I found these two photos from 1931 of prototype specials tha

Jun 18 (edited)

I found these two photos from 1931 of prototype specials that were designed and built by Budd Manufacturing. Both are pretty wild. The two door sedan has some interesting details that I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else. The four door, though, is way ahead of its time. Anyone have any thoughts as to what chassis they could be built on?

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Jun 18, 2026

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Replies (13)

· Jun 18

The hood length on the two door car tells me that it’s likely either a four cylinder or V8 chassis. Also, the placement of the wheels so far forward makes me wonder. Stretched chassis or possible front wheel drive prototype? Budd did build the Hupp fwd prototype body and I thought they also did a prototype for the Traction Avant.

· Jun 18

Very interesting. Its hard to tell visually measure, but what WB length are you thinking we have in the four door model? Also the profile from the side of the four door gives a silhouette appearance of the headlights looking similar to Woodlites.

· Jun 18

To me, the four door looks like a mid size. It’s not a full profile photo so a bit hard to get exact measurements. Near as I can figure though, if the tires were 30”, I’m thinking a wheelbase around 115”.

· Jun 18

On the two door, my measurements are giving around 116” if the tires are 30” up to about 124” if they are 32”. They look on the larger side on that car.

· Jun 18

Great photos Travis! I have never seen these cars before. I think I might have a Budd prototype photo somewhere but not of either of these two cars. A shame they probably did not survive or were destroyed.

· Jun 18

Yes, it is unfortunate that they were likely scrapped. One thing is for sure, Budd was working on some crazy stuff around this time. From the cowl back, the four door looks like it could be a 1935 or even later, so well ahead of the curve.

· Jun 18

Has a very English coachbuilder vibe to it.

· Jun 18

Aha! The four door is the Traction Avant prototype.

· Jun 18

Nice job Travis. Seems to be a lot of these photos floating around.

Here is a good story on the subject.
https://driventowrite.com/2023/08/29/steely-determination-citroen/

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· Jun 18

Again we see woodlites. Interesting. Competing with Ruxton for usage.

· Jun 18

John, that is a fairly late design to be using Woodlites as they seem to be a pre-1930 accessory.

· Jun 18

While this prototype doesn’t have much in common with the production car, the Traction Avant was quite a revolutionary car. I just learned that the transaxles out of them were modified and used in late 50’s formula 1 cars by Cooper and Brabham.

· Jun 18

Good time for me to mention one of my favorite characters of the 1920s whose name I can never spell and barely remember. Sensaud de Lavaud who developed an automatic transmission for the Avant.

Attached is a picture of one of this cars.

https://citroencarclub.org.uk/semi-automatic-transmission/