First. Car. LIVE! #7: [Citroen ZX Coupe 16V] Rate it in the comments below.

18 Jun 2019

Intro: The last one got, by far, the most comments and ratings. 15 in fact. That’s so cool and thanks y’all for the support. I actually saw one of these the other day and i was like “That looks so good, i wanna make a post about it.”, so here i am making a post about it. I really like these boxy coupes.

Specs

Well, as usual, the first thing we talk about is the engine.
Powered by a rather well optimized 2.0L inline-4, it makes almost 170HP and almost 200Nm of torque.

Description

It was launched in 1990 and it was aimed at the C class market.
Besides being a nice little hatchback, it was marketed properly and had all the various fancy features from the 90’s, like power steering, abs, airbags, electric windows and sunroof and an independent rear suspension.
It was designed by none other than Bertone and it shows. It’s very purpose built with a slight edge of style.
Back to the “marketed properly” thing. By that i meant each trim level was pointed towards a certain group of people. Younger people, families or independent adults, people who want a good looking and safe car or people who are looking for a bit of an adventure.

Mods

By default, the first mod of choice would be the custom intake which i’d personally put it where a foglight would be, but go the extra mile to install a ring of LEDs around it to keep the functionality of the foglight. Of couse painting everything yellow to look the same as the other foglight. Make it clean.
Next up is the exhaust system, and this is just to enable a proper chiptune.
After that i’d port the valves for a little kick of power.
Finally, i’d tie everything together with the said chiptune, and to make it really special, i’d install the lowered and stiffer suspensions from the Volcane trim.

Budget

I found some cheap, i found some expensive, but i think if you look hard enough you could find the right one.
The final budget for this would be around 2500€ with the mods and sold old parts.

Conclusion

This is one of the forgotten hot hatches from the 90’s.
It was just different. Its design was stuck in another era, but had the performance and features of the generation it was from. As i said in the intro, the design got my attention. It just looks so good in real life.
And plus, you get a car covered in “16V” stickers to let people you have the top of the line engine from that car.

Scores
Last Score:
8.00 Peugeot 206 GTI 180/RC
Best Score:
8.85 Toyota Corolla TS

Comments

My other idea was to take the Volcane and put the Coupe 16V engine in it, but i think that would have been too hard to find, too expensive and too hard to install (considering that i know nothing about the ECU in this car). So instead of making a misinformative post, i chose the Coupe 16V with the Volcane suspensions.

Plus, coupe cars are more appealing to young car enthusiasts.

That’s a good step.

5/10, very weird and I’m not too sure citroen could make a decent hot hatch..I think there are better options.

Well, i dunno which Citroens had reliability issues.
And yeah, there are better options like the Golf 4, although its engine is a lot less optimized.
But a Golf 4 is still a Golf 4, and so it can be taken through hell and back, because it would still work just fine in the end.

10/10

Thanks. :)

In that price, if I could get one of these, I’d go buy one right now! 9/10

You didn’t get these either? Omg…

9.5/10

Cool.

You find the best quirky first cars, I struggle not to give them all a 10/10, as they are all good ideas. :) Although I would rather buy an old BX, my personal favourite!

Well, thanks. :)
I actually don’t even struggle all that much. It just happen to come across them.
On the street, online when looking for cars, etc.
I have another quirky french one for the next post.

Also, this thing won the Paris-Dakar Rally three years in a row.
It’s something.