And again....off I go...Citroen Xantia Activa

And again....off I go...Citroen Xantia Activa

Author
Discussion

SVX

2,181 posts

210 months

Monday 22nd October 2012
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jbi said:
SVX said:
They are wonderful things, fragile gearbox aside. I love mine, once I've built up the cash reserves again, I'll be giving the old girl a sympathetic restoration and a few subtle upgrades.
I would really like to see that...

I love to see the rarer cars given a bit of TLC
There are a few options I'm looking at apart from the cosmetic. Bigger STi brakes and OEM legacy wheels, suspension refresh and from a power point of view the EG33 is quite tunable, but going forced induction will require upgrading the transmission to either a 6MT or a JDM 5EAT.

Lot's of options!

Sorry for the O/T discussion OP.

gareth_r

5,704 posts

236 months

Monday 22nd October 2012
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jbi said:
...That said, I do appreciate the technology behind the suspension and wish other manufacturers had the guts to try something similar... preferably the Japanese so that they get the reliability right. biggrin

A nice RWD coupe with plush cruising suspension, no body roll and nice and tight in the corners... lovely.
Here you go... Active suspension Toyota Soarer on ebay

Toyota were 21 years ahead of you. smile


Edited by gareth_r on Monday 22 October 19:10

duffy78

470 posts

138 months

Tuesday 23rd October 2012
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rb5er said:
True but they sure are a good indicator. A car that does 60 in 6 seconds is always likely to be much faster in almost all scenarios than one that does it in 9, unless you can point to some examples where this is not the case wink
The Elk test?

mrpushrod

68 posts

137 months

Tuesday 23rd October 2012
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Great to see some Xantia Activas on here, I remember Tiff testing one on Top Gear when Citroen released it and have quite fancied one ever since. Good luck with getting it sorted and I look forward to seeing further updates

macaroni

5 posts

137 months

Wednesday 24th October 2012
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Here are a couple for sale, look tidy too.

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/list/15/xantia%20ac...

fluffnik

20,156 posts

226 months

Thursday 25th October 2012
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rb5er said:
Nope but doing 0-60 in 10 seconds does mean its not quick. wink
If it can carry more speed through a corner it may well be quicker cross-country than those that must regain speed out of each corner...

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Thursday 25th October 2012
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fluffnik said:
rb5er said:
Nope but doing 0-60 in 10 seconds does mean its not quick. wink
If it can carry more speed through a corner it may well be quicker cross-country than those that must regain speed out of each corner...
I'd agree. I drove this car last night - it's not even running properly as the dyno printout revealed, but the speed this thing can go round corners and haul itself out of them is insane! Even with P6000's on the front!

rb5er

11,657 posts

171 months

Thursday 25th October 2012
quotequote all
fluffnik said:
rb5er said:
Nope but doing 0-60 in 10 seconds does mean its not quick. wink
If it can carry more speed through a corner it may well be quicker cross-country than those that must regain speed out of each corner...
To a point this is true, and yes over a similarly powered car it would be quicker on similar roads if they just had standard bouncy suspension as it may be able to carry more speed through a corner, but a faster car is a faster car and anything I can think of with a much lower 0-60 time would dispatch this.

I`m not trying to put it down, I like the car and I like that it is something a bit different from the norm but lets not try to make it out to be something its not.

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Friday 26th October 2012
quotequote all
rb5er said:
fluffnik said:
rb5er said:
Nope but doing 0-60 in 10 seconds does mean its not quick. wink
If it can carry more speed through a corner it may well be quicker cross-country than those that must regain speed out of each corner...
To a point this is true, and yes over a similarly powered car it would be quicker on similar roads if they just had standard bouncy suspension as it may be able to carry more speed through a corner, but a faster car is a faster car and anything I can think of with a much lower 0-60 time would dispatch this.
Sorry don't agree there. Over the right sort of road, a Clio 172 or similar could probably dispatch a Lambo. It's all about conditions. The only conditions I'd agree with you in are a straight line, as it's just about acceleration.
As soon as you throw bumps, humps, curves, bends, hairpins, chicanes.....whatever into the mix, the outcome can be totally different. And because of this suspension system, these cars can deal with all of those better than many cars which, on paper at least, are faster.

The Jolly Todger

2,742 posts

179 months

Friday 26th October 2012
quotequote all
Kitchski said:
rb5er said:
fluffnik said:
rb5er said:
Nope but doing 0-60 in 10 seconds does mean its not quick. wink
If it can carry more speed through a corner it may well be quicker cross-country than those that must regain speed out of each corner...
To a point this is true, and yes over a similarly powered car it would be quicker on similar roads if they just had standard bouncy suspension as it may be able to carry more speed through a corner, but a faster car is a faster car and anything I can think of with a much lower 0-60 time would dispatch this.
Sorry don't agree there. Over the right sort of road, a Clio 172 or similar could probably dispatch a Lambo. It's all about conditions. The only conditions I'd agree with you in are a straight line, as it's just about acceleration.
As soon as you throw bumps, humps, curves, bends, hairpins, chicanes.....whatever into the mix, the outcome can be totally different. And because of this suspension system, these cars can deal with all of those better than many cars which, on paper at least, are faster.
I agree with this. To take it to an extreme I would have thought an Elise would easily beat Red Victor 3 across winding bumpy country roads. This is obviously an extreme example but there are many others. Look at how Caterhams and the like keep up with much 'faster' cars round racetracks.

rb5er

11,657 posts

171 months

Friday 26th October 2012
quotequote all
The Jolly Todger said:
Kitchski said:
rb5er said:
fluffnik said:
rb5er said:
Nope but doing 0-60 in 10 seconds does mean its not quick. wink
If it can carry more speed through a corner it may well be quicker cross-country than those that must regain speed out of each corner...
To a point this is true, and yes over a similarly powered car it would be quicker on similar roads if they just had standard bouncy suspension as it may be able to carry more speed through a corner, but a faster car is a faster car and anything I can think of with a much lower 0-60 time would dispatch this.
Sorry don't agree there. Over the right sort of road, a Clio 172 or similar could probably dispatch a Lambo. It's all about conditions. The only conditions I'd agree with you in are a straight line, as it's just about acceleration.
As soon as you throw bumps, humps, curves, bends, hairpins, chicanes.....whatever into the mix, the outcome can be totally different. And because of this suspension system, these cars can deal with all of those better than many cars which, on paper at least, are faster.
I agree with this. To take it to an extreme I would have thought an Elise would easily beat Red Victor 3 across winding bumpy country roads. This is obviously an extreme example but there are many others. Look at how Caterhams and the like keep up with much 'faster' cars round racetracks.
And I massively disagree that a clio would even see which way a lambo went on almost any road. I think you are being a bit delusional.

p4cks

6,882 posts

198 months

Friday 26th October 2012
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How has a thread about a Citroen Xantia turned into a 172 Cup vs a Lamborghini?

Hows about we get this back on topic, eh?

Kitchski

6,514 posts

230 months

Friday 26th October 2012
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p4cks said:
How has a thread about a Citroen Xantia turned into a 172 Cup vs a Lamborghini?

Hows about we get this back on topic, eh?
It wasn't a Cup tongue out

seatdriver

11 posts

191 months

Thursday 8th November 2012
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The book 0-60 for an Activa is 8.9 seconds. Not a speed machine but it was never designed to be a performance car. As has been said they can be tweaked to turn up the turbo boost and then they do go alot better. Other small mods will see a very good return. In any case, 0-60 is not important on these, as once speed is acheived it can be held, as corners can be taken at a good speed.

The tweaking to the turbo does not give a laggy response. I know this, as mine is tweaked.

Its not fair for anyone to judge an Activa if they have not driven a very good example. Poor examples can be a pain, they wont resist roll quite as they should, they will ride hard and might even have the 'Activa shuffle'. They really do need to be driven to be appreciated.

Ive had a few different tyres on my Activa. At the moment it has Continental PremiumContact2s up front. They are good and the best I have had for wet grip. The sidewall is not as weak as some tyres either, with 36PSi they seem to suit it well. Hooning round roundabouts sideways does make them lean onto the shoulders slightly, but it will on any tyre.

The rears are pretty new Pirelli P7s, no longer available. Which is a shame as they have a stiff sidewall and do grip well too. I’m yet to try these on the front though.

A very underrated car the Activa, not many about now either. They do drive very well for what is a spacious and very well riding car. The grip they offer due to the suspension set up is awesome. I know people bang on about lowered cars or sports cars. But they have such limited wheel travel that on real world roads with undulations, bumps and holes, they are either very uncomfortable or out of their depth. The Activa is made for real roads. No doubt most sporty cars would see them off if on a track but on the road, I can see that being the opposite. Depending on the opposition of course! I've had a play with a few cars with my Activa and not a lot keeps up.

I call them a car almost without suspension compromise. It has a good ride, self levelling suspension and the ability out corner many cars which should leave it for dust. An awesome machine, I really enjoy surprising people with what it can do!

Edited by seatdriver on Friday 9th November 11:10


Edited by seatdriver on Friday 9th November 11:13

seatdriver

11 posts

191 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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S10GTA said:
The car has a 2ltr Turbo in the UK, with 150bhp as standard. A simple bleed valve will see that increase by a significant amount. The performance isn't too shabby, and there is very little between it and the V6.
Having had both Xantia V6 Exclusive and Activa Turbo, a slightly tweaked turbo is close enough to V6 performance. It also has more low down torque than the V6. Surprising but true, as the nature of tht 2.0 TCT is for constant torque. It has the low down torque of a diesel but high end performance too.

No, no sports car was ever made with Activa suspension. It was originally designed to be a large coupe (look up ActivaI and ActivaII concepts) but they were deemed to be too expensive and would have to compete with the well established BMWs etc. Im surprised the system got put into production at all actually. Citroen marketed the system as a safety benefit and never a performance enhancement. Hence why in Europe it was fitted to the 2.1TD and 2.0HDi engines. As well as a 2.0 16v no- turbo and the 3.0 V6.

It was quite clear that Citroen had more plans for the ARCS system. There was a couple of other concept cars with it attached. However costs are always an issue with adding on things like this. Citroen have all but gone away from the hydraulic suspension now, mainly due to costs and people having totally unjustified beliefs about reliability issues.

I say that as the normal hydraulic system is very reliable. It does need maintaining though, if its left them problems will arise. Also dont expect all Activas to drive as they should, they do need keeping on top of to deliver the ride and handling qualities which they should posess.

Rosscow

8,708 posts

162 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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DHE said:
Could it be the SVX has the concept car windows, as the concept car was out three years before the SVX?

The SVX could be a future purchase for S10GTA once he has finished working his way through French cars.
SVX concept was 1989, production was 1991.

Robmarriott

2,629 posts

157 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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OP, please can you find time to put some slicks on this and take it in a track day? I'm intrigued as to just how much faster it would be around the corners than anything else.

seatdriver

11 posts

191 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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Robmarriott said:
OP, please can you find time to put some slicks on this and take it in a track day? I'm intrigued as to just how much faster it would be around the corners than anything else.
Is this Activa related? Im a bit lost there has been so many different cars mentioned!

However, As good as an Activa would be on a track, I can't see it being much different to a car with rock solid suspension and not a lot of body roll. As a track is flat and smooth, The Activa would do its job but where it would excel is on real roads against those same rock solid/lowered/sports cars.

I do intend on track daying my Activa at some point, I want to prove my thoery cool And see how good it would be too!

seatdriver

11 posts

191 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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This might have been mentioned before, but check out this link to see how the Activa did in the elk test:

http://www.teknikensvarld.se/algtest-lista/
You might need to sort it by fastest speed first.

The Activa is still at the top!

S10GTA

Original Poster:

12,638 posts

166 months

Wednesday 14th November 2012
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Time for an update. I have been mega busy over the last few weeks, getting ready for the arrival of Jnr S10 and going away to Birmingham and London with work.

A few weeks ago I sent the car off to my friends garage down in Fareham. Whilst it was there he fitted the 10 new spheres and changed the activa ram bush at the rear. He also managed to put a hole in the exhaust just by touching it. This was promptly patched up for now. The car came back and now rides well, with no knocks. It still does a few random things every now and then (leaning when parked), but most importantly the activa part seems to work. Changing the accumulator has improved the response of the brakes too. It also had a new droplink fitted which has cured the knock from the front.

Next on the list was fixing the brake lights. I purchased a replacement pedal from eBay, and fitted it. I now have brake lights, which is a nice addition. I also had the tracking done, which was out by quite a bit. I was advised to bring it back once it had settled down as it was out by so much!

The next item on the list is to replace the engine mount. The vibration is driving me crazy. The car also needs a good service and a good clean as well as a new exhaust. I'm probably going to get one made as finding them seems tricky.

It's then just a case of finding spare parts like bumper trim, and then putting it in for a MOT in Dec. Oh, and the bodywork....

Edited by S10GTA on Wednesday 14th November 17:18