Census for Pre-war Traction Owners

Nicolas Desgroppes has a passion for pre-war Traction Avants. He lives in Lyon France, owns and drives a Traction 7C, and is working on census that he intends to publish to give owners the opportunity to talk each other. One of the benefits will be to enable them to hone in on the subtle differences about their cars depending on the month they were built.

In June 2019, after attending a meeting about the Traction Avant, Nicolas decided to make a census of them. Today, he has records of more than 350 Tractions built in between 1934 and 1945.

The goal of the census is to:

• Confirm the identification numbers for each car
• Give the month and the year of production of the car.
• Put owners in contact with each other
• Organize a meeting in Lyon (France) in 2022.

If you own a pre-war Traction you can register your car by emailing him at authentiqtrac@gmx.fr or on Facebook at: Authentiq Trac or by phone — 06 84 33 14 80.

Please try to include your Traction’s serie number, coque number and carrosserie number. In that time of Citroën’s history, the serie number was given when the car is sold, the coque number appeared when the car is at the end of build line, and the body number was put on the car when the body is just finished (when steel was put together). We all know that many of theses old cars have been gradually modified : engine, seats, motors, etc… So far, Nicolas has found that more than 80 cars have lost their identification numbers or have the wrong one.

And here’s some interesting info that Nicolas has discovered:

• On Roadster’s body the number is always a cold strike.
• Before November 1937, the body number is always a cold strike.
• Up to November 1937, except for the Roadsters, each body number begins with a letter and is located under the glove box.