08/16/2026
1956 Citroën C10 Coccinelle “Ladybug From the Future” Prototype
A teardrop-shaped four-seater with a drag coefficient of just 0.258, this Citroën prototype could slip through the air more cleanly than many cars built decades later. Citroën engineer André Lefèbvre began the C-series project in the early 1950s, aiming for an affordable, aerodynamic family car positioned between the utilitarian 2CV and the more sophisticated DS.
Lefèbvre kept the styling in-house, and the result, nicknamed “Coccinelle” (ladybug) or “goutte d’eau” (water drop), used an aluminum body over a lightweight frame with Perspex glazing (Plexiglas) in place of conventional glass. The Perspex scratched too easily for windshield wipers, so the windshield could instead be lowered a few centimeters, giving the driver a clear view over its top in rain or snow.
Hydropneumatic suspension was fitted, and half-doors topped by lifting glass panels replaced the impractical gullwing doors used on earlier prototypes in the series.
Power came from the 2CV's 425cc flat-twin, mounted beneath the front seats, and the C10 was capable of roughly 68 mph. The finished car weighed just 842 pounds (382 kg), a figure made possible by its extensive use of aluminum and Perspex.
Completed in 1956, the C10 was the last and most refined of the C-series prototypes, but it never reached production. Lefèbvre’s stroke brought his career to an end soon afterward, and Citroën ultimately pursued a more conventional small-family-car direction with the Bertoni-designed Ami 6, introduced in 1961.
The sole surviving C10 remains in Citroën’s Conservatoire collection at Aulnay-sous-Bois, outside Paris.
