The Known History of OSL 282

OSL 282 started out life being built on the Traction production line in Citroën's Paris factory on the 17th December 1952 before being delivered to it's 1st owner in France in 1953.

Traction Background

The 'Traction Avant' (French for Front Wheel Drive) was designed by André Lefèbvre and Flaminio Bertoni in late 1933 to early 1934. Whilst not the 1st front wheel drive car, it was the world's first front-wheel drive steel monocoque construction production car.

The car was however, the 1st front-wheel drive car to be made for the European mass market. Especially with it's structure being a welded monocoque (just like the vast majority of modern cars) so was pioneering in it's day.

A Traction Avant has always had a unique look, and a very advanced suspension when it was launched compared to other cars out there followed shortly after by rack and pinion steering.

The front wheels are independently sprung, using a torsion bar and wishbone suspension arrangement, however being front wheel drive, the turning circle isn't great compared to modern cars and without the advantages of power steering you really do have to 'drive' the car.

Production finally ended on 25th July 1957 after more than 23 years when another very advanced Citroën was launched, the ID19 soon to be known as the 'DS'

For anyone interested, there is a comprehensive background on Wikipedia

2014 was the 80th Anniversary of the Traction for which Avant Citroën have created this: 80 Years of the Traction Avant

OSL 282 Known History

Citroën Conservatoire in Paris have confirmed from their records that the car (serial number 610072) was built in December 1952 before being delivered to it's 1st French owner (no details available)

What we do know is that the last Traction Avant ever built left the factory production line in 1957.

UK History

In 1985 the car was imported to the UK, was registered here on 17th October that year and has since had 6 'keepers'.

MOT records also show that the car only covered 1,117 kilometres (694 miles) between April 2006 and September 2012 which backs up the premise that it's in need of 'a bit of love and attention'.

We acquired the car on 18th October 2012, previous UK owner names and locations:

Robert Duncalf of Buxton Derbyshire, registered as the cars keeper on 4th June 2009

Robin Keyte of Hailsham West Sussex, registered as the cars keeper on 16th February 2004

Robert Wicken of Maidstone, registered as the cars keeper on 10th August 2000 as OSL 282 'Historic'

Colin Barker of London, registered as the cars keeper on 29th July 1987 (ESV 470)

Lift and Shout Ltd of London, registered as the cars keeper on 1st April 1986 (ESV 470)

Julian Wigdor of London first registered the car in the UK on 17th October 1985 under reg no ESV 470.

When it was registered as ESV 470 it was not Historic or Road Tax Exempt and in October 2000 the registration was changed to 'Historic' and assigned a different registration number: OSL 282

History in France

When the car went down the assembly line, the control number was the coque number BR 34277. It was then tested, and a certificate issued, and the 'date of commercialisation' recorded as 17 December 1952.

Then the dealer collected it, and it got its chassis serial number 610072 BL. This could have been the same day, or weeks later.

After that we are still trying to find where in France it went to........ But never did.

August 2020

After 8 years of ownership we took the decision to let someone else carry on and finally complete the 'restoration' as the car now owed us far more than it's market value and we were loath to commit any further funding to it so it went to auction.
We have enjoyed the process and our time with the car and are sad to see it go but it was time to 'move on' but we do have a new (and far less onerous financially) project JDF 240D which has already had the major works done.

Last Update: 20th May 2014