- 7,703
- Indy
- xXKingJoshXx
Yes. Your reasoning?
GTP Cool Wall: 1987-1993 Citroen BX19 GTi 16 valve
- Thread starter White & Nerdy
- 61 comments
- 4,483 views
Yes. Your reasoning?
Joel
Premium
- 8,141
- Halifax, NS
- Noob616
inb4 I4.
- 4,040
- UK
- ReTyger
Yeah I was thinking of the simple GT I think, which my friend's parents had, and this (GTi) was indeed the slightly quicker version I had in mind. I think there was a Group B version too, or at least a prototype.
As for the I4, need I list the awesome cars with I4? Really?
- 40,740
"0/10: Not a small block ford"
- 17,836
- Florida
- GranTurismo0517
- RandomCarGuy17
It's small & French; I've heard that normally is cool. So, I'll vote that. There's also just something that strikes me as it being cool for another reason that I can't put my finger on.
- 5,551
- Controls set for heart of sun
- GTP_RogerTheHors
Small? BXs are large cars.
I think what you're talking about there is je ne sais quoi, @RandomCarGuy17
I think what you're talking about there is je ne sais quoi, @RandomCarGuy17
- 27,203
- United Kingdom
Not really. They were the forerunner to the ZX, replaced by the Xsara, replaced by the C4. It's probably still a little longer than your average supermini these days, but I'd be surprised if it's any wider or higher.
- 830
- Kuwait
I Its a meh it doesnt do much for me
I Like its styling though (Good job Gandini) but that 2 liter with just 160 HPish is not good for a car with a rallying pedigree , Since most Group B Cars were 2 liters with power in execess of 200 horsepower and even more
Plus its french so in reliability terms its not really that good the suspension goes wrong if not taken care of (Hint look at Scaff,s post ) and maybe even the engine and gearbox and lastly I dont really care about it so it is a meh
I Like its styling though (Good job Gandini) but that 2 liter with just 160 HPish is not good for a car with a rallying pedigree , Since most Group B Cars were 2 liters with power in execess of 200 horsepower and even more
Plus its french so in reliability terms its not really that good the suspension goes wrong if not taken care of (Hint look at Scaff,s post ) and maybe even the engine and gearbox and lastly I dont really care about it so it is a meh
- 31,544
- Buckwheat City
- Dennisch
This is one of those cars you'll see going down the street in 20 years, fully restored.
This is also one of those French cars I like, because quirky tech and styling.
Also. GTI. Underrated letters on French cars.
Except for the floor rotting away almost every thing else is made of plastics and glassfiber making the car light. I think the GTI weighs ~ 1000kg and that combined with 160hp makes it a quicky. Only thing holding it from subzero is the green oil leakage bound to happen.
Very big cool. 👍
Edit. Almost forgot. This shares it's engine with the 405 mi16. And the BX is the faster car.
This is also one of those French cars I like, because quirky tech and styling.
Also. GTI. Underrated letters on French cars.
Except for the floor rotting away almost every thing else is made of plastics and glassfiber making the car light. I think the GTI weighs ~ 1000kg and that combined with 160hp makes it a quicky. Only thing holding it from subzero is the green oil leakage bound to happen.
Very big cool. 👍
Edit. Almost forgot. This shares it's engine with the 405 mi16. And the BX is the faster car.
- 17,836
- Florida
- GranTurismo0517
- RandomCarGuy17
I'm sorry, it just looked small to me in the picture.
- 3,475
- Vilnius
A N/A 2 liter straight 4 with over 110kw in 1987 ain't too shabby in my book. For comparison it's more than Toyota Celica or a Mitsubishi Eclipse 2.0 of the same era, and it's a family hatchback.
Scaff
Moderator
- 29,368
- He/Him
- ScaffUK
Yep - for its time it was a quick car, went around corners well (an advantage of the suspension) and was nicely quirky in quite a few ways inside (the 'fingertip controls for the dash were a great idea, the tape deck being located between the two seats was not).
- 40,740
If the specifications here, here and here are accurate, it's roughly equivalent in size to the original Dodge Neon, E100 Toyota Corolla and the EG Honda Civic (longer wheelbase with somewhat higher height, shorter and narrower car); as three random examples that were going on sale around the time the BX was ending production. I know the "wacky European/American car size differences" filter is in effect, but under no circumstances would I call those three large cars.
- 27,203
- United Kingdom
It's a pity the mid-life revision took away some of those weird quirky features. They went back to standard indicator stalks then, and removed the wacky rotating barrel speedo. On a slightly more anoraky note I prefer the pre-facelift styling as well. Ever so slightly crisper.
Incidentally, while I made my vote for different reasons, the GTI is actually my least favourite BX, styling-wise. The arch extensions and deeper bumpers are ever so slightly overcooked in that typical 80s way. Make mine a bog-standard pre-facelift car:
- 27,203
- United Kingdom
Earlier:
Later:
It isn't abundantly clear from the pics, but basically Citroen had this idea in the 80s to completely re-design the way you operated all the minor controls in the cabin, making everything at a fingertip reach from the steering wheel. They had a pod at each side of the wheel with all the wiper functions on one side and the lights on the other. The turn signals were more like those on a motorcycle - a little rocker switch on the light pod. Wipers had little paddles on its little pod for single-sweeps, and a little up and down switch for different settings.
And you can just make out the dials in the older car too - a little rotating barrel like that displayed the speed. Better pic:
...when they weren't doing the digital thing:
The later interiors were still weird by most standards (single-spoke wheel remained) but marked the first stage of PSA cost-cutting that started to make Citroens boring throughout the 90s.
- 4,209
- Wasilla, AK
What are you talking about? The GTi modifications look sort of sporty, that's all. Is the coolest car, to you, the one that's barely noticeable or conspicuous at all?
- 5,551
- Controls set for heart of sun
- GTP_RogerTheHors
Citroen's are hardly conspicuous, but it's arguably the less conspicuous ones which are more conspicuous, if you catch my drift.
- 4,741
- Bogota,Colombia
- GTP_ARP93
Quirky, quick, FF, french sedans are cool. Not sub-zero but cool. They are a properly weird and reasonably quick car for enthusiasts yet are completely under the radar for everyone else allowing your petrosexuality to stay in the closet.
- 5,303
- Riverside, Ca
- GTP_Leonidae_MFT
- 27,203
- United Kingdom
No.
The coolest BX, specifically, is the one closest to Gandini's original vision for the car, which means the car with the cleanest-cut lines and fewest adornments.
That means a car built before it was facelifted (82-86) and without any of the addenda gained by the sporting models. There's more to it than exterior styling too, since the GTI had, if anything, the most "conventional" interior of any BX, losing not only the earlier car's quirky features outlined above, but also Citroen staples like the single-spoke steering wheel. The simpler, older models are closest in ethos to the properly cool Citroens, like the DS, CX, SM and so-on.
In general? Still no. Many of the cars I've voted cool very much stand out on the roads. At the same time, very few of them shout about their performance.
A faster car like the BX GTI isn't automatically cooler than a slower BX simply because of its extra performance. Performance models often come with visual upgrades that aren't particularly tasteful (the BX GTI is relatively subtle in comparison to some). And while some can be functional (something you'd still have to explain to people, and therefore not cool in the first place), all most do is scream "look at me!". Screaming "look at me!" in a car is about as cool as shouting it in the middle of a street. In Y-fronts.
At the same time, I don't vote exclusively on this basis. I can't think of any from the top of my head (there must have been well over a hundred cool wall posts by now) but there are certainly modified or upgraded models which are cooler than their regular, cooking counterparts.
Not everyone perceives the world on one-dimensional scales. I know when you come across someone who considers things differently, it borks your linear model of "how people work" and returns an erroneous value from either of the extreme endpoints, but people's preferences just aren't that simple.
💡
- 34,949
- Indian Falls, NY
- slashfan7964
Oh trust me, I knowI'm pretty sure that the porn red interior of certain Fords causes similar reactions in some people..And for that you can't even use "it was 80's, everything was horrid back then" as excuse.
- 17,065
- United Kingdom
I quite liked them.. quirky at least.. I went cool.
Also saw this on PH.. works for me
Also saw this on PH.. works for me
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- 830
- Kuwait
I quite liked them.. quirky at least.. I went cool.
Also saw this on PH.. works for me
That Citroen Is Sub zero
