Citroën 11B (1954)

14-38-JE (owned from 19-05-2006 until 02-08-2008)

Later in 2006 the Morris Minor was the only classic car left in my garage. I would have liked to replace the Sierra fivespeed gearbox in the Minor by an automatic, but a Marina or Ital autobox was impossible to find. A more interesting conversion was a Citroen Traction Avant that was fitted with a Renault 16 engine and autobox. The owner of that car lived not far away and I went to have a look. I decided to carry out a similar project and started looking for a suitable Traction, preferably a pre 1952 version, but that was not found. Instead a 1954 11B was acquired which was not very much to my liking, but it was in a good condition and not too expensive. I replaced the bumpers with pre 1952 ones and mounted a spare wheel lid on the ugly trunk, which improved the looks a bit. Peculiar detail was that Renault 16 seats had been fitted already by a previous owner, who had also converted the electrics to 12V. When I traced down the history of the car, it appeared that even a Renalut 16 engine had been fitted in the eighties, but it had been replaced by an original engine because the car proved impossible to sell at the time....

So I went on the lookout for a Renault 16TX automatic, but a reasonble priced car was not found. After two years of searching I ran out of patience and decided to sell the Traction, also because an original Traction Avant is a slow and not particularly user friendly car with that prehistoric and vulnerable threespead gearbox of the thirties. 

Below you can see photos of the Traction with the R16 automatic transmission.