STORYTIME: The BX 16 Valve with more lives than a cat!?

[@torresalex]

You're a brilliant storyteller. Those 25 minutes flew by, and thanks for taking the time to share with us.

[@Canalsman]

You've echoed my sentiments exactly. Thanks Kitch, I'm so glad that XPO rides (hydropneumatically) again!

[@ChrisPatrick-q6k]

Yeah, he seems engaging.

[@michaelwright2986]

Well that's a happy story. But with a very dangerous moral: Never throw anything away, you never know when it will come in useful. I sit, surrounded by old stuff, clinging to that thought.

[@HowardLeVert]

Me too, and I'm drowning in it...

[@charliemansonUK]

Gotta love a BX I worked for a multifranchise garage back in the 80's and sold loads of BX's they sold 3:1 over the Audis and VWs

[@johnlloyd8109]

Hugely and unfairly overlooked car. The last true Citroen, and ageing better than almost anything else from the same era.

[@mojosabien]

Tell me about it. I’m a big Saab fan and a lot of the mk1 Saab 9-3s were killed to put the 2.0 16 valve turbo engine in a pissing Corsa. Chavvy little bar stewards.

[@stuarthannay3370]

There is no accounting for taste

[@GreyTheFloydianSergal]

funnily enough I was reading XPO's blog this week. What a fantastic story about a wonderful car

[@davidcooke6803]

I used to deliver a newspaper to a house where the red bx had a reg plate A16V BX Always thought ‘how sad’ but I bet if it still exists it might be worth something. Great story, lovely cars, thank you.

[@UPnDOWN]

That car got stolen IIRC

[@binarydinosaurs]

Me: I don't need to watch a story of an engineless BX. Me, 25 mins later: aw, that's a fantastic end, what a story!

[@Invisibleman7]

Really enjoyed this. Glad XPO is on the road, a story of a true survivor

[@tomwinch9107]

Great story, well told. And good to hear you sounding positive after the car troubles you've had in the last year ... I know life can't be fixed cars and happy new beginnings all the time, but it's really good to hear of your part in getting a 'quite rare' car back on the road (I'm sure it's not the only one, you've probably saved more cars than I've killed, but you are far too modest to tell us about them all!)

[@mclouj]

I believe the engine from my 306 S16 went into a 205 in the end, so I feel the pain. That was a satisfying story, thanks for telling it.

[@Madpegasusmax]

So nice story , I'm glad that 16v was rebuilt . Hope some day I manage to find one (left hand drive 16s) in that lucifer red without cat , so it joins my 91' BX GTi 1.6 115ch and my 89 BX TRD Turbo TECNIC 1.7 . Last time I cross a red one (over 10y ago), the engine was modified so didn't take the risk and later a silver one but with a cat , so less power .

[@tichwykes]

Brilliant story & great to see XPO saved I just hope the new owner takes care of it, I just wish I could afford one.

[@darrenwilson8042]

The best memory I have of a BX (sadly I never got around to owning one) was the read 1.4E driven by the Wendy James lookalike in the mid/late 80's who worked at the surveying firm on the floor below us in London House in Middleton, Manchester. I confess my memories are more her than the red BX.......

[@martinneumann7783]

This story and listening to some vinyl records with a friend saved my day; my grey Sunday to be precise… Thanks Kitch. See you soon and take care »»» Martin 🚗💨🇫🇷

[@bondbug73]

Watching this interesting story and narrative in the mustard LJK Setright hoodie. It's quite sad how the BX's suffered. You've had some nice BX's. Nice outcome to the red shell. BAH side view is slick.👌

[@benwilliams1396]

Such a heart-warming story!

[@RGChandler]

I used to work with a guy who drove a BX 16V, I used to drive it from time to time. such a good car. it got written off in a massive accident on Christmas eve. Drunk driver hit him head on. what a waste. always wanted one.

[@jamesedkins2823]

Love the stories, keep them coming!

[@blacklisted4885]

I love this generation of French cars. The Renault 9 Turbo is my favourite

[@composedlight6850]

Had one of these in Grey ---- it was great, handled well, four peole seated and boot. It was fun enugh for me.

[@timphyall2442]

Some names from the past there! Always nice to when they come back to the road! Good work buddy.

[@georgH]

I remember when the BX were really popular, I always thought it was a very interesting looking car, little did I know how they were under the hood until we bought a Xantia and realized how good it was and then learned about the history of the Citroen high end cars. The BAH looks gorgeous!

[@PaddyWV]

Cracking stuff. Long may XPO live!

[@craigyllyn]

Lovely story told brilliantly.

[@Natureonmydoorstep-p1v]

Cheers for that . I'm a small channel but it's building up v slowly. I used to be a p6 guy many moons ago I get my fix via KZbin now

[@mad-FrenchS203]

Love the story Kitch, keep looking after your old and oldish Citroens as well. Greetings from France 😊

[@Tagora2664]

Like a bit of storytime. 😁

[@shadowjkl]

Happy bedtime story

[@Revolver-Ocelot]

What a cracking story!

[@dudleycollyer3181]

Great story, glad another great car has been saved. I would just say that my 16 valve (1990 phase two identical, to yours) had air con. But it should have had the old gas (freon) and from the factory they had filled it with R134a (something like that, but I cannot remember the gas number) but the air con was never any good. You'd be better off with a wet rag draped over the dash vents, I think the compressor is different of need adjusting, never bothered looking because at 26 I was more interested in acceleration than comfort.

[@waynetetley584]

Great story. Thanks 👍

[@peteredwards7872]

A story worth telling 👍👏👍

[@michaelclayton3388]

great story and a happy ending 👍

[@James-ld2jc]

Lovely bit of storytelling

[@doktoruzo]

Great story, thanks for sharing

[@HowardLeVert]

I remember there being a Trinity of these cars: the BX 16 valve, the Mi16 and the Renault 21 Turbo. I seem to recall "What Car?" covered them in an article entitled "The 140mph Family Saloon" or similar. BX 16 valves do look cool, I have to admit.

[@UPnDOWN]

I think it was Autocar who did the legendary 3 way test, where they drove to France three-up in the BX and then picked up the R21 and 405 to complete a test in the rain-soaked countryside. One of the best mag tests I've ever read.

[@colinjones2505]

Never realised and the story behind what I was actually looking at when I took a picture of these two together that day.😍

[@elgorka5103]

Good story...makes me thinking ...what the SM story will end like :)) . I really enjoyed this video! Greetings from Poland from formed Xantia break owner ;)

[@iamthenotbenamed365]

perhaps the guy likes Finish your SM ...

[@veryrancid3128]

The 131 fiat had the same story in my country. Cutted for the engine and scrapped for silly little reasons. That being said.. i absolutely love 80's citroens and renaults

[@martinday2815]

Great story, and perfect outcome. Just for second, the front of BX just looks like front of Rover 800, 1988 era one. At least to me anyway.

[@RD-qp3mu]

Always wanted a red BX when i had my dads hand me down talbot solara. Jumped the bx for a 306dt somehow. BX Still look good today, Happy ending!

[@Joolz777]

😎😎😎😎😎Nice one..

[@overwatch1774]

I got into cars and BXs just as 16vs started to go up in price. I saw a white stage 1 for sale for 2200 Euros in Prague. It seemed like it was in a very good condition and the owner listed all the things he had done on it. I should have bought it. At the time I couldn't afford it because I didn't have the money for it, and now I can't afford one because they've gotten so expensive. It's unlikely I will every get one that isn't complete junk. Sad, very sad.

[@lordbungle6235]

Kitch gets a happy ending.

[@sirhenners204]

The 16v BXs have a similar story to the Subaru SVX- constantly having the flat 6s nicked out of them for Type 2 VW vans

[@johnmoruzzi7236]

I'm presuming that the new buyer of XPO is NOT Paddy McGuinness ? Forever to be known a "a kn0b" for his casual TV star distain for a certain sporty red Citoen thoroughbred....

[@Natureonmydoorstep-p1v]

Hi very quick question. On the live stream you had a guest called John he as a channel what's it called . Thanks and super well done on the amount raised

[@UPnDOWN]

Auto Shenanigans. Much smaller than me, but give him time 🤣

[@francissomadaly4043]

What a great story. I really enjoyed it. Bugger the KZbin algorithm. BTW did you see the SM at Rustival. Nice to meet you there, even though you were hiding behind your sunnys 😅😅

[@UPnDOWN]

I did see it, yes (although I'm always more attracted to the cars I don't already own)

[@chucku00]

The Red Shell/XPO deserves to be renamed Lazarus.

[@darrenwilson8042]

I once read thats one of the reasons why some Uno's died - they were the victims of engine harvesting. Not sure which specific engines but I can see it with the Turbo 100ie and the 1.4 engines for sure and I know there was a lively Uno racing scene in the Republic of Ireland so maybe there is some truth in the rumour

[@kubbythebusman]

Just an idea. For stories like this. Why not put it out as a podcast as well? Because you tell the story so well. And your voice is great for storytelling. Just a thought 😊

[@UPnDOWN]

Cheers. Never thought of my voice as great for story telling, I mumble a lot and slur certain vowels! Overbore podcast is still in the pipeline, we're just very busy people.

[@dortkommendieclowns1474]

What about the oil starvation problems those XU engine's can have? Quite a few D6C engine's got killed by an angry broken connection rod popping it's head out of the block. It's wise to sort that problem out by modifying the sump.

[@UPnDOWN]

Preaching to the choir on that one...BAH died 6 months into my ownership with exactly that. They don't tend to throw rods so much as just wreck the b/e bearings.

[@BlueXonar]

Imagine if whoever bought it put the engine in a 205GTI and sent it to the scrap yard... 😅😅

[@UPnDOWN]

For the money BX 16Vs go for nowadays, that's unlikely to happen thankfully!

[@Glenn_E_James]

This has got me thinking about what engine could have been swapped into an empty BX? V6? Something turbo?

[@UPnDOWN]

That's one of the other ideas I had back in the day...fitting something else to XPO.

[@martinburke362]

BX styling was originally done by Reliant😱

[@UPnDOWN]

Not sure who told you that, but it's false info I'm afraid. Reliant created a Bertone-styled prototype called the FW11 but ultimately did nothing with it. It did look kinda like a BX (as did the Tundra by Volvo - arguably more so). Bertone styled the BX at the same sort of time, hence the similarities, but their designed had already been submitted to Citroen by 1978.

[@JohnLawley24v]

Why didn't they make a 16v 205 from factory? Surely it would've sold like hot cakes?

[@UPnDOWN]

I've been told (and I actually believe it) that Peugeot thought it'd be a widow-maker. The 205 was already one of the 'edgier' hot hatches on the market, and with the XU9J4 under the bonnet it would have been pushing 170bhp/ton in an era when 100 seemed quick. They did make a version of the 309 called the GTi 16 in LHD markets, but it required new type approval just for that, and would have needed the same again for RHD markets. They decided it just wasn't worth it, which although fair is a great shame because they're truly one of the greats. Likewise the ZX 16v 'Dakar' (a ZX 16v with mechanicals from the Xsara VTS, but about 150kg less weight). We never got that, either.

[@JohnLawley24v]

@UPnDOWN I've seen a 309 GTi 16v RHD so was that a conversion then? Everything looked factory even the boot badges. Did pug make any 16v badged models then? The 405 was Mi16 no with v iirc?

[@SoLDMG]

Gutmann made a few 16v GTi’s. They’re already lethal in 120/130hp 1.9 form in the hands of the average driver. Thankfully tire technology has caught up and it’s not quite that bad anymore!

[@stevesmith9351]

What about the tomato 🍅

[@UPnDOWN]

Progressing, slowly but surely.