Vehicle Description
Lemon Yellow/Gloss BlackPleated red leather bucket seats in good
conditionTop in good conditionRuns and drives Appointed in yellow
and black livery with red leather interior, this Citroen is
presentable in its present condition. It also bears a badge on the
radiator indicating a previous owner was a member of the Antique
Car Club in Portugal but research has been unable to confirm this.
The vehicle serial number indicates that it was built in the 1925
model year spanning October through September and was possibly sold
in the 1926 model year. French automobile designer Andre Citroen
was, in many ways, a man far ahead of his time. His second car
design, the Citroen Type C, is widely recognized as the first
mass-produced European automobile and his founding of a consumer
finance company allowing his product to be sold on credit to
customers opened a previously untapped market and is a concept that
carries forward almost a century later. Citroen was also something
of a maverick. At a time when the French government was offering
manufacturers tax incentives to produce cyclecars, Citroen chose to
enter the small car market that was dominated by Peugot and Renault
at that time with the Type C. Introduced in 1922 and manufactured
through June 1926, the Citroen 5CV featured a sleek body design
leading to it being called the Torpedo. The tapered rear section,
or boat tail, further added to the streamlined design. Over the
course of the production run the body was lengthened approximately
four inches and two different models were offered with a three-seat
option beginning in 1924. The initial three-seater offered a
folding third seat but beginning in 1925 a permanent third seat
arrangement, known as the Trefle (cloverleaf) became available and
continued through the end of the production run. Citroen continued
to show his innovative style through his marketing of the Type C.
All of the print advertising for the automobile showed it being
driven by a young woman, which was definitely unusual for the time.
From a sales standpoint Citroen's efforts were successful, as a
total of nearly 83,000 units were sold over the production run
through a worldwide dealer network supported by factories in
several countries. The heart of the Citroen 5CV was the 856cc
four-cylinder engine capable of propelling the car to a speed of 60
MPH. Power was transmitted to the rear wheels via a
non-synchronized three speed manual transmission. The frame design
was modified slightly over the course of production to allow for
the increased size of the three-seat models but offered sufficient
rigidity to support the wood body structure. Entry to the vehicle
was via a single door located on the passenger side of the right
hand drive automobile. While the two-seat models offered a bench
seat, the three-seat units were fitted with front bucket seats
allowing a passage to reach the single third seat. On either side
of the rear seat were small closed storage compartments.
