Everyone knows that Citroën is a brand with a different, daring and innovative philosophy. And it has been so since ancient times, as demonstrated by some of its most charismatic classics, such as the Citroën Type H, which has served as inspiration in the recent creation of the Citroën Type Holidays Concept camper vehicle prototype.
To understand the history of the original model, we must refer to the innovations of two previous vehicles of the French brand, such as the Citroën Traction Avant and the Citroën TUB.
In 1934, with the Citroën Traction Avant, innovations such as front-wheel drive, the monobloc self-supporting body without independent chassis, suspension with torsion bars on independent wheels and hydraulic brakes reached large-scale vehicles, elements that are common in cars. automobiles that are driven today, but that at that time represented a great technological leap.
Faithful to its philosophy of democratizing technical advances, the French brand began to study how to transfer these innovations to the universe of commercial vehicles. From these works emerged the Citroën TUB, with similar characteristics to the Type H, launched in 1939 and considered the first modern van.
A few months after the launch of the TUB, the Second World War broke out, which brought its manufacturing and marketing to a standstill, as happened with the rest of the Citroën range.
Designed by Pierre Franchiset, in 1948 the commercialization of the Citroën Type H began, with the mission of collaborating in the reconstruction of France after the war period. Citroën worked on 8 projects and only the last one was developed. For this reason, the brand chose the eighth letter of the alphabet, which is H, to name it. Aesthetically, it was a van with peculiar shapes, with a front equipped with a large radiator where the Citroën symbol, the double chevron, was located.
With front-wheel drive, the space usually occupied by the engine was completely freed up, which made it possible to have an immense cargo volume in relation to the dimensions of the car, and completely flat. With the engine and gearbox located on the front overhang, the load capacity was 1.2 tons and it was initially equipped with a 46 HP engine, associated with a three-speed transmission.
One of the innovations provided by the Type H was the sliding side door, which facilitated loading and unloading maneuvers. To access the loading area, an ingenious door was designed consisting of three pieces, one of which opened upwards and the other two laterally.
The corrugated sheet metal of its body, in addition to giving it an unmistakable appearance, generated superior rigidity of the whole. Together with its practically cubic rear part, this Type H body made it possible to carry out a multitude of transformations: from installing a sliding side door to enabling a fully equipped kitchen.
The Type H arrived on the Spanish market later, in 1962. Before, in 1958, slight aesthetic touches had been introduced and variants with greater load capacity were launched, called Type HW and Type HZ. Finally, the French brand decided to permanently retire it in 1982.
With more than three quarters of a century behind it and half a million units produced, the Citroën Type H still walks the streets today, personalized with young and modern designs and colors. And this veteran van is one of the preferred options for creating the popular restaurants on wheels, food trucks.
