Description
A total of 1, 229 Big 6's left the Slough Factory, 370 in 1950. This car was built in the summer of 1950 and was first registered in 1951 in South Africa. It has travelled a long way in its life living in Australia and other parts of Africa. It returned to the UK in 2013 via Switzerland.
I acquired the car in September 2016 and over the next 3 years completed a no expense spared ground up restoration costing considerably more than the asking price.
This car is the best Big 6 in the UK and probably in Europe, it has a current MOT certificate and is Road Tax Exempt.
The car has been upgraded to provide effortless touring on today’s roads including:
Power Steering, LED lighting, DRL’s, High Level Brake Light, Rear Fog Light, 5 x Inertia Reel Seat Belts, One ISOFIX child’s seat attachment, Electric Fan and Water Pump, Period Cabin Heater and a Retro Radio with Bluetooth and Hands Free. Fully documented history of the rebuild with photographs and of the car’s previous life.
This car will put a smile on you face every time you drive it. Front wheel drive, indipendant torsion bar suspension, telescopic dampers, rack and pinion steering, hydraulic brakes and much more make this a fantastic car to drive.
We have just completed a 1, 000-mile trip to France with no issues.
This car is fast, comfortable, and super reliable.
Andre Citroen was confident that a new car would save Citroen from the depression in the early 1930’s and when the all-new Traction Avant ‘7’ (and larger ’11’) was first shown in the spring of 1934, it incorporated the most up to date technology including hydraulic brakes, torsion bar suspension and a brand new engine driving the front wheels all packaged in a low-slung aerodynamic unibody construction designed by Flaminio Bertoni.
The Traction Avant (front-wheel drive) quickly captured the market for executive cars in France after the war and became popular in countries such as Austria, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. They were also built in Belgium and in the Citroen factory in Slough, Buckinghamshire - which is where this example was created.
The Slough built cars were available in a greater range of colours other than Black! and were more luxurious featuring leather seats, a wooden dash and oversized headlamps and electrics courtesy of Lucas. The Big Six was introduced in 1938 and UK production totalled around 1, 300 ending in 1955 just as they began to trial hydro-pneumatic suspension before the arrival of the DS.
They were affectionately called “la Reine de la route” (Queen of the road).
Considered an important export market for Citroën, the company’s British subsidiary built cars from 1925 – 1966 in its factory at Slough (then part of Buckinghamshire), to the west of London. The Customs regulations required that manufacturers from the Continent fit as many local parts as possible to their cars and the parent company therefore only sent the body and major mechanical components across the Channel, without any ancillary equipment.
