French Turbo Spaceship Cost More Than BMW! Citroen CX Turbo 2 Prestige

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the Citroën CX Turbo 2, a car that looked like it was designed by aliens and tuned for warp speed. That's if warp speed involved a lot of turbo lag. This is Citroën's idea of an executive car in the 1980s. That's back when French luxury meant having all the gadgets, a suspension system made from black magic, and a steering wheel that looks like a piece of modern art. In addition, this was the prestige model. It is the most expensive CX ever made. In 1986, it cost £200 shy of £20,000. That is a huge amount of money. To put that into context, a BMW 732i cost almost £1,000 less than this. Today, we're going to see if it can justify its high price and if it can hold its own against that BMW. So I'm particularly looking for French and Italian cars of this era, around the 80s, then please do get in touch at that email address. It kind of reminds me of a spaceship, and for the 1980s, it really was. It looks so aerodynamic that if you parked it up and there was a strong enough crosswind, it might just take off. It had hydropneumatic suspension and speed-sensitive steering, which was called Deravi, taken from the range-topping SM. This rear window, it doesn't just look cool, the very unusual concave shape allowed rainwater to be cleared by the air, so they didn't need to put on a rear wiper. Under here, we have a 2.5-litre turbocharged engine with 168 horsepower, although the way I've seen them driven in Paris, I could swear they had at least double that. Now, this is not just any turbo, it's an old French turbo, which means that when you put your foot down, you count to three, and then it lunges forward like a startled cat. Enough for a 0-60 of 6.8 seconds. And this interior, well, I think this is where Citroën went full-on, let's do whatever we want. The dash, curvy. The controls, well, it seems like they put them in a bag and then just sort of scattered them around and glued them in wherever they landed. The radio, it's there next to the driver's seat. On this car, it has a very, very posh period option with a remote pod, which will come in very, very handy. And this is the single-spoke steering wheel. It looks like it's missing a few bits, but trust me, it's all part of Citroën's genius. Or maybe madness, well, it's pretty much the same thing. Another oddity is you'll notice there's absolutely no column stalks. That's because they've put all the controls on these pods. The advantage there, I suppose, is that they are pretty much always within reach. But the indicators are not self-cancelling, and that's because Citroën believe that responsible adults should be trusted with switching them on and off on their own. And this Mk2 dash is actually the sensible one. Just take a look at what the Mk1 looked like. And this is the Prestige model, which means that it's got a longer wheelbase and more height at the top as well to make it roomier at the back, making it more suited for chauffeurs, which the DS was something it was particularly good at. Now, I can tell you that in here, it really is quite cavernous. And of course, if you're an executive in the 80s, Richard has been good enough to get a period Motorola as well. It's had some interesting owners as well. French President Jacques Chirac continued to use his even once he had retired, and Eastern Bloc dictators had a particular fondness for them. So Erich Honecker, who was the leader of East Germany, had one, as did the Ceausescus of Romania. Luckily, so did Carlos Santana, which brings back a little bit of much needed coolness. I'm looking forward to this. Key is actually in quite an awkward place to reach. Perhaps you're, yeah, I think you are just supposed to go through the wheel because going around the side is a little bit tricky. Clutch is nice and light. Engine's quite rough and agricultural at tick over. Get the handbrake off. Got this lovely armrest on the side and something else is these little, the pads that go on the rear headrests feel quite luxurious. And I forgot to mention earlier at the back, passengers actually have their own sun visors, which is quite cool. There's a few nods to luxury in here. So there's a couple of little wood panels, which I'm not even sure if that's real wood or plastic, to be honest. So, I mean, the seats are what really lift the ambience here. The rest of it is interesting. You've got the curved dash pod and so on, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it luxurious. At the back though, you've even got footrests, which is quite nice. The other thing which I picked up, which I do really like about this, the way these handles work. So to open the doors, you thread it through like that and then there's a trigger. So it really is just like pulling the trigger on a gun to open the door. I love that. I think it's so cool. The suspension really is amazing. The amount of comfort you get is incredible, but the steering, wow, it feels so unusual. It's so light and it has such a strong self-centering that almost feels like the car is driving itself. The brakes are infamous on these and they really are. The pedal is just sort of rock hard. It's very hard to modulate them until you've got a bit of a feel for what it's like. Also, it doesn't really give any feedback. It's really like a switch. God, and that engine and that turbo lag, it really is unreal. You put your foot down and it does, by the standards of modern cars, you wouldn't believe the amount of lag that this thing has. We're going to take it through the gears in a moment and see if it's got any pace to it at all, but it's such a bizarre car to drive. Quite difficult to drive smoothly with those brakes. Now, odd indicator there, right? But it does make sense. Push it right to go right, brakes. Are you ready for warp speed? Ah, I forgot that the indicators aren't self-cancelling. It goes pretty well, really. It's quite a rough engine. It's not refined particularly, although it smooths out as you go higher up the rev range. As you would expect in a French car, the seats are fabulously comfortable and I also think they look incredible. Modern car makers take note. I am starting to get a little bit more in a groove with it. It's pretty refined. We're doing maybe 60 miles an hour here and the wind noise is not too prominent, but also the ride is fantastic. You're not getting any tyre noise or anything coming through from the road at all. I believe that the subframes everything is mounted to are themselves also isolated from the chassis, which makes it even better. The steering is super light and super direct so that before you even realise what's happening, you're sort of halfway through the corner. There isn't really as much lean as you would expect with this suspension system. I think that the earlier CXs were a lot softer than this. Now, this still isn't a stiffly suspended car, but it is noticeably stiffer than those earlier ones. Oh, God, those brakes. I have used the Citroen stuff before, but these are particularly stiff. Gear change is really notchy as well and not particularly precise. I think we can safely say that it isn't a driver's car. That weird, that is bizarre. The self-centering is amazing. Right, let's just take it through the gears again. Wow, what a thing. I'd forgotten that they do that. I do find that gear change quite obstructive. The front end is so pointy, but it encourages you in a way to throw it in, but if you do overstep the mark, it does sort of flop on its ear a little bit towards the end of the corner. Smooth progress is what you want with one of these and what seems to work best is minimal input, so you have to be gentle with the steering, gentle with the brakes, and then it kind of seems to come together really. Out of the corner, put your foot down, nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens, and now it's shooting off. 3,000 seems to be the bit at which it picks up. It spools up the turbo. This car has been fully restored and Richard who got it, I think he's done pretty well. It looks lovely all around. I can't fault it. It's not over-restored, but it looks solid everywhere. The bodywork is good. The interior is nice. If you wanted to buy one of these, that's going to be a problem and the reason is not necessarily the expense of getting one, but just finding one. Ordinarily in these videos, I will sort of scan the classifieds and I'd now overlay this is what you've got, this is how much it is, but there just aren't any for sale at the moment that I can find. So for something like this, which is in really good condition, nicely restored, I think you would have to budget in the region of 12,000 to 15,000 pounds if you can get hold of one. So is this CX masterpiece or piece of madness? Well, I think it's a bit of both really. It's fast. It's ridiculously comfortable and has more personality than all modern cars combined. Is it as good as that BMW 7 Series, which was cheaper, don't forget, in 1986? Well, no, it isn't. The BMW is better in practically every measurable way, but what this does is redefine what you thought about driving and in itself, that makes it worth experiencing and buying if you have the opportunity. If you enjoyed this, take a look at my video on the Citroën SM, the car that bankrupted the company. Thank you so much to Richard for bringing this down today and most importantly, thank you to you all for watching. Look forward to seeing you for the next video.