Cars

André Citroën, the founder of Citroën, was first and foremost a communicator. To promote the brand’s products and image, he decided to take Citroën vehicles to the furthest reaches of the globe–from the heart of Africa with its immense stretches of desert to the untamed tracks of Asia.

During the German occupation of France in World War II, gasoline was scarce, expensive, and often unavailable. Several companies offered systems for a vehicle to be powered by alternative fuels such as wood, coal, or charcoal. This car has been converted by Fap Elgazo Tarbes to run on coal. Adaptions were necessary to alter the vehicle from gas power to coal burner.

The Citroën BX was launched with much fanfare on September 23, 1982, at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. It became available to the public in 1983 with many different models being introduced. 

The Citroën CX was introduced in 1974 and voted “European Car of the Year” in 1975. It is considered by some enthusiasts to be the last “real” Citroën as it was designed before Peugeot took control of the company in 1974. The CX was a huge success in Europe although, unlike its competitors, it did not gain world-wide distribution. 

This car was purpose built by Dave Burnham who began his career in the world of Citroën by accepting a job as a mechanic in John Carmichael’s Citroën dealership and repair shop in New York.

When the Citroën D Series or DS (pronounced DAY-ess and sounding quite appropriately like the French word for goddess) was introduced at the 1955 Paris Auto Salon, it turned quite a few heads and booked 12,000 orders on the show’s first day.

Introduced at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September, 1973, the Birotor was a bit of a surprise. Citroën had elected to fit the Wankel into a mid-level GS, rather than a top-of-the-line DS.