|
|
My Car
Those of you who know me will understand why I have dedicated a page to my car.
The origins of Kens Car.
My car started its life in September 1976, when it was built at the Citroen factory in Paris.
It was bought by Mr Jack Laracy from Brisbane, on the proviso that he and his wife would travel to Europe to take deliver of it. it was bought for the princely sum of 29,000 francs, and was delivered to a German Citroen dealership to await the Laracy's.
The car they bought was a white Citroen CX 2000 Break (Station Wagon). It was the base model, without power steering, or electric windows. The Laracy's drove the car all over Europe for 15 months, and then brought it back to Australia with them in 1978.
Jack drove it until 1998 when he sold it to Dad, as a 'Spare Parts Car', that was restored to daily use by me. Manual steering in a CX wagon is not a good thing, so power steering has been fitted, along with electric front windows. Mechanically, all that really needed to be done to the car when we bought it, was a new clutch, and some suspension components. Some body work was also performed, like a new paintjob that has since been spoiled by some inept Nissan Prairie driver in the school car park. Apart from that, it is still driving sweetly. Since we bought the car, I have covered 5000 trouble free kilometres in it.
Driving the CX
The first thing you notice about the CX is the weird dash, instead of having dials, it has rotating barrels for the speedometer and tachometer. Since my car originally had no tachometer, the speedo, as well as indicating braking distances, gives gear change points, these points are at 40km for the 1st to 2nd change, 80km for the 2nd to 3rd change, and 120 for the 3rd to 4th change. The car easily revs up to these change points, but as these are at maximum power, there is no point revving any higher.
The second thing is the steering. The CX has DIRAVI or Varipower steering, which means the stiffness of the steering is directly proportional to road speed. this means that the steering much lighter than normal power steering at car park speeds, but it is stiffer than normal from 60+. This does away with compromise of normal power steering - which is that it must not be too light at high speeds. The steering is also very direct, only two turns lock to lock, which is also good, as means that you can turn very quickly if you need to, and it is also a lot more intuitive to drive.
As with all hydro-pneumatic Citroens, the ride is what the passengers always comment on. especially when you head towards a nasty speed bump at 60km/h and watch your passenger start to cringe and curl up in anticipation of the impact, that never happens.
It is also amazing on dirt roads, where speeds 40 to 50 km higher than conventionally sprung cars are possible.
CX Experiences
The best experience though, would have to be the satisfaction that you have done something differently from everybody else.
Fuel Economy
I get roughly 12-13L/100K in stop start city driving, and around 7-8L/100K on the highway, which is pretty good for a 70's vintage large car.
Things that have gone wrong.
As with all CX's the main probs have been hydraulics, from a Steering control unit, to that tiny leak you can never find. luckily, both these problems have been fixed. Yay!
Rear anti-roll bar. It kind of snapped, while I was driving off road. It already had a stress fracture in it though, so I wasn't really that bothered.
Front suspension bits. Just stuff like the bearings in the bottom suspension arms.
Final Word
My CX is great. only thing that could replace it would be a CX turbo, or a SM,
but thats another story.
Thanks to the guys who made it this far. I know I might seem fanatical about my car, but I think it's worth it. ;)
Ken.