Citroen C4 VTS 180 in bargain-basement blind bidding frenzy!
Discussion
A little while since the last update. Not too many happenings in the world of the C4 to report on at the moment. It's proving decent enough transport, and will easily average 30mpg, with higher achievable if you put some effort in.
To kick things off, I had the cambelt changed. I had no idea when it was done last, and though I felt that highly unlikely it hadn't been carried out, it was still worth getting it done, not least because this is a VERY interference engine! And, perhaps surprisingly, I entrusted the job to a local decent mechanic, who carried out the job for the very reasonable sum of £100! All I needed to do was supply the new timing belt kit (complete with tensioners etc) and water pump (which turned out to be a complete pump with body, as the original was plastic!) That was all carried out, though I instructed him to simply refill the cooling system with water, for reasons that will become apparently further down...
One of the bugbears the car came with was a fluffy exhaust. It wasn't a little leak, it was substantial blowage! Some repairs were carried out earlier in the thread, but you might remember I found the casing of the entire rear silencer was fractured, so it was duly removed:
All assumptions about the silencer potentially never having been removed before were dashed at a rate that could only have been matched by the girl I fancied in yr9. Either that, or a pigeon had managed to nest atop the box itself:
The repairs I had planned, however, proved more successful than my attempts to woo the lovely Vicky (which were entirely unsuccessful....):
Well, I say successful - the exhaust is still sounding pretty 'frilly'! There aren't any leaks now, but it looks like a lot of the less-than-desirable sound effects may actually have been a combo of leaks and 122k mile old baffles in the silencer. Bugger.
A more pressing issue (what with the recent slightly-warmer-than-normal climate, has been the lack of air-conditioning. A previous trip to the local chap with a vac had shown the condenser was leaky. That meant I needed to remove the radiator, which was fine as the cooling system was still just full of neat water, and the access to the condenser was fair with the rad out of the way.
Just as well, because THIS b
d PIPE FITTING!!!!!!:
Honestly, I could see this one going very Pete Tong. And this pipe was the one from the evaporator, nestled way up behind the bulkhead, under the windscreen: VERY difficult to access, and £200 for the part! Thankfully I managed to disconnect it and took the obligatory side-by-side pics with the new condenser:
All refitted, followed by a cheap re-gas around the corner and I'm cooking on gas! Well, actually no, it's the opposite!
TBC....
To kick things off, I had the cambelt changed. I had no idea when it was done last, and though I felt that highly unlikely it hadn't been carried out, it was still worth getting it done, not least because this is a VERY interference engine! And, perhaps surprisingly, I entrusted the job to a local decent mechanic, who carried out the job for the very reasonable sum of £100! All I needed to do was supply the new timing belt kit (complete with tensioners etc) and water pump (which turned out to be a complete pump with body, as the original was plastic!) That was all carried out, though I instructed him to simply refill the cooling system with water, for reasons that will become apparently further down...
One of the bugbears the car came with was a fluffy exhaust. It wasn't a little leak, it was substantial blowage! Some repairs were carried out earlier in the thread, but you might remember I found the casing of the entire rear silencer was fractured, so it was duly removed:
All assumptions about the silencer potentially never having been removed before were dashed at a rate that could only have been matched by the girl I fancied in yr9. Either that, or a pigeon had managed to nest atop the box itself:
The repairs I had planned, however, proved more successful than my attempts to woo the lovely Vicky (which were entirely unsuccessful....):
Well, I say successful - the exhaust is still sounding pretty 'frilly'! There aren't any leaks now, but it looks like a lot of the less-than-desirable sound effects may actually have been a combo of leaks and 122k mile old baffles in the silencer. Bugger.
A more pressing issue (what with the recent slightly-warmer-than-normal climate, has been the lack of air-conditioning. A previous trip to the local chap with a vac had shown the condenser was leaky. That meant I needed to remove the radiator, which was fine as the cooling system was still just full of neat water, and the access to the condenser was fair with the rad out of the way.
Just as well, because THIS b
d PIPE FITTING!!!!!!:Honestly, I could see this one going very Pete Tong. And this pipe was the one from the evaporator, nestled way up behind the bulkhead, under the windscreen: VERY difficult to access, and £200 for the part! Thankfully I managed to disconnect it and took the obligatory side-by-side pics with the new condenser:
All refitted, followed by a cheap re-gas around the corner and I'm cooking on gas! Well, actually no, it's the opposite!
TBC....
J.C... said:
Yeah love these cars. If nothing else just for that steering wheel. Unfortunately I don’t possess the size of bks big enough to actually own one so it’s great there’s people like yourself around to scratch my itch for me, figuratively speaking.
See, you say that, but on the flip-side, you could buy a Golf diesel on a forecourt for £12k, and lose £2k in value over that year. This conventional, mass-produced hatchback cost £920, and so far owes about £1100. It's comfy, it does 30mpg, and the stereo is bangin' ks big enough to actually own one so it’s great there’s people like yourself around to scratch my itch for me, figuratively speaking. 
Honestly, no large b
ks are required! A Focus could bite me on the arse harder than this!S100HP said:
We are waiting
Oh yes. I can't remember what I was going to say now! I think just some summaries of what I've learned so far.Pros of Le C4 Voiture Tres Sportive 180:
- It's funky (as in, interesting, not smelly)
- Good seats
- Engine likes to rev - seems to pull all the way to the limiter
- Economy is sensible
- Feels pretty good quality from front seats forwards
- Bangin' stereo
- Stereo needs to be good to drown out ALL THE RATTLES from the rear end
- Grip is poor - tyres are quite narrow
- Only 5spd? It's doing 4k revs @ 80mph!
- Doors clang shut like a 2CVs, though I suspect it might be fixable
- Auto-wipers don't seem to work. If there is rain on the screen, they come on. They don't go off when the rain stops though...
My old corolla t sport had auto wipers that seemed to have a mind of their own. They did exactly as you mentioned. Started working when it was raining and then wouldn't stop. I tracked it down to wrong size wiper blades fitted. Was around 1in shorter and it didn't sweep past the sensor on the windscreen so the sensor thought it was still pissing down
Kitchski said:
See, you say that, but on the flip-side, you could buy a Golf diesel on a forecourt for £12k, and lose £2k in value over that year. This conventional, mass-produced hatchback cost £920, and so far owes about £1100. It's comfy, it does 30mpg, and the stereo is bangin'
Honestly, no large bks are required! A Focus could bite me on the arse harder than this!
You are 100% correct. But I’m the sort of person that has been VAG pretty much all his life, decides he’s finally got the “balls” to buy an Alfa, looks for months for a red 159 2.0 JTDM Sportwagon with tan leather, finds one miles from home, after buying a train ticket has it sold the night before collecting and buys an A6 for twice the price on the rebound. Honestly, no large b
ks are required! A Focus could bite me on the arse harder than this!So even if I found a mint one of these for absolutely nothing, I’d probably still end up with the Golf...
Edited by J.C... on Friday 3rd August 22:02
well said!!!!OP, when you want to "Snipe" an eBay auction use www.auctionsniper.com, you get the first 10 free, then they charge a fairly tiny fee for each successful snipe. It bids in the last 5secs I've won loads of auctions using it.
P.s I like your car! as a 2CV owner, I'm a fan of a quirky Citroen
P.s I like your car! as a 2CV owner, I'm a fan of a quirky Citroen
Life's been a bit 'hectic' in recent weeks, but that hasn't prevented the £900 chariot of quirky love from progressing forwards, despite the obvious wasting of time and money.
One of the biggest (in fact, no....THE biggest) bugbear of the entire car has been the rattles and squeaks emanating from that funny-looking arse end. Before any smartarses get in there, yes - I'm aware it's French! Thing is, we have a few BXs in the stable, along with a Saxo, none of which are actually as rattly as conventional wisdom suggests. In fact, the Pug 407 that this car replaced was actually screwed together pretty well (as it should be, seeing as it weighed as much as Europa). So why the C4? And why is it SO rattly?!
I decided to find out. Out with the entire contents of the back of the car:
And some time spent using it as a wannabe race car:
Now you would think that running around like that would make it easy to suss out the source of the audible issues, right?
Wrong.
What actually happened is that the really annoying, lightweight (but heavier than plastic) rattle got worse, and the squeak (which had been present pretty much since two days post-collection) disappeared. "Aha!" Thinks I. The squeak must be rear seat/boot trim/something I've touched-related.
Wrong.
The squeak came back, just not as frequently as before.
I decided to persevere with the rattle(s). I include the '(s)' there, because it came apparent that I actually had multiple rattling. I discovered one of the rattles was the bootlid, which wasn't fastening tightly shut. This is normally a simple case of adjusting the striker plate to pull the boot down a bit tighter.
Wrong.
The striker is not adjustable. It's a fixed-position, meaning I can't do anything with it. Looks like I'll be living with it, then?
bks to that! I removed striker, drilled holes out in rear panel, moved it down about 3mm and re-tightened it. Boot rattle - gone!
The lightweight, really, really annoying rattle persisted, however. This one was going to be trickier to sort out, because it was just the strangest type of noise. While the boot rattle did kinda sound like the kinda rattle a 12 year old funny-shaped loose French bootlid might make, this lighter rattle was much trickier to suss out. It was constant, like a loose bit of plastic inside the spare wheel-well jumping around and sliding about. It was a really odd one.
And then I found the third brake light!
Doesn't look much, but it's held in place by two plastic pegs, which just slot into the bootlid. There are two small sprung plastic tabs which click into said slots.
When the lamp is fitted into the bootlid, the tabs lock into the slots, preventing the lamp from popping back out. But guess what? IT'S NOT TIGHT!!
A quick wobble of the lamp unit created the noise. The exactly same noise I keep hearing! Makes sense too; I can hear it more since I stripped the back end out; I can find no loose componentry or random bits....it ticks all the boxes.
A visit to the self-tapper drawer and I'd modified the lamp:
Excited as a fairly grumpy 35 year old man can be, I shut the boot and jumped straight back into the car, ready to experience a rattle-free, warm-at-best French hatchback!
Wrong.
Rattle still there. No different, in fact. If I sat quietly, I'm pretty sure I could hear it laughing at me.
st is beginning to get serious now. I'm not in the mood for this. Worse-still, the original boot lid rattle is starting to try and make a comeback! I note that two of the plastic guide slots for the boot lock look worn. Upon removal, they're packed out with rubber domes, to keep everything under tension. Those rubber domes are worn and misshapen, so I wrap them in self-amalgamating tape, and pack them back in tightly. Once again, bootlid silence regained.
I decide that I'm getting nowhere with these bd rattles, so order lots of car parts instead. I'd found some Apex 40mm lowering springs earlier on in the summer, so along with these I ordered a pair of new Bilstein B4 rear dampers (£65 for the pair - bargain), a pair of Febi rear top-mounts and new discs and pads all round. I also ordered a pair of new tyres for the rear end, as the existing ones were misshapen, and harder than me at crochet club (I fking LOVE crochet club!!)
I also wanted to source some spacers for the wheels, as the 'stance' (I've died a little inside, using that term) of the C4 was all wrong. It looked gawky, and under-tyred. I'd noticed other owners plumping for a set of 25mm H&R hubcentric spacers, which seemed to sort this out, but at nearly £100 a pair, it seemed an expense I'd struggle to justify.
And then, I found an eBay listing for C2 spacers. Same hubcentric design, but only 20mm each. Having confirmed that the C2 and C4 use the same wheel fitment, I decided that at only £49 a pair, a saving of £100 successfully negated a loss of 5mm per wheel. And besides, I could always lie and tell people they were still 25mm, if I was that bothered. Lying about things that I wish were bigger than they actually are in reality is something I've become really good at.
The spacers arrived, so Thursday night last week, I decided to go about lowering my car, and spacing the wheels out. I felt 18 all over again (well, when I was 18 I had a 1986 Honda Prelude, and neither lowered it, nor did I space the wheels out. You know what I mean, though).
Naturally I took little to no pictures of this event. The front end was a pig, because not only did I have to remove the scuttle tray and wiper arms (which was rusted on) to access the strut top mounts, I also completely forgot to order in a pair of front anti-roll bar droplinks (you know, those things that are ALWAYS rusted up if you don't have a new set to hand, but are completely fine if you do?) This meant that I had to undo the top mounts, lower the strut in the wheel arch enough to clear all the awkward-shaped bits of metal and plastic that surrounded it, rotate it about 43 times (failing to note the order, which would make refitting much easier) and try to change the front springs while balancing the strut in my left hand. Luckily, I had the aid of a windy gun, because without that I can guarantee I'd have been leaving the C4 jacked up in the workshop, and pissing off home in an old Fiat van!
What also made it a complete pig, is that in all these years I failed to remember what happens if you yank on the nearside driveshaft on a PSA motor. Luckily I had gearbox oil to had.
The front end took me the best part of 3 hours to do. I started at 6pm and finished that at nearly 9! I could hear Autodata laughing all the way from their HQ in.....I dunno, Kettering?
Thankfully the rear end was more simple. Unlike previous PSA offerings, the C4 uses a torsion beam and coil springs, rather than torsion bars. Pretty much the same setup as a mk4 Golf, if I'm honest. Rear springs were switched, headlamp height adjuster lever was snapped (because....well, yeah. I forgot) and the new Billy shox and top mounts fitted.
It was during this that I noted the offside rear top mount felt a little funny. Loose, in fact. Thought nothing of it.
Anyway, car back on deck. Stand back, marvel at the new STANCE YO and drive it around the yard to allow everything to bed in and check it's good to go (a trip to Burger King was beckoning).
NO
BLOODY
RATTLES
OR
SQUEAKS!!!!
Honestly! It's like a new car. It's silent! It feels hewn from granite! I swear there are dinosaur fossils in there, somewhere! I honestly didn't think it'd make a difference. In fact, no, scrub that - I thought it would make it worse, because it's a bit stiffer now. I was prepared for that, but I wasn't prepared to find it fixed!
I've been going through a few personal problems recently (nothing interesting, don't get excited) and honestly, finding that I'd sorted that little issue made my day. Or night....evening at a stretch. Who's counting, anyway?
I appreciate this is a cock-handed order to write all this in, but I remembered (while typing out the last paragraph) that before I dicked about with rattles, I put the car on the dyno! We had it up and running to cater for a few classic racing Minis, so felt it would be almost rude to not grab the opportunity to depress myself further, and see just to what extent the C4 would be left wanting.
The C4 didn't disappoint! 10-15 French donkeys have gone missing from the alleged 177 that it left the factory with.
That was the best effort: 167bhp. So in all the years of progress, variable valve timing and improved management systems, the 1340kg C4 is kicking out the same power as the Xsara VTS it replaced, which happened to be carrying around 100kg less to start with. Great. Nice one.
The red, more wobbly line, is actually S100HP's C4 VTS from years ago, which I still had the files for. His only made 162bhp, which provided me with a great source of amusement at the time. I mean, I'm still up on the deal, but it feels like a hollow victory. I think I'm going to remove the EW10J4 from the list of cool PSA twin-cam engines, you know. It's no D6C!
So, how does the C4 VTS now look? How does it drive? How does it steer? Well, wonder no more! Where previously it looked like this:
It now looks like this:
I'm quite pleased. I'm really liking the way this car looks at the moment, and I don't often focus on looks too much. It's just so odd, and quirky:
All this came about as I clicked over 1000miles in it since collection:
30-odd to the gallon, being driven pretty unsympathetically in all conditions. I can live with that.
How does it drive?
Erm....not great. I mean, it was never a class-leading hot hatch anyway. In fact, it wasn't ever a hot hatch. It's about as hot as raw cabbage. To say it's warm would be skirting closer to the apex, but to be honest, I don't even think it'd qualify as that. It's more like a Scirocco than a Gold GTI, if that makes any sense? It's like a hatchback, only slightly less practical. It's quite likeable because it's full of natty features and details. It's a different approach to a thoroughly conventional subject. That gives it character, and character is very difficult to find in a car these days.
The lowering has highlighted that the front dampers probably also need switching for the B4 versions. It skits about and feels less-than composed on fast, bumpy corners. The tyres are just too skinny, and if you switch the ESP off, it'll go full-scale sideways without too much provocation. If you want a track weapon, or B-road blaster, look elsewhere. But for a daily driver that you can happily run, find comfort in and enjoy the virtues of, it's working its way into my heart at the moment.
Burning question is - Goodwood Breakfast Club in November has been decreed as Hot Hatch Sunday! Now, do I play safe and apply to take the Imp (being that the BX is off the road), or do I thrown a curveball and see if the C4 VTS could worm its distinctive way in between the rows and rows of Clios and Golfs?
One of the biggest (in fact, no....THE biggest) bugbear of the entire car has been the rattles and squeaks emanating from that funny-looking arse end. Before any smartarses get in there, yes - I'm aware it's French! Thing is, we have a few BXs in the stable, along with a Saxo, none of which are actually as rattly as conventional wisdom suggests. In fact, the Pug 407 that this car replaced was actually screwed together pretty well (as it should be, seeing as it weighed as much as Europa). So why the C4? And why is it SO rattly?!
I decided to find out. Out with the entire contents of the back of the car:
And some time spent using it as a wannabe race car:
Now you would think that running around like that would make it easy to suss out the source of the audible issues, right?
Wrong.
What actually happened is that the really annoying, lightweight (but heavier than plastic) rattle got worse, and the squeak (which had been present pretty much since two days post-collection) disappeared. "Aha!" Thinks I. The squeak must be rear seat/boot trim/something I've touched-related.
Wrong.
The squeak came back, just not as frequently as before.
I decided to persevere with the rattle(s). I include the '(s)' there, because it came apparent that I actually had multiple rattling. I discovered one of the rattles was the bootlid, which wasn't fastening tightly shut. This is normally a simple case of adjusting the striker plate to pull the boot down a bit tighter.
Wrong.
The striker is not adjustable. It's a fixed-position, meaning I can't do anything with it. Looks like I'll be living with it, then?
b
ks to that! I removed striker, drilled holes out in rear panel, moved it down about 3mm and re-tightened it. Boot rattle - gone!The lightweight, really, really annoying rattle persisted, however. This one was going to be trickier to sort out, because it was just the strangest type of noise. While the boot rattle did kinda sound like the kinda rattle a 12 year old funny-shaped loose French bootlid might make, this lighter rattle was much trickier to suss out. It was constant, like a loose bit of plastic inside the spare wheel-well jumping around and sliding about. It was a really odd one.
And then I found the third brake light!
Doesn't look much, but it's held in place by two plastic pegs, which just slot into the bootlid. There are two small sprung plastic tabs which click into said slots.
When the lamp is fitted into the bootlid, the tabs lock into the slots, preventing the lamp from popping back out. But guess what? IT'S NOT TIGHT!!
A quick wobble of the lamp unit created the noise. The exactly same noise I keep hearing! Makes sense too; I can hear it more since I stripped the back end out; I can find no loose componentry or random bits....it ticks all the boxes.
A visit to the self-tapper drawer and I'd modified the lamp:
Excited as a fairly grumpy 35 year old man can be, I shut the boot and jumped straight back into the car, ready to experience a rattle-free, warm-at-best French hatchback!
Wrong.
Rattle still there. No different, in fact. If I sat quietly, I'm pretty sure I could hear it laughing at me.
s
t is beginning to get serious now. I'm not in the mood for this. Worse-still, the original boot lid rattle is starting to try and make a comeback! I note that two of the plastic guide slots for the boot lock look worn. Upon removal, they're packed out with rubber domes, to keep everything under tension. Those rubber domes are worn and misshapen, so I wrap them in self-amalgamating tape, and pack them back in tightly. Once again, bootlid silence regained. I decide that I'm getting nowhere with these b
d rattles, so order lots of car parts instead. I'd found some Apex 40mm lowering springs earlier on in the summer, so along with these I ordered a pair of new Bilstein B4 rear dampers (£65 for the pair - bargain), a pair of Febi rear top-mounts and new discs and pads all round. I also ordered a pair of new tyres for the rear end, as the existing ones were misshapen, and harder than me at crochet club (I fking LOVE crochet club!!)I also wanted to source some spacers for the wheels, as the 'stance' (I've died a little inside, using that term) of the C4 was all wrong. It looked gawky, and under-tyred. I'd noticed other owners plumping for a set of 25mm H&R hubcentric spacers, which seemed to sort this out, but at nearly £100 a pair, it seemed an expense I'd struggle to justify.
And then, I found an eBay listing for C2 spacers. Same hubcentric design, but only 20mm each. Having confirmed that the C2 and C4 use the same wheel fitment, I decided that at only £49 a pair, a saving of £100 successfully negated a loss of 5mm per wheel. And besides, I could always lie and tell people they were still 25mm, if I was that bothered. Lying about things that I wish were bigger than they actually are in reality is something I've become really good at.
The spacers arrived, so Thursday night last week, I decided to go about lowering my car, and spacing the wheels out. I felt 18 all over again (well, when I was 18 I had a 1986 Honda Prelude, and neither lowered it, nor did I space the wheels out. You know what I mean, though).
Naturally I took little to no pictures of this event. The front end was a pig, because not only did I have to remove the scuttle tray and wiper arms (which was rusted on) to access the strut top mounts, I also completely forgot to order in a pair of front anti-roll bar droplinks (you know, those things that are ALWAYS rusted up if you don't have a new set to hand, but are completely fine if you do?) This meant that I had to undo the top mounts, lower the strut in the wheel arch enough to clear all the awkward-shaped bits of metal and plastic that surrounded it, rotate it about 43 times (failing to note the order, which would make refitting much easier) and try to change the front springs while balancing the strut in my left hand. Luckily, I had the aid of a windy gun, because without that I can guarantee I'd have been leaving the C4 jacked up in the workshop, and pissing off home in an old Fiat van!
What also made it a complete pig, is that in all these years I failed to remember what happens if you yank on the nearside driveshaft on a PSA motor. Luckily I had gearbox oil to had.
The front end took me the best part of 3 hours to do. I started at 6pm and finished that at nearly 9! I could hear Autodata laughing all the way from their HQ in.....I dunno, Kettering?
Thankfully the rear end was more simple. Unlike previous PSA offerings, the C4 uses a torsion beam and coil springs, rather than torsion bars. Pretty much the same setup as a mk4 Golf, if I'm honest. Rear springs were switched, headlamp height adjuster lever was snapped (because....well, yeah. I forgot) and the new Billy shox and top mounts fitted.
It was during this that I noted the offside rear top mount felt a little funny. Loose, in fact. Thought nothing of it.
Anyway, car back on deck. Stand back, marvel at the new STANCE YO and drive it around the yard to allow everything to bed in and check it's good to go (a trip to Burger King was beckoning).
NO
BLOODY
RATTLES
OR
SQUEAKS!!!!
Honestly! It's like a new car. It's silent! It feels hewn from granite! I swear there are dinosaur fossils in there, somewhere! I honestly didn't think it'd make a difference. In fact, no, scrub that - I thought it would make it worse, because it's a bit stiffer now. I was prepared for that, but I wasn't prepared to find it fixed!
I've been going through a few personal problems recently (nothing interesting, don't get excited) and honestly, finding that I'd sorted that little issue made my day. Or night....evening at a stretch. Who's counting, anyway?
I appreciate this is a cock-handed order to write all this in, but I remembered (while typing out the last paragraph) that before I dicked about with rattles, I put the car on the dyno! We had it up and running to cater for a few classic racing Minis, so felt it would be almost rude to not grab the opportunity to depress myself further, and see just to what extent the C4 would be left wanting.
The C4 didn't disappoint! 10-15 French donkeys have gone missing from the alleged 177 that it left the factory with.
That was the best effort: 167bhp. So in all the years of progress, variable valve timing and improved management systems, the 1340kg C4 is kicking out the same power as the Xsara VTS it replaced, which happened to be carrying around 100kg less to start with. Great. Nice one.
The red, more wobbly line, is actually S100HP's C4 VTS from years ago, which I still had the files for. His only made 162bhp, which provided me with a great source of amusement at the time. I mean, I'm still up on the deal, but it feels like a hollow victory. I think I'm going to remove the EW10J4 from the list of cool PSA twin-cam engines, you know. It's no D6C!
So, how does the C4 VTS now look? How does it drive? How does it steer? Well, wonder no more! Where previously it looked like this:
It now looks like this:
I'm quite pleased. I'm really liking the way this car looks at the moment, and I don't often focus on looks too much. It's just so odd, and quirky:
All this came about as I clicked over 1000miles in it since collection:
30-odd to the gallon, being driven pretty unsympathetically in all conditions. I can live with that.
How does it drive?
Erm....not great. I mean, it was never a class-leading hot hatch anyway. In fact, it wasn't ever a hot hatch. It's about as hot as raw cabbage. To say it's warm would be skirting closer to the apex, but to be honest, I don't even think it'd qualify as that. It's more like a Scirocco than a Gold GTI, if that makes any sense? It's like a hatchback, only slightly less practical. It's quite likeable because it's full of natty features and details. It's a different approach to a thoroughly conventional subject. That gives it character, and character is very difficult to find in a car these days.
The lowering has highlighted that the front dampers probably also need switching for the B4 versions. It skits about and feels less-than composed on fast, bumpy corners. The tyres are just too skinny, and if you switch the ESP off, it'll go full-scale sideways without too much provocation. If you want a track weapon, or B-road blaster, look elsewhere. But for a daily driver that you can happily run, find comfort in and enjoy the virtues of, it's working its way into my heart at the moment.
Burning question is - Goodwood Breakfast Club in November has been decreed as Hot Hatch Sunday! Now, do I play safe and apply to take the Imp (being that the BX is off the road), or do I thrown a curveball and see if the C4 VTS could worm its distinctive way in between the rows and rows of Clios and Golfs?
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