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Citroen CX Prestige Turbo 2 | Spotted

Old, fast and French is always cool - see the ultimate CX for proof

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What a nice surprise it was to see Citroen resurrect the 2 CV at the Paris show. With a promise to make something very similar for the showroom, rather than just create a show buzz. If the price and range compromise can be agreeably struck, then Citroen surely has a winner on its hands. Who wouldn’t want to pop to the shops for eggs (with their own dedicated door storage) in a new electric 2 CV?

With that, plus the E-Space from Renault and T16 from Peugeot, it’s been virtually impossible to avoid looking at old French gems in the classifieds. There actually is a 2 CV, for those that fancy, but there’s also this: a CX25 Prestige Turbo 2. A deux cheveaux is cool, but it ain’t no CX. 

Probably you’re familiar with the CX, given it was made for 16 years and more than a million were sold. It was glorious, idiosyncratic Citroen of the era taken into the luxury space, large and well-equipped while still being just the right amount of weird. Hydropneumatic suspension? Check. Single-spoke steering wheel? Check. No stalks? And so on. 

That you knew. What you might not have known about is this particular car, one of just five right-hand-drive Prestige Turbo 2s. For Citroen aficionados, this is the most special of special ones. Forget BX 4TC, Traction Avant or, er, unmodified Saxo VTS - this is it. Well, we think it is. By combining long-wheelbase Prestige spec - rear legroom is genuinely palatial - with the turbocharged GTI engine, Citroen created the kind of cult classic only it could. 

Originally the long-wheelbase car was built for chauffeur companies who wanted more space; probably the rest of the four-cylinder range would have sufficed for gentle ambling around on the famously cushy ride. But someone decided the 170hp 2.5-litre turbo engine should go in the front (alongside the spare wheel), for the ultimate autoroute express. In the late '80s, a Prestige Turbo 2 cost more than a 7 Series BMW…

This 1987 CX still looks like the perfect thing for a vast motorway journey, long and low and still with a silhouette like nothing else. Even by the standards of very rare cars, you’re going to get gawped at. It’s hard to know whether it’ll be more enjoyable to sit up front and drive a turbo manual Citroen or lounge in the rear quarters. That feels like the appropriate terminology for such a space.

Given the complexity of the CX, money has to be spent to keep them fighting fit. This one had a new clutch and a suspension refresh last year, which is encouraging, plus there’s been a fair bit of work to get through the most recent MOT. At 40 years old next year, by the current legislation it won’t need another MOT, but keeping a CX in good order has surely always been a labour of love. Still, nobody is going to buy any kind of old Citroen, surely, without being fully invested (in every sense of the word). 

On that subject, the asking price is £17,995. Given these hardly ever come up for sale, it’s hard to know exactly what their value is. Certainly it wouldn’t be a surprise if interest increased should more retro Citroens appear on the horizon. But that’s not what buying a CX Turbo Prestige should be about; it should be about maximum waft and maximum quirky French cool on every journey. Travelling as a four will never be quite such an event as in a CX. You’ll struggle to get anyone out of those rear seats…

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SPECIFICATION | CITROEN CX GTI TURBO 2 PRESTIGE

Engine: 2,500cc, four-cyl turbo
Transmission: 5-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 169@5,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 216@3,250rpm
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
First registered: 1987
Recorded mileage: 122,500
Price new: £19,800
Yours for: £17,995

See the original advert

[Familymad]

Rear end has a bit of Type-01 jag to it …

[Jinba Ittai]

If only I had a ten metre tall effigy of Grace Jones s head to park it in.

Edited by Jinba Ittai on Tuesday 20th October 06:56

[Kawasicki]

I came out of Stuttgart airport to the taxi rank maybe 10 years ago, and guess what was waiting there for me?

That was a very enjoyable trip.

[Puddenchucker]

I'm always a little bit disappointed that these didn't have a 6 cylinder option.

And I think the earlier dashboard with its revolving drum speedo & rev counter looks better, more Citroën.

[generationx]

An ex-colleague had a (apparently very rare) CX GTI Turbo in black which was waft-tastic.

But my favourite CX memory is from one of the funniest (for me) TG episodes:

[ducnick]

The exhaust manifold and turbo must be sitting right under that spare wheel. I wonder if the heat has any effect on the aging of the rubber compound.
Always thought the CX would make an excellent base for an ev conversion. The original engine wasn’t all that glorious, even in turbo form, and the manual gearbox doesn’t work in a big car like this.

[Notsofastfrank]

I fondly recall the Russell Bulgin column in Car magazine, where he brilliantly described a drive in a CX, poking fun at the random noises the car made. Now I’m going to have to rummage through piles of old magazines to find it!

[Fetchez la vache]

Well, isn't that just glorious!
I'd forgotten about those revolving drums!

[Cobalteer]

The sight of this takes me right back to pushchair outings to the perimeter road of the nearby Ascot racecourse. Should we find ourselves there in a raceday there would invariably be a CX estate poised to circuit the track with a BBC outside broadcast camera and cameraman strapped to the top. Watching the standing start of a winter cavalcade of frothy steaming horses, a CX with accoutrements and an ambulance all followed by a steward in a P38 or similar or two is unforgettable.

[Fantomas]

One of my uncles has one in the 80s, it was like a spaceship. Didn’t like it at the time but now I think they’re cool. They could have been even better with the v6 PRV or the SM.

[heisthegaffer]

A million sold is a good number for a car like this i feel.

[rossub]

Jinba Ittai said:

If only I had a ten metre tall effigy of Grace Jones s head to park it in.

Edited by Jinba Ittai on Tuesday 20th October 06:56

Could do with a 10 metre barge pole for this thing.

[Turbobanana]

Surely the best-looking seats ever to grace a car's interior. And the most badges on the back.

I'd prefer the normal length version and, unusually, feel the auto box would suit it better. But yes please.

Many years ago, while working out of a unit on a farm, my boss imported an absolutely knackered CX 25D. It really was tired, but once coaxed into life, would happily trundle around the farm without even noticing the potholes. I later discovered that some of the 2.5 engines (diesel only, I think) suffered a weird problem whereby the cylinder head would become porous, causing problems starting something that relies on compression.