Old Git of 35 waxes lyrical...

[Jon]

Heres some thoughts on my favourite Citroens. Sorry folks, NO DS's here.
Citroens
Early GS 1015cc, pure, advanced and great. Ok, the brakes wore out every 3000 miles, and the gearing was a bit extreme, but look at it for what it was in 1971. 4 door Kamm tailed saloon with all round discs, flat 4 belt driven engine, and independent hydraulic suspension .high top speed due to great aerodynamics. Capable of sustained high speed driving. In comparison, the Morris Marina, RWD, complete with Morris Minor front suspension dating back to 1948, and engines dating back to the 50’s was launched at about the same time. Enough said.
GSA. OK the thing was a bit dated come the early eighties, but hey! What else offered the same combination of technology and styling for that money? 1300cc GSA’s with 5 speed box were great cars, capable of a lot of high speed and abuse, although they did tend to start dissolving as you looked at them. I had an X reg GSA 1300 estate, and its still up there as one of my best ever cars, I mean, I paid £40 for it, and it managed Watford to Basildon and back every day for nearly a year without ever breaking down! Never ever had a doubt it would get where I was going. That included Spain, Scotland, and France on various trips. Amusing points included being stopped by the police on the M25 and given a 7-day ticket to fix or scrap the thing. (oil leak from camshaft seal dripping onto manifold causing some slight smoke from the RH front wheel arch area). Policeman asks where I’ve come from and where I’m going. “Cap Ferret (south of Bordeaux) now going to Watford”.
Said vehicle scrapped 2 weeks later due to corrosion of floor pans, rear subframe etc. Engine and box lived on in Ami Super soon after!
CX. OK, the 2 litre ones are not all that, but……. The 2.5TD is a great workhorse, and the 2.5I Turbo 2 petrol is just mad. The fastest 4 door saloon in the UK at one time. Fondly remember a road test of an immaculate F reg example when I was sent out to “warm it up for the emissions test” many years ago. Found that the brakes tend to fade at the end of the Amersham bypass. Apart from that, absolutely wild, big, comfortable berserk car.
ZX. Much raved about by me, now on my third, all Turbo D’s. Quick, economical, anonymous cars that take great abuse in their stride if serviced and maintained. Could do with some more brakes.
2CV. Can’t say much that has not been said already. Simple as a knife and fork (I cut my mechanical teeth on these and was soon changing chassis, bodyshells engines and gearboxes). Love them to death and been all over Europe, including Greece, Germany Switzerland and Portugal behind the wheel of my 2 favourites. Interestingly, my 2nd 2cv, an Azurite blue V reg example lives on to this day, but is like the woodsman’s axe in terms of replacement chassis, engines and bodyshell. The soul lives on. The last re-chassis was in 1988 when it gained a 1973 never welded AMI8 chassis which is still under there to this day unmolested. Great ride and handling due to the larger springs and dampers, plus the front anti rollbar.
Visa Diesel. Another great, underrated Citroen. Simple brief, take ugly Visa, and fit 1769cc engine, gearbox and front suspension from 205 diesel, plus give it new dash and some decent rear brakes plus 4 stud wheels. Awesomely reliable, economical, ugly beasts with no value whatsoever. Capable of in excess of 50mpg whatever the style of driving. Rear wings rusted away, but hey! Our last example was an 88 F reg, one of the last that we sold 3 years ago for £50 due to said corrosion, still with tax and MOT. Bloke came into Andyspares the other week for an alternator (it had only done 205,000 miles), the bloody thing was still on the road. Gutted.
BX
16 Valves, especially the early 160bhp ones are just silly but great none the less. What a car. I owned one of the first, a Citroen UK ex Demo E Reg example that was rapid. It met its unfortunate end at the hands of Mrs G Wood one night in Buckinghamshire courtesy of a ditch and an Oak tree. No injuries, and we still were laughing,just (OK, I'm lying and I lost one of my favourite cars and had to drive my 1975 AmI Super instead!!)[:(!]
Turbo D's are good. [:)]
19 Diesels (apart from ex Minicabs) are great
1.9 GTi 8v faster than Renault 19 16 v [}:)]
Easy (ish) to fix all of them, still got a lot of time for the BX.
Anyway, that wraps up this evening's installment. We must really think about buying another TV soon. [:p]

[tomsheppard]

Alas, I never had the chance to own a GS although I once drove one and I admired it enormously. The fact that they had all disappeared was the reason for buying a BX before they did too. 2CVs though I never really got the hang of. A girlfriend had a couple which were a hoot but mine I called The Virgin. (I never got very far with it.)
From another old git -45 today and late for the midlife crisis!