RE: SOTW: Citroen BX GTI 8v
Discussion
Best shed ever! I bloody love these, if I had the space I'd be sorely tempted. I learnt to drive in my Dad'sTXD, and remember trying to talk him into swapping it for a 16 Valve or XM every time it went in for a service. sadly to no avail though.
Funny the article should mention a sofa, with the ride and comfiest seats ever it is a good comparison!
Funny the article should mention a sofa, with the ride and comfiest seats ever it is a good comparison!
Well, they have aged well. Still such an odd shape its almost like an anti-car. It looks almost like a one off kit car type thing, whole thing looks plastic....but it works....some how, at to me it does.
My Dads business partner had a jet black GTi BX, was a bit more special than this one, maybe a limited edition with IIRC a quite remarkable electric sunroof set up and loads of gizmos, anyway i loved it, my Dad borrowed it a few times and i can remember as a youngster feeling quite proud to be in it, it was like nothing else at the time. My Dad and his business partner were designers, the Citroen seemed to be a very designers car, it seemed to fit the look, funny looking at the years where citroen lost that and produced bland cars and i supose SAAB took the mantle as the designers car of choice..
They also had as a company car hack (everyone in the company could use it, a real car slag) a dark green BX turbo, which again must of been a limited edition, it absolutely flew! my dad drove it like he stole it, i once had the pleasure of driving it, by this point a very used and abused car and spent an awesome afternoon driving around dropping off various displays and things (it had, once you put down the seats a massive boot space! something else that made it a cracking car).
Great shed. one of the few things that could tempt me away from Alfas.... oh and i would love it to just anoy the youths because they will never ever see a car more Hellofaflush on the back wheels than a BX on drop mode....!!!
My Dads business partner had a jet black GTi BX, was a bit more special than this one, maybe a limited edition with IIRC a quite remarkable electric sunroof set up and loads of gizmos, anyway i loved it, my Dad borrowed it a few times and i can remember as a youngster feeling quite proud to be in it, it was like nothing else at the time. My Dad and his business partner were designers, the Citroen seemed to be a very designers car, it seemed to fit the look, funny looking at the years where citroen lost that and produced bland cars and i supose SAAB took the mantle as the designers car of choice..
They also had as a company car hack (everyone in the company could use it, a real car slag) a dark green BX turbo, which again must of been a limited edition, it absolutely flew! my dad drove it like he stole it, i once had the pleasure of driving it, by this point a very used and abused car and spent an awesome afternoon driving around dropping off various displays and things (it had, once you put down the seats a massive boot space! something else that made it a cracking car).
Great shed. one of the few things that could tempt me away from Alfas.... oh and i would love it to just anoy the youths because they will never ever see a car more Hellofaflush on the back wheels than a BX on drop mode....!!!
Edited by decadence on Saturday 15th September 08:39
Edited by decadence on Saturday 15th September 08:40
S10GTA said:
Last weekend at CXM
The middle one brings back memories of mine from the early 90's. White E reg with the '115ch' on the side 
To my shame I scrapped it after a couple of years and replaced it with an early 205gti which continued the theme of seemingly never a day when everything about the car worked all at the same time...londonbabe said:
The geek in me notices that the later 16v has a steel bonnet, not the plastic one of earlier cars. I wonder why they tooled up for that so late in the car's life.
Some of the early ones also had steel bonnets - it may have been the lower spec 14REs? I know this because I once witnessed a hapless Citroen salesman, who was showing off the BX's features to a prospective buyer, bring his joined fists down on the bonnet very hard, to demonstrate how resistant to denting the plastic was - only to realise that he'd left a bloody great dent in its steel bonnet.
How we laughed.
I had several BXs, from a 14RE (comparatively slow but delightfully nimble - perhaps the lighter engine?), a 16RS, a 19GT (which was an effortless motorway wafter - probably my favourite BX iteration), a DTR (amazing economy) and a GTi 4x4, which I loved - amazing grip in all conditions, although it was slower off the mark than the ordinary GTi.
I still remember how the GTi 4x4 ploughed through well over 12" of snow one winter, with its suspension jacked up high. Astonishing. Wish I still had it.
My BXs had their fair share of gremlins - the earlier ones in particular suffered from rusty, perforated hydraulic pipes, and could lose all their fluid without warning. That could be a very expensive MOT failure, as Citroen dealers charged a fortune to replace them - much more expensive than replacing the spheres, which was a quick & comparatively cheap job. Prevention was easy - the pipes just needed waxoyling regularly. My 16RS once lost all its fluid from a leaking suspension pipe while it was up on ramps - the suspension dropped so low that the front end grounded on the ramps, and there was no way of getting it off, & to the menders. I had no option but to fix it myself - outside, in December, My frozen fingers have never recovered. But the feeling of smug satisfaction when I started it up, and it rose majestically off the ramp, lives with me to this day, over 20 years later.
A great car, the BX. Massive advance on the GS (which I also had). Hugely under-rated, then and now.
carinaman said:
Didn't the LTT CAR Magazine white BX GTi 16V trash it's gearbox somewhere near Northern Italy? I remember the photos of it up in a ramp with the OS wheel of it off.
I'm not sure many get the trade off between multiple valves and differences in torque and BHP curves. Some of the debates read a bit Top Trumps to me.
There's an idea for a technical article here, comparisons of torque and BHP curves between the 944 2.5, 944 2.7, 944 16V ventilier and 3 litre 16V S2.
I really struggle when people compare large capacity 8V fours with smaller capacity 16V fours with VVT and the like and just say 'BHP' a lot. Because we can all feel and use BHP when we're on the dual carriageway to work or doing the supermarket or tip run can't we.
Some of the guys did have a substantial problem with the 16V in northern Italy, you're right, but then the car had just come off the Mille Miglia - I was chauffeuring the snapper Tim Wren and we had to drive like loons to keep ahead of a field of mad classics cars so that he could be in a good position when they came through. At one point the police had just closed one of the mountain passes prior to Stirling Moss and the hordes thundering through, and we had it all to ourselves. No wonder that poor old car broke later on. It was, however, fantastic fun, a real under-praised hero.I'm not sure many get the trade off between multiple valves and differences in torque and BHP curves. Some of the debates read a bit Top Trumps to me.
There's an idea for a technical article here, comparisons of torque and BHP curves between the 944 2.5, 944 2.7, 944 16V ventilier and 3 litre 16V S2.
I really struggle when people compare large capacity 8V fours with smaller capacity 16V fours with VVT and the like and just say 'BHP' a lot. Because we can all feel and use BHP when we're on the dual carriageway to work or doing the supermarket or tip run can't we.
Edited by carinaman on Friday 14th September 12:16
Thank you for the details on the BX 16V g/box failure. Those were the days eh? Proper LTT reports that took up half a dozen pages of solid information rather than what someone working in the office thought having used it to pootle around to and from work on what seems like an extended test drive.
Gar074 said:
...
I had several BXs, from a 14RE (comparatively slow but delightfully nimble - perhaps the lighter engine?), a 16RS, a 19GT (which was an effortless motorway wafter - probably my favourite BX iteration), a DTR (amazing economy) and a GTi 4x4, which I loved - amazing grip in all conditions, although it was slower off the mark than the ordinary GTi.
...
I still remember how the GTi 4x4 ploughed through well over 12" of snow one winter, with its suspension jacked up high. Astonishing. Wish I still had it.
...
A great car, the BX. Massive advance on the GS (which I also had). Hugely under-rated, then and now.
Similar here. The GS Club was our first baby gubbins carrying car. Good load carrier for its size but the brakes took some getting used to. The suspension control never worked, either. Then it died of rust in suspension components.I had several BXs, from a 14RE (comparatively slow but delightfully nimble - perhaps the lighter engine?), a 16RS, a 19GT (which was an effortless motorway wafter - probably my favourite BX iteration), a DTR (amazing economy) and a GTi 4x4, which I loved - amazing grip in all conditions, although it was slower off the mark than the ordinary GTi.
...
I still remember how the GTi 4x4 ploughed through well over 12" of snow one winter, with its suspension jacked up high. Astonishing. Wish I still had it.
...
A great car, the BX. Massive advance on the GS (which I also had). Hugely under-rated, then and now.
A BX GT Digit followed. Great improvement, amazing electronics and great on flooded roads but, at 6 years old and 130,000 miles, all the door panels had rusted badly and then the high pressure hydraulic pipes rusted through and started leaking; pretty terminal in one of those cars. Still, I got a good trade-in on the BX GTi.
Both BXs could have done with wider rubber. It wasn't difficult to deliberately make both front wheels spin from stationary.
Strawman said:
carinaman said:
You need to read the advert for it from the previous seller that mentioned Gandini and all the other stuff he'd done. 
He liked it so much he appeared in an advert for ithttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW2ZQF_pDi0
I remember the advert but can only find the French language version.
Birotor said:
After 4 years with a BX14RE in the late 80's I am back with a 26,000 mile BX 16TGS Estate from 2002and my daughter has a 90,000 BX 14RE year 2000 coupe. Cracking cars not to be sneezed at AND the BXClub forum is great. No nonsense and opinions based on real experience not myths...
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