Rear Wheel Drive

The Type C 5HP (the very small Citroën) appeared in the summer of 1922 and was intended to capture the “cycle car” and “ladies” markets. It was small and lightweight with an engine of 856 cc. It also had an electric starter !! Cycle cars it should be explained were cheap, very small and flimsy vehicles, positioned in the market between motorcycles and motor cars. If they weighed less than 350 kg they fell into a tax bracket quite a bit lower than that for a “motor car”.

It was intended that the Type C should be made in parallel with the bigger Type B series, and develop along its own course – hence two variations emerged; the Type C2 and Type C3. At this point, both the Type C versions 1, 2 & 3 and Type B2 had a body made from wood mounted onto a steel chassis.

The Type B10 appeared in 1924, while the early models had a wooden body, there was a steady changeover to an all-steel body. It was as Citroën proudly announced – “Tout Acier”. Essentially the same shape as the B2 the emergence of steel in this model as the means of constructing the body can be seen in the smooth double curvature and close-fitting doors.

The B2 was not without its problems, principal amongst them was a tendency for the chassis to flex and as a consequence, the – steel – doors would fly open!

Braking via the foot pedal was on the front wheels with additional braking on a drum behind the gearbox. The handbrake operated on the rear wheels.

The B12 appeared in late 1925. It also had front wheel cable-operated braking with an additional brake at the back of the gearbox. The trick is to make the gearbox brake come on AFTER the front wheels have done most of the work else the gearbox brake winds up the rear transmission train. The chassis was a stiffer i.e. less flexible version of the B10 chassis. Shock absorbers on the rear axle only.

At this time the UK chancellor (Mc Kenna) was reinstating a duty of 33.3% on imported cars. This was a law originally imposed after the Great War that had subsequently been revoked. However, in 1925, the country was not doing well economically so the ruling was reinstated.

Given that his cars were selling well here, Citroen decided to assemble his cars in England and quite legally avoid the punitive duty being imposed on assembled cars. Some writers, incidentally, say that duty was nevertheless applied to assembled components e.g. axles, engines gearboxes as they came into the country etc.

Hence A.C. set about building a factory in a pretty small village called Slough that had good rail and ferry links to Paris. The Slough factory was a state-of-the-art factory, one of the biggest in Europe and in production by early 1926. So far as I can tell, the first model off the production line at Slough was the Type B12.

In 1926 the B14 appeared. Essentially a B12 body, with a bigger -1539 cc – engine, 4x wheel braking, shock absorbers all around and a lighter yet stronger version of the chassis. The B14 also had (optional) servo-assisted 4x wheel braking (licensed by Westinghouse) in which case it was named the B14f. In England the same car was named the 12/24, the third model out of the Slough factory.

In 1926 production of the Type C was dropped, almost certainly because Citroën had by now got to grips with press tool technology, and was producing the larger 12/24 (aka B14f) more cheaply than it could the Type C with its wooden body.

En passant…… Covering a wooden automobile body with steel (as was the practice in large part) does not add to the strength of a car but it does add to the weight and costs. Therefore dispensing with a wooden body reduced labour time, weight and costs; because an all steel body was lighter (and stronger) than a wood + steel body.