Photo: @citroenc2vr5
The Citroen C2 is nothing short of an oddity by North American standards. Neither a full-sized family hatchback nor an urban-optimized city car, B-segment vehicles of its type occupy a peculiar European niche that most North Americans would describe as a microcar. But we doubt a Ram Cummins could keep up with what a handful of lads from the UK did to their C2 VTS. Thanks to a bigger engine and all the racing trinkets you could think of, Instagrammer @Citroenc2vr5's turned chicken you-know-what into chicken salad.
In its day, the C2 was a car perennially in the shadow of more popular cars in the Citroen lineup, like the delightful C1 city car and the C3 supermini. Wishy-washy advertising did little to help its sales. Regardless, the C2 left Citroen's factory in Aulnay-sous-Bois, Northern France, with a slew of different gas and diesel four-cylinder engines ranging from 1.1 to 1.6 liters large and jetting between 59 and 108 horsepower. If you're not trying to drive across anything more tricky than to the shops and back like many C2 owners did, that's a perfectly acceptable level of performance.
But come on, what's a hot hatchback without the "hot" bit toyed with a little bit? In this case, it was more than just a little bit. Gone is whatever puny engine this C2 left the factory with. In its place is a 2.3-liter Volkswagen VR-5 engine famous for its use in the VW Golf, Passat, New Beetle, and Bora. With around 170 horsepower to play with, the added power does wonders for making a rather drab B-Segment grocery-getter a lot more sprightly. Fully reconditioned cylinder heads with a new head gasket, new water pump, and a Mk 4 Golf radiator means the engine shouldn't explode on the trot either.
But don't think this is another engine-swap restomod with no care given to other components. Added trinkets like Brembo brake disks at all four corners, coilover springs, and beefier front wishbones replacing the squishy stock suspension make this kind of hot hatch able to keep up with purpose-built sports cars in tight corners. Even if they get demolished on the straightaways in the end, that's still pretty cool. Most of this racer's interior's been stripped out in the name of saving weight on the racetrack. A custom-built half roll cage does wonders for adding to the race car aesthetic of what was once just a daily beater.
Add it all up, and this is one of the coolest restomod hatchbacks we've seen come out of Europe in a long time. An attempt was made to sell the car on eBay recently, but an error with the listing took it off the market for a time. But hey, all it means is that it's probably still out there somewhere.
But come on, what's a hot hatchback without the "hot" bit toyed with a little bit? In this case, it was more than just a little bit. Gone is whatever puny engine this C2 left the factory with. In its place is a 2.3-liter Volkswagen VR-5 engine famous for its use in the VW Golf, Passat, New Beetle, and Bora. With around 170 horsepower to play with, the added power does wonders for making a rather drab B-Segment grocery-getter a lot more sprightly. Fully reconditioned cylinder heads with a new head gasket, new water pump, and a Mk 4 Golf radiator means the engine shouldn't explode on the trot either.
But don't think this is another engine-swap restomod with no care given to other components. Added trinkets like Brembo brake disks at all four corners, coilover springs, and beefier front wishbones replacing the squishy stock suspension make this kind of hot hatch able to keep up with purpose-built sports cars in tight corners. Even if they get demolished on the straightaways in the end, that's still pretty cool. Most of this racer's interior's been stripped out in the name of saving weight on the racetrack. A custom-built half roll cage does wonders for adding to the race car aesthetic of what was once just a daily beater.
Add it all up, and this is one of the coolest restomod hatchbacks we've seen come out of Europe in a long time. An attempt was made to sell the car on eBay recently, but an error with the listing took it off the market for a time. But hey, all it means is that it's probably still out there somewhere.
Google News