COBI Citroen Traction Avant 11CV 1938 Set 24337

COBI's Citroën Traction Avant 11CV 1938 is a 1:12 model built from 1,900 blocks, 37 cm long, under Citroën licence. The steering wheel turns the front wheels, the doors open, the bonnet tilts to a brick-built engine, the boot opens, and the interior is modelled throughout. Blocks come in numbered bags.

The name on the box was never the car's name

Citroën never sold a car called the Traction Avant. The models were the 7, the 11 and the 15 — numbers taken from the French fiscal horsepower rating used to calculate road tax, which had nothing to do with actual power.

Traction avant simply means front-wheel drive in French, and it was what everybody said instead. The car was so completely identified with the feature that the description replaced the name, and Citroën eventually stopped resisting.

The same thing happened again later with the DS, pronounced déesse — goddess — which was a pun the factory did intend.

Three things that are now on every car

Front-wheel drive, a unitary body with no separate chassis, and independent suspension on all four wheels. The 1934 Traction had all three, and no other mass-produced car did.

Front-wheel drive alone was a considerable gamble: it demands constant-velocity joints that can transmit power through a steering angle, and in 1934 those were new and not entirely trusted. The payoff was a flat floor, a low roofline and handling that made contemporary rear-drive saloons feel agricultural.

It stayed in production until 1957 and sold around three quarters of a million.

In the COBI range

Set 24336 is the Executive Edition of the same car, with a display stand and nameplate. The 1:35 Tractions are sets 2263, 2264, 2265, 2266 and 2267.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,900 · Scale: 1:12 · Licensed by Citroën · Working steering, opening doors, bonnet and boot
Model length: 37 cm (14.6 in)