"The Traction Avant, French for 'front wheel drive', was designed by André Lefèbvre and Flaminio Bertoni in late 1933, early 1934. While not the first production front-wheel drive car, it was the world's first front-wheel drive steel unitary body frame production car. Along with DKW's 1930s models, the Traction pioneered front-wheel drive on the European mass car market. The Traction Avant's structure was a welded unitary body/chassis. Most other cars of the era were based on a separate chassis onto which the non-structural body or 'coachwork' was built. This method of construction was viewed with great suspicion in many quarters, with doubts about its strength. A type of crash test was conceived, taking the form of driving the car off a cliff, to illustrate its great inherent resilience. The novel design made the car very low-slung relative to its contemporaries - the Traction Avant was always distinctive, which went from appearing rakish in 1934 to familiar and somewhat old fashioned by 1955. The suspension was very advanced for the car's era. The front wheels were independently sprung using a torsion bar and wishbone suspension arrangement, where most contemporaries used live axle and cart-type leaf spring designs. Since it was considerably lighter than conventional designs of the era, it was capable of 62mph, and consumed fuel only at the rate of 28mpg. This very rare UK manufactured right hand drive example is presented in Ivory with contrasting Burgundy leather interior and carpets. The car was built in Slough, Berkshire in 1948 and shipped to New Zealand where it was first registered in June 1949. It stayed in New Zealand until May 1992 having had only four owners until then. It comes with the original New Zealand logbook showing all the owners. It was then sold to a Mr. Lynn who was an aircraft engineer and it was he that repatriated the car back to the UK in 1992 according to the UK Customs importation certificate. Since being back in the UK, the car has only had three previous owners with the last having owned it for the last 12 years (since 2010) The interior is in good condition showing nice patina and the wood dash, trim, along with the headlining and carpets are also in good condition. The history file goes back to 1948 with many invoices since it was imported. The previous owner has spent a considerable amount of money during his ownership to bring this car up to its current standard, completely overhauling the car mechanically which included an engine rebuild in 2015/16 and has covered a mere 3,082 since. The gearbox was also rebuilt as well as the clutch and flywheel. The back axle was replaced, all the suspension was rebuilt to name a few of the works carried out. A great French classic which became synonymous with the French Police as their chosen mode of transport owing to its performance capabilities.
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