Development of the new Citroën model was never short of problems, but the banks who had invested thousands of francs in Citroën, put pressure on the company to go to market. The result was catastrophic—culminating in hundreds of warranty claims.
Shortly after the bankruptcy of the brand bearing his name was declared, André Citroën now penniless, died on the 5th of July, 1935. However, his dream car was to be produced, and quite successfully too, after Michelin paid off Citroën’s debts and went ahead with the production of the Traction Avant.
A few years after the launch of the Citroën 15-Six, João de Lacerda acquired one, which he used for road trips and automobile races like the XXI Rally de Monte Carlo, in 1951. One year later, accompanied by Jaime Azarujinha, he participated in the same rally this time in a Citroën “Drag”. Departing from seven cities in Europe, the race coincided with very heavy snowfall—having been one of the toughest editions ever in the history of the event. Of the 328 cars present at the start, only 163 would cross the finish line. And out of those, only 15 were without any penalties, with João de Lacerda counted amongst them. Lacerda would repeat the grueling test on two more occasions in 1953 and 1954 in the same Citroën to claim the ACP Trophy.
After several years of intense service, divided between daily use and in several national and international competitions, the two Citroën 15-Six belonging João de Lacerda were scrapped. This gave rise to the purchase of a similar model in France, which was restored in Portugal with the help of Jacques Touzet and Antero Marques Paiva.
As a prize for the magnificent restoration, the famous license plate, HF-16-83, used with great success in the 1952, 53 and 54 editions of the Monte Carlo Rally, was recovered by the official entities and presented to the “new” Citroën 15-Six, which today is in Museu do Caramulo.