CITROEN

CX

The CITROEN CX was launched in 1974 as the long-awaited successor to the iconic DS, and it had enormous shoes to fill. Penned by designer Robert Opron, the CITROEN CX wore a striking, wind-cheating fastback silhouette with a concave rear window and a low, wedge-shaped nose that gave it a remarkably low drag coefficient for its era. Beneath the futuristic bodywork, the CITROEN CX carried over and refined Citroën's hallmark hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension, delivering a magic-carpet ride that few rivals could match. It also introduced DIRAVI speed-sensitive, self-centring power steering, a system that made the CITROEN CX feel uniquely light and precise. The motoring press was won over immediately, crowning the CITROEN CX European Car of the Year 1975. Early cars used four-cylinder petrol engines in 2.0, 2.2 and 2.4-litre forms, later joined by economical diesels. The CITROEN CX range grew to include the long-wheelbase Prestige luxury saloon, the spacious Break (estate) and Familiale, and the sporting fuel-injected GTi. In 1984 came the formidable 2.5-litre GTi Turbo, later upgraded to the intercooled GTi Turbo 2, the fastest CITROEN CX of all. A Series 2 facelift arrived in 1985 with plastic bumpers and a revised interior, modernising the CITROEN CX for the late 1980s. The saloon was replaced by the XM in 1989, while the CITROEN CX Break soldiered on until production finally ended in 1991.