"ATaylor-Jones" (alanjtaylor)
05/13/2014 at 15:35 • Filed to: LLHH, Citroen Visa, Group B, Mille Piste, rallying, hot hatches
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"ATaylor-Jones" (alanjtaylor)
05/13/2014 at 15:35 • Filed to: LLHH, Citroen Visa, Group B, Mille Piste, rallying, hot hatches | 3
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Say 'Group B' to any rally fan and you'll probably see their eyes light up thinking about flame spitting monsters of the forest endowed with far more power than was ever sensible. Citroen saw a problem however, how do you introduce someone to this in a slightly saner environment? Their answer was the four wheel drive Visa Mille Pistes.
Loosely translated as thousand tracks, presumably because of the car's off road ability, the car was stripped of as much weight as possible. Thanks to some lightweight panels, the Mille Pistes tipped the scales at just 850kg. This was handy as to keep costs down for would be rallyists, the motor was a 4 cylinder with just 1360cc of displacement. A pair of throaty carburettors helped to push power to a respectable 112bhp in road trim.
The 4 wheel drive system was brilliantly simple, another factor in the car's low weight. A clutch just before the rear differential allowed drive to be interrupted to prevent low speed understeer or tyre scrub without the need for a 3rd diff. At higher speeds the car could be chucked into corners heroically and slid round under power.
Although it was never going to challenge the big boys from Audi, Lancia & Peugeot it did gain a number of class wins on the international scene. Further upgrades saw around 150bhp in later cars, ensuring they stayed competitive right up to the early 90's. Even more interesting were the development cars that pre-dated the Mille Pistes....
These included the Esprit powered, mid engined rear wheel drive car above developed by Lotus themselves. If that wasn't crazy enough then there were also mid and even twin engined 4 wheel drive variants that I've pictured below. For the rest, check out !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! forum post I was able to find.
From AJTaylor's blog !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> ATaylor-Jones
05/13/2014 at 15:55 |
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I love Hot Hatches as much as the nest guy, but they'll never be as good as they once were. Today you can't make a simple 2100lb car, and they'll never be as small as they once were.
JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t
> ATaylor-Jones
05/13/2014 at 15:58 |
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Citroen, it wasn't that long ago that you were batshit insane. What happened man?
Bluecold
> JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t
05/15/2014 at 15:22 |
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Boring people that didn't buy insane glorious cars happened.
TREE88
> JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t
05/18/2014 at 01:30 |
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the batshit insanity is why i love the brand. I just pray that one day Citroen will forget to take his (or is it "her" now?) medication and lapse back into the schizophrenic babbling nutjob (gnawing on his/her own ear, sitting in a beanbag chair naked and watching 'I dream of genie' reruns and laughing maniacally) that we all know and love.
Stuttgart Shuffle
> ATaylor-Jones
06/10/2014 at 21:45 |
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I'd love to know more about the 4wd system on this thing. But I can't find much, any help?
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ATaylor-Jones
> Stuttgart Shuffle
06/11/2014 at 13:33 |
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Yeah, this was pretty tricky to research until I looked at Visa clubs. This is where a lot of the technical stuff came from;
http://visaforum.freeforums.org/the-mille-pist…
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Stuttgart Shuffle
> ATaylor-Jones
06/11/2014 at 22:17 |
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Thanks for the link to the article! I'm absolutely fascinated by this little hatchback. Such an odd 4wd system, so Citroen. Do you know if they only used it these cars or did it trickle down eventually?
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ATaylor-Jones
> Stuttgart Shuffle
06/12/2014 at 13:13 |
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No problem, I believe it was only utilised on this although I haven't compared it to the 4WD system offered on BXs. As you say, it's all very Citroen! By the way, if you haven't already, check YouTube, there's a good few videos of Mille Pistes...
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Stuttgart Shuffle
> ATaylor-Jones
06/12/2014 at 18:31 |
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Thats what I figured, truly too bad Citroen didn't take the idea to mass production. The more and more I read about this little guy the better it looks in hot hatch section of my dream garage haha, then again I suppose it's one of the cheaper ways to own a real group b car.