Failure of a rear suspension arm on the PVS ELV.280 after 24,000 km (1952)

In this document

This test report (no. 220.699), dated 25 March 1952 and stamped "27 MARS 1952", originates from the Laboratoires André Citroën (53, rue Balard, Paris) and is addressed to the attention of Mr. Magès p. 75.

Endurance result

On the test car PVS ELV.280, after approximately 24,000 km of driving, "the rear right suspension arm broke along the line of rivets assembling the backing plate" p. 75. The acronym "AR.D." likely designates the rear right, but the document does not explicitly specify this.

Requested actions

The broken arm was sent to the Metallurgical Department for examination p. 75. The authors of the report request the supply of "arms without riveting" p. 75, noting that they had also observed on several cars that "some rivets are moving in their housing" p. 75 — a sign of a more general defect affecting the riveted assembly of the backing plate.

The document bears two handwritten signatures that cannot be identified with certainty, as well as various annotations (numbers "5.52" in red, uncertain initials "M P").

Context

The acronym PVS designates, in the vocabulary of Citroën studies of that era, a pre-production car or test prototype — here numbered ELV.280 — used to validate components still under development in real conditions, notably the future hydropneumatic suspension developed under the direction of Paul Magès.

These mileage endurance tests, common in the automotive industry, aimed to detect mechanical failures before industrialisation. The project would lead, a few years later, to the presentation of the DS 19 in 1955, equipped with this suspension.

Archivist's perspective

This document concretely illustrates the iterative development work carried out by Paul Magès' team: a field incident (part failure after mileage testing) triggers feedback to the engineer in charge and a request for technical modification — here, the abandonment of riveting in favour of another assembly method p. 75.

It seems that this type of report is part of a regular flow of test reports addressed to Magès, allowing for the step-by-step documentation of mechanical weaknesses encountered on suspension prototypes. This document could usefully be compared with other items from the same collection relating to the BEA work programmes of 1945 on suspension tests or the summary of folder 41-59 on hydropneumatic suspension, which allow this type of test feedback to be situated within the overall development process followed by Magès.