This Traction Avant from the Terra America Expedition is now for sale in Mexico City. Fanny Adam drove it from Anchorage Alaska to Mexico City and has been stored for a year and a half in Mexico City. (The reason for the sale is that with the closing of the Citroën Conservatoire in Paris, Fanny lost her essential financial support for the expediton. We featured articles about the expedition’s preparations, launch (and re-launch of Stage 1), and Stage 2 previously in Citroënvie).
The Traction has an interesting history. Robert Muller, its former owner traveled many times around the world in it.
History & Technical information about this exceptional TRACTION 11B:
It left the Javel factory in April 1956 and was purchased in 2005 by its previous owner, Mr. Robert Muller – an experienced a supplier of special mechanical parts for rally cars. Muller specially adapted the car to carry out major raids. (There was no loss of an original 11B model due to this preparation because Mr. Muller purchased it in 2005 without an engine).
Muller participated, for fifteen years driving it around the world, in the following trips organized by the associations; Globe Driver, Tractions sans Frontières, Traction Euro-Travel, and La Traction Universelle:
- 2006 Australia
- 2007 Morocco, Russia
- 2008 Morocco
- 2008 Italy, Northern Europe
- 2008 Argentina
- 2010 Malaysia, Thailand
- 2012 Andes mountain range
- 2013 Sardinia
- 2014 Switzerland, Germany, Austria
- 2015 Corsica
- 2016 Greece
- 2017 Portugal, Sicily
From year to year, the preparation was perfected, taking into account the experience acquired by all the participants in these raids, to arrive at what is considered today as the ultimate in the field.
Since these trips, the car was completely overhauled for the Terra America Expedition. Objectives of the preparation work for the Expedition included:
Reliability: The original Traction is a robust car, mechanically simple, reliable for everyday use, and can be described as “all-terrain”. The fact remains that to carry out long-distance raids, sometimes on tracks, far from any possibility of intervention by qualified personnel, with a very limited capacity to carry spare parts, the original model must be completely reliable.
Safety: The need to be able to fit into modern traffic requiring certain safety adaptations: see better, be seen, brake in an emergency, and secure passengers.
Comfort: Comfort was improved to allow for extended daily driving times and to cope with extreme climates.
These are the reasons why the following modifications were made, while respecting the principle of using, for the most part, only Citroën parts, most of them from the models that succeeded the Traction in direct lineage.
- Hull: body reinforcements, bodywork overhauled and repainted.
- Engine and Gearbox: DX2 engine rebuilt (35,000 km today), 5 bearings, 5-speed gearbox he engine rebuilt (35,000 km today), the bodywork overhauled and repainted.
- Large capacity radiator and dual ventilation
- Electricity: 12V, alternator, electronic ignition.
- Electric fuel pump and 70-litre stainless steel tank
- Triangulation reinforcement of the front axle
- Power steering
- Front disc brakes + assistance and silicone fluid, stainless steel lines
- Suspension by original torsion bars, reinforced shock absorbers
- BX velvet seats, with headrests
- Miscellaneous: Seat belts, powerful lighting, laminated windscreen, thermal and sound insulation, hazard lights.
- Windscreen and headlight protections
- Storage trunks bolted to the body
- Additional heating.
During its journey from northern Alaska (Dalton Highway) to Mexico City, the 11B did not experience any mechanical problems.
Price: $25,000 USD.
Contact Fanny Adam at; + 33 ( 0 ) 689 119 13 or fy.adam@gmail.com.
