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Back in the early nineties, I took the plunge and bought a BX
GT. Like many Citroën enthusiasts, I was suspicious of
this ‘Peugeot 404 with plumbing’. Front suspension used
McPherson struts instead of one of the traditional Citroën
setups and the rest of the mechanical bits came from the
Peugeot-Citroën parts bin and in this respect it followed the
precedent set by the LN, LNA and Visa. But at least it had
high-pressure hydraulics to operate the suspension, brakes and
steering. I came to the GT from a GSA and while I
anticipated more performance and better economy, I suspected
that ride quality and handling would be inferior. It is
true that the ride was firmer than that of the GSA and the
handling suffered from too much body roll. One of the
major plus points was the wonderful PRN controls. Firmer
ride notwithstanding, my baby son and dog regularly chucked up
when transported in it – something they never did in my wife’s
Ford Escort XR3i. I disliked the upholstery material – it
was scratchy when wearing shorts.
The GT was replaced in due course by a GTi to which I fitted a
set of four round headlamps and a chin spoiler and my wife
inherited the GT which, unfortunately, was written off early one
Sunday morning when parked outside our flat. The GT needed
to be replaced urgently and the local Citroën dealer had a low
mileage BX16 TRS Automatique at a reasonable price so we bought
it. This was probably the worst Citroën I have ever
driven. It was underpowered and thirsty and always seemed
to be in too low a gear and there was no engine braking on the
overrun. The 16 was replaced in short order by a BX19RD which
was slow but economical. The GTi’s suspension was much
firmer than that of the GT and allowed one to make full use of
the performance. It was getting rather elderly by this
stage and my Father then offered me his BX DTR Turbo which was
reasonably quick and economical – although it did leave a cloud
of blue smoke in its wake when one made full use of its
performance.
After eight years of running BXs, I was given a XM CT Turbo as a
company car. My wife inherited my DTR Turbo and in due
course it was replaced by a Xantia. While the Xantia was
undoubtedly prettier than the BX, I always thought its handling
was inferior.
All the foregoing means that I approached Thijs’ latest book
with anticipation because, despite my initial misgivings, all
the BXs (with the exception of the 16 TRS) were great fun to
drive.
As one has come to expect from Citrovisie, the book is a work of
art. It is beautifully laid out and is full of high
quality photographs, many of which I have never seen
before. This applies particularly to the chapter on the
development of the car. And for those who do not speak
Dutch, it is the photos that will be of the greatest
importance. For those who do speak Dutch, there is plenty
of hitherto unrevealed information. I especially found the
country specific variants interesting: there was a BX11 sold in
Italy, Scandinavian models came with headlamp washers and I was
surprised to discover that the car was sold in some Comecon
countries including the Soviet Union.
In addition to the photos, there are examples of advertisements
and extracts from brochures.
Once again, my only complaint is that, title notwithstanding;
the book is only available in Dutch. If enough people were
to commit to buying an English language version, perhaps
Citrovisie might be persuaded to provide a version in English.
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