The Citroën BX 4TC Arrived Too Late to Group B

Group B in 1986 was an arms race. Lancia had the Delta S4, supercharged and turbocharged at once, a spaceframe clothed in composite panels that tipped the scales at 890 kg. Peugeot had the 205 Turbo 16 E2 and the manufacturers’ crown to defend. Audi, stubborn as ever, still had the Sport Quattro S1 with its enormous wings. And then, rolling up to the Monte Carlo start that January, there was Citroën with a BX. A BX! The same sensible hatchback your French aunt drove to the market, now with a turbocharged four stuck out ahead of the front wheels, a nose stretched to fit it and, naturally, hydropneumatic suspension, because it was a Citroën and Citroëns had hydropneumatic suspension.

It didn’t finish the Monte. Neither did its sister car. Henri Toivonen won that rally for Lancia, and in May he and his co-driver Sergio Cresto lost their lives on the Tour de Corse in the same model, which finished off Group B for good. The BX 4TC contested three World Championship rounds in total, and afterward Citroën did its level best to wipe the whole episode from the record.