The Citroën 5 HP Type C, better known as the Citroën 5CV, is a small car produced in the 1920s by the French company Citroën. It was also produced in Milan, by Citroën Italiana, as a Citroën 5 CV model. Presented at the Paris Motor Show in 1921, the Citroën 5 HP Type C was only released the following year. It was a small car that went under the contemporary Citroën B2, higher-end, and aimed at a less wealthy clientele. But the real genius of André Citroën was in having designed and built this car for a female audience, a very unusual fact at the time. The same 5CV advertising campaigns portrayed the car driven by a young lady. With the Type C, the Citroën was also consecrated as a brand dedicated to mass motorization even in the lower classes. This last aspect was reiterated by the fact that the Type C could also be purchased in installments: it was André Citroën, the founder of this new (for that time) purchase method, who founded a consumer credit company, specifically to facilitate the purchase of his cars. The small size of the Type C and the commercial goals it set itself made it a 2CV "ante-litteram". The Type C was initially available as a two-seat torpedo. A curious detail of the Torpedo was to have only one door on the passenger side, while on the left, on the driver's side, was the spare wheel. From 1923 the cabriolet version was also put on the market. The Type C was provided only in yellow livery and for this, with a play on words, it was known as "Citron" (lemon). The Type C was powered by a small 4-cylinder 856 cm³ engine (bore and stroke: 55x90 mm), capable of delivering 11 hp at 2100 rpm and pushing the car to a maximum speed of 60 km/h. The traction was rear and the gearbox was 3-speed and reverse with a single-plate dry clutch. The braking system included a drum brake operated by a pedal and operating on the transmission shaft while the hand brake acted directly on the rear wheels. From 1923, the Type C was replaced by the Type C2, with improvements to the chassis and to the ignition system. The following year, 1924, the Type C2 was in turn replaced by the Type C3, built on the same chassis, but with a wheelbase increased by 10 cm to 2350 mm and with respect to the C2 were also adopted shock absorbers on the rear wheels. The Type C3 remained in production until the end of 1926. From the third series also derived the Trefle, that is a version equipped with two seats plus a back seat of luck known as the mother-in-law's seat and also used on other cars of the time. Although the Type C had a good sales success, the owner of the Quai de Javel House decided to stop the production. In fact, André Citroën had already started the project for the production of the B10 and had invested enormous sums to get steel processing machinery from the United States, indispensable for the future French "tout acier". Therefore, he had calculated that to amortize the costs as soon as possible he would have to concentrate on just one model and then decided to retire early the small car without replacing it with other models.

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