40 Years of the Citroen CX

[jwalshe]

Chopped up and threw together bits of an old group test video I found on the net. There's a short 'tribute' version and a longer group test version with some music.

Short: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Full group test:

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Enjoy!

James

[lexi]

Nice. CX looks are amazing.

[Mandrake]

What did I miss ? The first video says not available in your country, the second says blocked due to a copyright claim!

[Mandrake]

Nevermind - plays on a laptop, won't play on an iPad!

Towards the end of the longer clip the difference between cars is astounding, it just goes to show how good the damping and suspension control of the Hydro-pneumatic system is. I've seen videos of the Hydractive XM doing a slalom and it does it better than a CX with a bit firmer damping but in a very similar style - both keep the rear end under control while most cars (of the era) get very tail happy with the back over reacting and sliding out during a slalom.

The vertical undulation test was amazing too - all the other cars were banging the suspension off the top and bottom limit stops in a dangerous way (they looked close to complete loss of control) but the CX was hardly affected.

Finally the braking test with one side in the wet and one side in the dry was quite telling - the CX pulled up straight but all the others spun 180 degrees out of control.

That's almost certainly the rear brake limiter of the CX - you can bet all the other cars were locking both rear wheels under hard braking which would leave you with no grip at the rear, probably no grip on the locked front left wheel in the wet, so the front right wheel digs in and spins the car around.

On the CX most likely the rear right wheel (and front right) were not locking but braking enough to keep the car pulled straight so no spin out. The power steering design and suspension geometry means that even if only front right and rear right wheels are contributing to braking it can still pull up straight with a litle bit of steering correction. (You can see the car drift to the right a bit but without spinning out)

It's unclear whether any of the cars had ABS though - I believe ABS was introduced near the end of the run of the CX but I'm not sure about any of the others in the test.

Still, a very good showing by the CX which shows that even without the additional abilities of Hydractive and ACTIVA (which take it to a whole new level) the basic Hydro-pneumatic system, its damping control and mechanical design outclassed nearly anything else at the time. Apart from the possible inclusion of ABS, the suspension/brakes in a 1987 CX is more or less identical to the original 1974 model, so the design was already 13 years old at the time of the test!

I've driven a CX a fair bit many years ago and although it rolls a lot by Xantia standards it feels great on the road, lots of grip, very sure footed, one of the best ride quality of any Citroen - thanks to the fully rubber block isolated suspension subframe there is almost no "road rumble" transmitted through to the chassis on rough surfaces. Amazing steering too. I don't think we'll see any more cars like the CX in today's world...

PS James - do you have a link to the original group test video that you edited your compilation from ? I'd quite like to see that in full, although I'm guessing its probably not in English judging by the left hand drive ?