COBI Citroen Traction 7C Set 2264

COBI's Citroën Traction 7C Cabriolet is a 1:35 model built from 199 blocks, 13.5 cm long, in a light body colour used for the first time in the range. The boot opens and holds a cleverly placed extra seat. A figure of the car's owner with a dog is included, plus a brick with the vehicle name and the period Citroën logo. All markings are printed.

The logo is a gear, and it came from Poland

The two chevrons on every Citroën are not an abstract mark. They are gear teeth.

André Citroën, travelling in Poland as a young engineer around 1900, came across a workshop using double-helical gears — teeth cut at an angle in a V rather than straight across. The shape meant the teeth engaged progressively instead of all at once, which made the gears quieter and able to carry more load.

He bought the rights, built a business manufacturing them, and made the tooth profile his company's emblem. It is still on every Citroën sold today, and almost nobody who parks one knows they are looking at a gear.

The dickey seat

The extra seat in the boot is an accurate detail. Before the war, two-seat cabriolets frequently had a folding seat in the luggage compartment — a dickey seat in Britain, a spider in France — where one or two passengers sat in the open behind the roof, exposed to everything. It was cheaper than building a four-seat body and it was considered perfectly normal.

The Traction Avant

The family pioneered three things now on every car: a unitary body with no separate chassis, independent suspension on all four wheels, and front-wheel drive. The 7C is the smaller-engined version of the range.

In the COBI range

The other 1:35 Tractions are sets 2263, 2265, 2266 and 2267. Set 24336 is the 1:12 Traction Avant Executive Edition.

Specifications

Pieces: 199 · Figures: 1 with a dog · Scale: 1:35 · Opening boot with extra seat
Model dimensions: 13.5 × 5 cm (5.3 × 2.0 in)