AUTONEWS

Citroën BX4TC 

If you were born in the 1970s or 1980s, you'll surely remember the Citroën BX. It was a five-door sedan that came onto the market in 1982 and replaced the GSA (an evolution of the Citroën GS). Thanks to Marcello Gandini's design, it was a different car, very recognizable from an aesthetic point of view, as had been the case with all Citroëns for a long time. And it was also very advanced. In its favor was the fact that its hood, tailgate, and fenders, as well as the bumpers, were made of fiberglass, allowing it to boast an incredible weight of 885 kg in its basic version. But also in its favor were a drag coefficient of just 0.34 (thanks to its primitive computer-assisted design) and hydropneumatic suspension. Despite this original approach, the BX was a common choice for middle-class parents, as it had fairly proven engines, was large inside (for the time), and wasn't expensive.

High expectations...But Citroën had very high expectations for this car. On one hand, they had the memory of the successes of the Citroën DS, which, among other rallies, had won the Monte Carlo twice, the Corsica Rally twice, and the 1000 Lakes once. And on the other, they had the example of Peugeot, whose 205 Turbo 16 was one of the world's top dogs.

So, at Citroën, they prepared for the BX Group B rally car to become a reality in 1985. Of course, this meant that the French firm had to manufacture at least 200 examples of a road-going car from which the model they would use in competition could be derived. So they took the BX, fitted it with a 2.1-liter turbo engine producing 200 hp, and equipped it with the necessary all-wheel drive. The production car reached 220 km/h (137 mph) and went from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 7.5 seconds.

Widened... The car was called the BX 4TC and was instantly recognizable because of its bulging hood (the new engine didn't fit in the original space), four fog lights in the grille, larger front bumpers, and flared fenders to accommodate wider tires (which, in today's view, aren't wide).

The racing model wasn't a success, quite the opposite: it managed to be homologated for the 1986 season, a year late, and that year it competed in Monte Carlo, Sweden, and Acropolis, with two retirements and a sixth-place finish in the latter event at the wheel of Jean-Claude Andruet.

A very dangerous competition... But the FIA ​​got out of hand in that championship, and the Group B cars, with their exorbitantly powerful turbo engines, all-wheel drive, tubular chassis in many cases, and fiberglass bodies, proved to be a danger.

Driver Attilio Bettega had already lost his life at the Corsica Rally in 1985, but Joaquim Santos also killed three people and injured thirty with his Ford RS 2000 in 1986. And that same year, Henri Toivonen and his co-driver lost their lives in a Lancia Delta S4 at the Corsica Rally. The FIA's solution was to do away with the Group B cars and replace them with the limited and controlled Group A cars.

That regulation change cut short the BX's development, and Citroën decided to change its strategy, forgetting that the BX was a rally car. However, the BX 4TCs it had manufactured remained, distributed among a multitude of European dealerships. Some sources say that 62 units had been sold at that point. Others speak of 86. In any case, many remained unowned, and since the French brand didn't want the BX's image to be associated with rallying, they decided to reclaim those that hadn't been sold until then from the factory to destroy them under judicial supervision.

Some were saved... And so it was, except that in some cases, around thirty, the dealers refused to send the car back for destruction. It is believed that one of those units that someone refused to return is the one you see in the images.

In April 1986, it was sent to Switzerland, where it remained unregistered in the garage of a collector who was content just to look at it, presumably among many other cars in his collection. Its second owner, who bought it in 2007, did, however, want to use it, albeit sparingly. He registered it and has driven 2,800 km so far, presumably mostly at classic car events. And now he's putting it up for sale again at the auction Aguttes is organizing this March 16th.

The car is expected to sell for between €100,000 and €150,000. That's about the same as a new Porsche 911 Carrera. And even though you might find it hard to believe, it's actually quite cheap considering it's a homologation unit for a World Rally Championship car, and on top of that, it's barely used.

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