RE: SOTW: Citroen AX GT-5/TVR S2

[Liontail]

interloper said:

Noxide said:

The AX GT was a great car, I had both an AX GT and a GTi, the latter fitted with a 138bhp VTS engine. I don't know why "interloper" and "Lion" are laughing - the GT does get to 120mph indicated, although it took a wee while to get there. The GTi VTS got 142mph GPS!

Nice choices PH.

I'm chuckling over the top speed because it seems so improbable. Lets be honest here top speed is a product of power versus aerodynamics, weight above 100mph doesn't really factor as much. The GT has about 85bhp, it might indicate 120mph but I would suspect massive over read!

Exactly!

So we've backed down from real 125mph top speeds to 120mph indicated top speed for an AX GT? Thought we'd be up in the 130s by now

[RobM77]

Does it really matter when most of us are in England and the speed limit is 70mph? What matters is whether the AX GT was an amazing steer and had enough power to entertain below 70, which it did It was hardly designed as an Autobahn stormer, more of a B road blaster.

[Liontail]

RobM77 said:

Does it really matter when most of us are in England and the speed limit is 70mph? What matters is whether the AX GT was an amazing steer and had enough power to entertain below 70, which it did It was hardly designed as an Autobahn stormer, more of a B road blaster.

No you're right, it doesn't matter
The car did its job very well - it wasn't built for top speed.
Like you said it was a cheap entertaining hatch
I just found it highly amusing that it was getting quicker and quicker as the thread progressed till we got to the statement that it would do 125mph


Anyway, back to the cars

[RobM77]

Liontail said:

RobM77 said:

Does it really matter when most of us are in England and the speed limit is 70mph? What matters is whether the AX GT was an amazing steer and had enough power to entertain below 70, which it did It was hardly designed as an Autobahn stormer, more of a B road blaster.

No you're right, it doesn't matter
The car did its job very well - it wasn't built for top speed.
Like you said it was a cheap entertaining hatch
I just found it highly amusing that it was getting quicker and quicker as the thread progressed till we got to the statement that it would do 125mph


Anyway, back to the cars

Very true.

I did max mine once actually for a period of time, but I can't remember what speed I was doing.

[VAGdave]

AX GT: great shed, not seen one for ages. Seem to remember aspiring to one of these when first started driving in late 90s!

A mate did own an AX at the time - albeit a 1.1. Still seemed to handle alright and was surprisingly tough apart from the dashboard which was made of a particularly brittle black plastic which started to crack in the sun...

TVR: Nice project car - stick with Ford mechanicals and costs should be sensible. State of chassis would worry me though...

[_Casanova_]

AX - cracking little car, with a classically chuckable Frenchness about it. Those engines were great too - that little Solex carb just loved to rev, it made it so rewarding to thrash along.

[Emeye]

R33f said:

That is a beautiful example of a mk1 Citroen AX GT5, very rare in 5 doors, Mo here welcoming you all from the AX Owners Club (http://www.axoc.co.uk) where you will find a lot more detailed information about these wonderful wee car's.

I Have a Citroen AX forte, (base mode with factory fitted GT kit), it has a 1.6 16V VTS engine transplant.

I had a 3dr 1.4i Forte in White - are you sure it was the base model with the GT kit? My understanding at the time was that the 1.4i Forte was an insurance friendly version of the GT without the rear spoiler or alloys. Mine even had electric windows and the GT sports seats! IMO sans spoiler and with the steelies really suited the car.

I was lucky enough to work at the bottom of the Cat and Fiddle, and I regularly took the long way home via Buxton.

I cannot praise the handling of this car enough - I don't think I've driven anything as nimble or confidence inspiring on the road (but maybe I have on the track) as my AX.

No one else seems to have mentioned the terrible offset driving position though, the wheel and pedals were off to the left which gave me major back ache, so unfortunately I had to sell it and replaced it with a Mk4 Fiesta 1.4 Si, which also had great handling, but not quite as fun.

Edited by Emeye on Friday 26th February 01:07

[markbmw]

G0ldfysh said:

Hmm all these thoughts make me want one as a new shed, question is with them being rare and mostly chavved or broken. What else would give AX GT fun.

205 XS
saxo VTR?
pug 106 1.6 XSi

Any other manufacturers

With [according to ad] 136bhp at wheels, and should weigh less than 1000kg; try this http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1492120.htm
Handle better than 205s too.

[tali1]

Emeye said:

R33f said:

That is a beautiful example of a mk1 Citroen AX GT5, very rare in 5 doors, Mo here welcoming you all from the AX Owners Club (http://www.axoc.co.uk) where you will find a lot more detailed information about these wonderful wee car's.

I Have a Citroen AX forte, (base mode with factory fitted GT kit), it has a 1.6 16V VTS engine transplant.

I had a 3dr 1.4i Forte in White - are you sure it was the base model with the GT kit? My understanding at the time was that the 1.4i Forte was an insurance friendly version of the GT without the rear spoiler or alloys. Mine even had electric windows and the GT sports seats! IMO sans spoiler and with the steelies really suited the car.

Had a check .The Forte REPLACED the GT in mid 93 and lost the rear spoiler
Later there was also a 1.1i Forte

Edited by tali1 on Thursday 25th February 18:20

[Emeye]

tali1 said:

Emeye said:

R33f said:

That is a beautiful example of a mk1 Citroen AX GT5, very rare in 5 doors, Mo here welcoming you all from the AX Owners Club (http://www.axoc.co.uk) where you will find a lot more detailed information about these wonderful wee car's.

I Have a Citroen AX forte, (base mode with factory fitted GT kit), it has a 1.6 16V VTS engine transplant.

I had a 3dr 1.4i Forte in White - are you sure it was the base model with the GT kit? My understanding at the time was that the 1.4i Forte was an insurance friendly version of the GT without the rear spoiler or alloys. Mine even had electric windows and the GT sports seats! IMO sans spoiler and with the steelies really suited the car.

Had a check .The Forte REPLACED the GT in mid 93 and lost the rear spoiler
Later there was also a 1.1i Forte

Cheers.

[Kitchski]

Awesome SOTW! I've had 4 GT's and one GTi. GT's much more fun but GTi has more development under it.

120mph, never. Not in a standard car. 100mph on flat ground fairly easy, 110mph with time. Saw 120mph (indicated) once, going down hill! Rev counter was around 7300rpm IIRC and it wasn't happy. Very tail happy, but long travel suspension really give it legs. My last one was lowered on Koni's, but possibly a bit too stiff for road use. Think a guy on here bought it for track use, it was a cracking car. My fave was my first one....a 1990/G in black with white Dare 5 spokes. Used to race everything in sight and looking back I pulled a few surprises out of the bag.

You need a Saxo VTS/106 Rallye/GTi to get near the fun factor of an AX GT, the VTR doesn't cut it. The AX is slower than all bar the VTR, but still more fun IMO.

A VTS engined AX GT with a good suspension/brake combo is a formidable track machine, but it's been done too many times so next year I think I'm gonna skip that conversion and get my shoehorn out and squeeze the BX 16v lump into one. To my knowledge, it hasn't been done yet (usually cos people can't see the point!)

[exF401KGBowner]

Galaxy Bob said:

CampDavid said:

Gareth350 said:

Galaxy Bob said:

traffman said:

I owned a lovely white Ax Gt 3 door in the mid nineties.

Loved it , the clocks were tiny so i never bothered about how fast i was going.

Loved that car i paid 3495 for it!

Oh H68 csp where are you now.

Wow, you could be me. I bought a white F plate 3 door in around 1994 for £3.5k One previous owner and only 22k on the clock. I loved it. I lowered mine by 20mm, polished the alloys, put a K&N filter on and did some sort of tweaking of the carb. I don't know what it was as I just followed something someone else told me. Anyway it made it seem quicker I also had custom door cards made to replace the bottle holders with some nice 4in mid range speakers and put some tweeters in the blanking plates where the window winders would have been on a none GT model.

About 18 months later I sold it for a 205 1.9 GTI to a dealer and one week later I saw it again, but it had after market alloys on it and was been driven by a nutter. I reckon old F401 KGB must be written off by now. Shame as it was immaculate when I sold it.

The reg F401 KGB comes up on my autoparts system at work, so not been scrapped!
1st reg 1st June 1989, in white! So still around somewhere!!

It's not been taxed since 2001 though...

Only cars scrapped after a certain point come up as scrapped.

Doesn't mean it's not still on the road. This was when I lived in Newcastle*.

• Before anyone has a hissy fit, I'm allowed to say this because I was born up there and lived there for the first 25 years of my life.

HI im new to this forum and i know this is an old post but for some reason got thinking about the Ax gt i had. I decided to type in F401 KGB into google and see what happens and it brought me to this forum. I also owned this Ax and absolutely loved it. I bought it off a guy from North Shields (Tyne and Wear) for £2250 with 53k on the clock. It had the K+N still on but i bought a new one, also new performance leads and plugs, a Janspeed 4 branch, Mongoose Full SS with twin 3.5 inch B,box. and a set of Raceline RL7's 195/45/15. Rare at the time in 3 stud. I had to wait about 3 months to get them. I kept the car for quite a while and eventually sold it to a guy called Michael who used to work at Revolution in Gateshead. Believe it or not for £200 quid. The reason being the ball joint popped out and i came off the road. I took the alloys off and put the polished ones back on and let him take it away.(with the other performance parts on it!!!!) Im sure i do have some photos of it some where and i'll try and hunt them out, but summer 2001 was when i sold it to him. How Mad eh!

[Bartg]

Unfortunately this example was destroyed by Top Gear and footage of it was shown in 15x06 episode Long live AX, I had two of those and I couldnt watch it being killed under a lorry

[Kitchski]

Bartg said:

Unfortunately this example was destroyed by Top Gear and footage of it was shown in 15x06 episode Long live AX, I had two of those and I couldnt watch it being killed under a lorry

HOLY THREAD RESURRECTION!!

I'm keeping an ear to the ground on AX GTs as I'd love to have one with my BX for keeps. Trying to find original ones to use as a good base is going to prove tricky, so this is the first time I've seen TG smash up a perfectly good car and started to feel arsey about it. It is retarded to trash old rarer cars for no reason other than to please simple minds.

Ironically I currently have a TVR S, one of the cars featured in that episode.

Nothing else to see - I didn't say this was going to be an interesting or enlightening post!