... and ever this:
Simon Arron previews a brace of rare cars up for auction (Daily Telegraph) 17/5/05)
1985 Citroën BX 4TC
Price: (estimated) £10,000-£14,000
From: Les Grandes Marques à Monaco - a Bonhams auction (
www.bonhams.com - lot 207) In 16-valve trim, the Citroën BX remains one of the world's least celebrated supercars: light, spacious, sharp and very fast. But while it might have been the best BX bar none, it is neither the fastest nor the rarest. That honour falls to the BX 4TC, of which just 200 were built to legitimize Citroën's attempt to become a World Rally Championship force in the mid-1980s.
Its 2.2-litre, four-cylinder engine generated 300bhp, but the chassis was about as nimble as a giraffe on water skis. Bonhams, which is auctioning the car in Monaco on Monday, claims the BX 4TC "had the potential to be competitive, but the banning of Group B supercars at the end of 1986 left insufficient time for development and the car was retired after just one season".
Anybody who was there, however, will tell you a more prosaic truth: It was simply rubbish.
This example was a gift from Citroën to French racing driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise, the last man to score a grand prix victory in a BRM, at Monaco in 1972. Never officially registered, it is part of a well-preserved private collection that Beltoise has decided to sell. It has been fired up on a regular basis in the past 20 years, but has covered only 180km (110 miles).
He might have done rather more if they'd given him a BX 16v.
Recommended: a wide berth; even wider roads;
or buy lot 208 instead: Beltoise's beautifully maintained Citroën 11BL Cabriolet from 1937, for £27,500-£35,000.
Not recommended: rallying.