Citroën with Six Wheels? – A Wild Idea from the Past

It sounds like an April Fool’s joke—an extended Citroën station wagon with six wheels, built to deliver newspapers at high speed between major European cities. But no, it’s the real deal. Meet the Citroën CX Loadrunner—a vehicle so outlandish, it almost makes perfect sense.

And yes… it has hydropneumatic suspension. Of course it does.

From Futuristic Flagship to Express Courier in Style

The Citroën CX was already one of the most advanced cars of the ’70s and ’80s: aerodynamic, comfortable, and equipped with signature soft suspension that made it float over bumps in the road. But for one man—Pierre Tissier—that was simply a starting point.

He took the idea to the next level, building a range of extremely stretched CX models with six wheels and up to 6.5 meters in length. They were used as high-speed transporters, especially for rushing newspapers from printing plants in one city to newsstands in another—most notably between Frankfurt and Paris, and back again.

This wasn’t a joke. It was French logistics at its most… creative.

How Did It Actually Work?

The Loadrunner models were created by:

Vastly extending the bodywork
Adding an extra rear axle, so the car had a total of six wheels
Letting the classic hydropneumatic suspension handle the entire load with poise and precision
Ensuring the vehicle could carry up to 2 tons of cargo while still driving quickly and stably

The result? A car that looked like it came straight out of a 1980s heist movie, but drove like a French limousine with the attitude of a truck.

Built for the Press—and for Pressing the Accelerator

In an age before emails and PDFs, physical newspaper distribution was incredibly time-sensitive. The six-wheeled CX became the solution for those wanting to deliver faster than their competitors—and to do so with a little flair.

It could haul huge loads without losing speed, and the low loading height made it easy to fill and empty the vehicle on the go.

Tissier’s World: Not Just for Newspapers

Pierre Tissier didn’t just build one, but several versions of the six-wheeled CX—including:

Ambulances with room for extra stretchers
Car transporters for rally cars
Camper vans with bunk beds and a kitchen
And, of course, the iconic high-speed newspaper delivery cars

All of them were hand-built in small numbers, and today they’re extremely rare collector’s items—beloved by Citroën enthusiasts and car nerds who truly appreciate what hydropneumatic suspension can do.

Why We Love It

It’s not just the car that fascinates—it’s the whole idea behind it. Where others saw a luxury estate, Citroën and Tissier saw an opportunity to revolutionize logistics with a perfect mix of elegance and madness.

The six-wheeled Citroën CX is French engineering at its most inventive and uncompromising. It’s impractical, unnecessary, and utterly captivating—and we’d love to see something like it on the roads again today.

Our team may have used AI to assist in the creation of this content, which has been reviewed by our editors.