Goddess returns
The CX GTI James rescued two years ago is back at last!
Well, there it is. As you can see, my CX is legally on a road. And boy, does it like that road! Quite aside from the kick of Eighties-style turbocharging and surprisingly agile handling, the biggest thrill of all is that my project is at last complete. Last month, I was worried about whether it would pass an MOT after a two-year restoration and 24 years off the road. This month, having got the ticket,
I’m hoping the car will stay away from breakdown trucks for long enough for me to enjoy it.
The grand moment itself came just as Britain emerged from the November 2020 lockdown. With big road trips out of the question, it was probably just as well I would have to make do with local trips. I figured it would be sensible to ease the car gently back into regular use by taking it on a short daily circular route around my village. With another oil and filter change (its third since being woken up in 2018), the local test drives began and the paranoia swirled around my head. Would it start each time? How many leaks would it spring? Which bits of trim would fall off first? Despite the thoroughness of the restoration work, I expected some teething troubles and indeed, I didn’t have long to wait. Nevertheless, I was ready for them all.
I have Practical Classics reader and fellow Citroën Car Club member Craig Turner to thank for all this. He got in touch with me after hearing of a CX at risk of scrappage. Within 24 hours of his call, I had spoken to the owner and booked a train ticket to Aberdeen. On arrival, I met owner Bob Rosie and his partner Margaret. Bob explained some running problems, rust and the need for a van meant it got parked up in his garage in 1996. However, he couldn’t bring himself to sell it and so there it stayed. Scroll forward to 2018, and their plans to move to a smaller property mean they no longer had space for the old Citroën.
As we chatted, our Practical Classics pal and resident transportation facilitator Clive Jefferson
turned up with his trailer and, having dragged the rotting hulk out of its resting place, we could see evidence of how brutal the Scottish climate can be to old cars. In the following months, we found significant corrosion, defective and worn parts and had difficulties in sourcing panels and interior trim. Expert welding from Clive, expertise from my Citroën Car Club pals Barry and Pete Annells and invaluable assistance from the UK’S only CX specialist, Stan Platts, meant what had felt like the seemingly impossible became possible.
When the MOT moment finally came, it turned out to be a somewhat private one, without fanfare. Leaving the testing station with a clean MOT pass, I faced a choice. I could have turned left, back across the yard to the Practical Classics workshop where my colleagues were preoccupied in the middle of a photo shoot or right, to the main road. I turned the wheel to right, sneaking my car back into civilisation for the first time in a quarter of a century. It was a euphoric experience. Gentle prods of the throttle took us up to the local 20mph limit, out of the village and then beyond… to thirty… forty… and fifty, where I kept things for the duration of the test drive.
The CX rounded each bend serenely, with the turbo whistling into life on a few occasions, hinting at the excitement to come. I cautiously backed off each time.
Gathering speed
CXS float across the landscape in a pleasing manner but while they grip well, you could never call them sporty. The GTI Turbo was something quite different, with stiffer suspension spheres, thicker roll bars and one giant thwack of power from its Garratt turbocharger. Sure, a period rival such as BMW’S M535i covers ground faster, but the CX GTI Turbo’s ride composure at speed is astonishing. Drive even the newest M5 and the suspension will struggle to cope with the swells and ripples of Lincolnshire’s ragged roads.
After half an hour, I got braver. I began to play with the throttle more, the car gliding serenely through the bends faster and faster, its self-levelling suspension disregarding every undulation. And then, during the return run, on one final endless Fenland straight, I checked my mirror, held tight and floored it. With an jet-like whoosh the car took off down the road, cats eyes and hedgerows becoming a mere blur. I felt
like Han Solo – Chewbacca alongside, activating the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive. ‘Punch it!’
Once again, I find myself banging the drum for car clubs, without which this moment wouldn’t have come. I’m eternally thankful to fellow members of the Citroën Car Club – from Paul Swancutt, who sold me his spare bonnet and Philip Brodie for manufacturing replacement HT leads, to Darren Walster and son Thomas for their help in sorting the electrics.
I’m thankful to the designers, too. It’s their fault I keep wandering to my garage with a cup of tea to just gawp. Robert Opron (now aged 88) did the styling, while inventor and engineer Paul Magès is the man I thank every time I waft across one of Britain’s appallingly surfaced roads. The 1974 CX should have signalled a new phase in automotive design and engineering, with safety and comfort at the heart of its design and this particular model was the ultimate incarnation of Citroën’s vision. It’s a reminder of how the motor industry once chased greatness, at any cost. Magès, an engineer who thought outside the box, took inspiration from a French playwright, whose words were written on the wall of his office. ‘Everyone thought it was impossible, except an idiot who did not know, and who created it’. I am now free to enjoy the impossible.
james.walshe@practicalclassics.co.uk
‘The GTI glides around bends like no other CX’