Citroën Traction Avant

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The Citroën Traction Avant (French pronunciation: [tʁaksjɔnaˈvɑ̃]) is the world's first mass-produced, semi-monocoque bodied, front-wheel drive car. A range of mostly four-door saloons and executive cars, as well as longer wheelbased "Commerciale", and three row seating "Familiale" models, were produced with four- and six-cylinder engines, by French carmaker Citroën from 1934 to 1957. With some 760,000 units built, the Traction Avants were the first front-wheel drives made in such (six-figure) quantity. Whilst front-wheel drive and four-wheel independent suspension had been established in production cars by Auto Union, and subsequently by others a few years prior – the Traction Avant pioneered integrating these into a mass-production car with a crash resistant, largely unitary, monocoque body. Additionally, the car was also an early adopter of rack and pinion steering. Although the car's name ("Traction Avant" literally means "front traction") emphasized its front-wheel drive power delivery...

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