The Citroën M35 was a

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

derived from the Ami 8, and equipped with a

Wankel engine The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an Eccentric (mechanism), eccentric rotary combustion engine, rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. It was invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, and desi ...

and a

hydropneumatic Hydropneumatic suspension is a type of motor vehicle suspension system, designed by Paul Magès, invented by Citroën, and fitted to Citroën cars, as well as being used under licence by other car manufacturers, notably Rolls-Royce ( Silver Shado ...

suspension. The bodies were produced by

Heuliez Heuliez was a French company that worked as a production and design unit for various automakers. It specialized in producing short series for niche markets, such as convertibles or station-wagons. The business activity ended on 31 October 2013. ...

from 1969 to 1971. The longitudinally mounted rotary engine had a nominal capacity of 498 cc delivering and of torque. According to factory figures the car had a performance roughly on a level with that of a

Morris 1300 The year 1300 ( MCCC) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 1300th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 300th year of the 2nd millennium, the 1 ...

. It could accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 19 seconds, 10 seconds faster than an Ami 8, and reach a top speed of about . The M35 also used a larger 11-gallon (43-liter) fuel tank to improve range, as the fuel tank in the standard Ami 8 was deemed too small. The engine was so smooth running that Citroën fitted an audible alarm that went off as the car approached its redline of 7,000 rpm. The

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

was supplied by a company formed in 1967 by NSU and

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

called

Comotor Comotor SA was a joint venture between NSU and Citroën, created in Luxembourg in April 1967. Its goal was to produce Wankel engines. It followed an earlier, 1964 joint venture of both companies, the Geneva-based Comobil subsidiary, focusing on ...

. The M35 was an experimental vehicle and was not officially sold - rather it was supplied to loyal Citroën customers to get their comments on the usability of the design. Due to its experimental status, each car featured a banner at the bottom of the rear window which read in French “This Citroën M35 prototype fitted with a rotary piston engine is undergoing long term testing at the hands of a Citroën customer.”. Many aspects of the M35 made it to regular production. The rotary engine was deemed satisfactory and a dual rotor version of it was used in the GS Birotor in 1974; the gearbox used in the M35 was the GS 1015's gearbox (albeit with a normal shift pattern); certain suspension parts found their way into the GS line when it was introduced in 1970 and the seats that reclined just above the waist were found in none other than the SM.

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Citroën M35

M35 M35, M.35 or M-35 may refer to: Military * M35 series 2½-ton 6×6 cargo truck, a US Army truck * , a Royal Navy mine countermeasures vessel launched in 1982 * ADGZ or ''M35 Mittlere Panzerwagen'', a 1930s Austrian Army heavy armored car * Cannone ...

Cars powered by Wankel engines Cars introduced in 1969 {{Classicpow-auto-stub 1970s cars