PastImperfect: André CitroënWhen André Citroën died at the age of 57 in July 1935, he was a broken man who had seen his great wealth squandered and the company that bore his name in the hands of others.
But perhaps his greatest tragedy was in not knowing that his masterpiece, the remarkable Traction Avant, on which he had gambled his company's future, would continue in production until 1957 and become an enduring legend.
Citroën was born in 1878 and worked for the French car manufacturer Mors. In the first World War he had made a fortune streamlining shell production for the French army at his armaments factory: he continued these mass production techniques making cars after the war. He launched his first car, the Model A, in 1919 - it was heavily influenced by Ford's products and this influence was again apparent in the B10, launched in 1924 with a pressed steel body developed by an American, Edward Budd. In spite of having no engineering background, by the end of the 1920s Citroën had become France's leading car maker with over 100,000 cars sold annually.
Edward Budd, meanwhile, had come to realise that his all-steel body pressings could offer huge advantages in car design by absorbing body stresses. But Budd could not find an American carmaker who would accept the challenge.
André Citroën travelled often to America and saw a demonstration of a front-wheel-drive prototype Budd designed by Joseph Ledwinka of Tatra fame. Budd and Citroën had a similar disposition and Citroën was easily persuaded that he should design and produce a monocoque car with front-wheel-drive which incorporated Budd's ideas.
Back in France Citroën hired two men with experience of front-wheel-drive, André Lefebvre and Maurice Sainturat, to design the new revolutionary Citroën in a time span of 18 months. For Citroën, which had established its reputation making robust, simple cars, which sold for a modest price, the Traction was totally revolutionary and was first shown to André Citroëin March 1934.
But by then he had lost his gamble, for the money had run out and despite a search for capital the company went into liquidation and Michelin, the major creditor, took control. Citroën's reputation as a gambler was well known - as was the Michelin family's abhorrence of gambling, so they decided that he should leave the company. Citroën died the following year.
When production of the Traction came to an end at the Quai de Javel factory in July 1957, 708,339 fours and 50,518 sixes had been built and a legend created.