear-view mirror and no outside mirror. This makes parking and lane changing a challenge. I had seen many tractions...
Every classic car community has an issue that polarizes opinion and spawns countless threads on Internet discussion boards. For the Citroen DS, that issue is what is the right tyre for the DS? Michelin were the owners of Citroen during the entire production run of the DS. During that time they pioneered the radial tyre, which was introduced in 1949. The Radial was...
In October 1955, Citroen unveiled one of the most innovative cars ever designed. There have been plenty of new cars that have introduced a new technology, or even a couple, but the DS was so radical that it immediately made everything else on the market seem old fashioned. And this was just the looks. Under the covers, the car contained a revolutionary...
The indicator lenses on my DS were all cracked, and the backing was in poor condition. I purchased a replacement set online, which look a whole lot better. I went to do the swap over today, but for whatever reason, the new indicators cannot simply plug into the factory wiring harness, they have spade terminals when the car uses bullets. Its not that...
I don’t normally post about routine things such as oil changes, but in this case, there is an aspect to the oil change that is not obvious and is worth mentioning. In general, the DS oil change is well covered on the Internet, as are the warnings to ensure the filter housing is properly aligned when inserted back into the sump. The DS...
I seem to have a habit of buying Citroens that have ditch water in their cooling system. I spent quite a bit of time flushing out the system of the DS21, and now I need to do the same for the traction. The Traction currently has a habit of marking its territory after every drive with a nice dirty stain where the...
My Light 15 was awarded 2nd prize in the pre-1956 Citroen category at the 2015 French Car Day. I hadn’t planned to enter the car, but did since there were only a couple of Tractions there. 1st prize went to a nice Big 15. Without a lot of effort I should be able to do better as I was obviously marked down...
The DS is back together and sporting pretty much a whole new interior. The new sill trim is complete and the seats have been refitted and carpets re-installed. I’m really happy with the results and glad I didn’t try and make a part-Pallas. The Pallas cars have carpet instead of this trim, and many non-Pallas cars have this carpet installed but not...
The project to replace the sill trim progresses well. The glue had done a good job with the passengers side trim in part 3, so I proceeded to glue down the drivers side as well. While this set, I was able to re-attach the seatbelt and then start working on re-attaching the lower stainless steel trim. The stainless steel trim is quite...
The installation of the new sill trim in the DS progresses. Today I was able to glue down the passengers side of the car after doing some final trimming to size (mostly done in part 2). I ended up using an entire can of spray adhesive, as the underside of the trim absorbs a lot of the glue. Unfortunately, I...
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