Alex Unleashed on Cars- Citroen Xsara VTS (From Unloved Hatch to Rally Champ)
The Citroen Xsara is generally seen as a sub-bar offering from Citroen, at a time when Citroen were trading their quirky and unique image for a more mainstream and sales friendly image. The Xsara is disliked mainly for its boring looks and for being very middle of the road, not overly exciting or revolutionary, just satisfactory. But I say the VTS coupe is actually a very good car and one of the best hot hatches of the late 90s. It uses the same 2 litre 167 BHP 4-cylinder engine as the Peugeot 306 GTi-6, but the Xsara is faster as it has a 5-speed gearbox as opposed to the Peugeot’s 6-speed, this allows it to do 0-60 in 7.7 seconds, faster even than the VW Golf GTi mk4, Rover 200 BRM and the Alfa 145 Cloverleaf. It will also top out at 137 MPH, which for the 90s was at the top of the pile in terms of performance save for the bonkers Clio V6 and the various Group A homologation specials. In the corners, the Xsara VTS was praised for having sharp brakes and steering whilst being less twi...