Citroën CX 2400 GTi vs Lancia Gamma Berlina: living separate lives

By Martin Buckley

| 6 Jul 2023

Classic & Sports Car – Citroën CX 2400 GTi vs Lancia Gamma Berlina: living separate lives

The Citroën CX and Lancia Gamma are testimony to the fact that there was still room for individualism in big-car design in the mid-1970s.

European Car of the Year for 1975, the CX 2000/2200 was a low-drag, transverse-engined DS successor: slightly shorter, slightly more conventional – if only by Citroën’s exceptional standards.

It would enjoy an 18-year career and one million-plus sales in its various saloon, limousine and estate incarnations.

Although similar in appearance, the Citroën CX 2400 GTi (right) and Lancia Gamma Berlina were built with different goals in mind

The Gamma, built to appease Lancia purists who feared for the marque’s individualism under Fiat ownership, was launched in 1976 as a connoisseur’s model to take over where the Flavia/2000 had left off.

It certainly was exclusive, but fewer than 15,000 sales of the Berlina over its eight years was more of a commentary on buyer resistance to a car with engine problems than restricted supply.

Yet had political winds blown in a different direction, we could have ended up with two technically related cars combining the best bits of both.

Measured in sales volume, the Citroën CX 2400 GTi was the more successful of this pair

Between December 1970 and June 1973, Fiat and Citroën co-operated by means of a holding company formed with Michelin, which had owned Citroën since 1934.

The mutual benefits were obvious.

The French firm, haemorrhaging money, needed cash to develop its new saloon.

Commercially booming Fiat, keen to share in Citroën’s high-tech secrets, saw the prospect of a full takeover.

The details on the Citroën CX’s C-pillar accentuate its fastback profile

On this point the French political classes already had the Italian’s card marked, limiting it to a 15% stake on the say-so of president de Gaulle when word of the deal first aired in ’68.

It was a relationship that the Fiat-owning Agnellis would never have embarked upon had they realised that the Michelin family had no intention of selling a controlling interest to a foreign company in what was perhaps France’s most proudly treasured car maker.

But, behind this short-lived liaison, the CX (the last car designed by Citroën as an independent manufacturer) and the Gamma (the last Lancia with a non-Fiat-designed engine) inevitably felt some influences of the co-operation.

‘If the Italians lacked the enthusiasm to sort the Gamma properly, the French made sure the CX got the basics right’

Beyond the observation that the Gamma and CX are both roomy saloons with sleek profiles, and front-driven by unfashionably large four-cylinder engines, you do not have to dig very far to find other clues to their shared origins.

That the two cars looked superficially similar was probably coincidental, but it’s difficult to be sure.

There are striking similarities between Robert Opron’s CX design and the BMC 1800 Aerodinamica Pininfarina show car of 1967 – the latter designed by Leonardo Fioravanti, who also authored the Gamma Berlina.

There are plush leather seats in the Citroën CX 2400 GTi

The Lancia, codenamed Y2, and Citroën’s ‘Projet L’ had been in the planning stages since 1970

Through the tie-up the CX would use the Italian flat-four, while the Gamma would inherit hydropneumatic rear suspension and high-pressure hydraulics were considered for its brakes.

Certain floorpan elements were to be shared, and several prototypes were built – all this amid barely disguised reluctance on the part of engineers in both Paris and Turin.

A rotary engine for the CX was mooted, but Citroën stuck with the tried and tested four-cylinder

Meanwhile, Fiat bosses were beginning to realise that the PARDEVI arrangement (Participation et Développement Industriel) was becoming something of a one-way street in Citroën’s favour.

Once Gianni Agnelli had voiced his frustrations (including in a speech at the 1972 Turin show), it was only a matter of time: Michelin bought Fiat’s shares in June 1973 as a prelude to a full Peugeot takeover in ’75.

Given the subsequent fragile reputation of the Gamma’s flat-four engine, Citroën had probably dodged a bullet by sticking with a development of its old in-line ‘four’ in the new car.

It didn’t have much choice in the matter: plans for a rotary-engined CX, dropped at quite a late stage, had dictated the compact engine bay.

The Citroën CX 2400 GTi sits on a set of modernist alloys

A Wankel CX would have been something very special, but also something very thirsty and, in a post-Fuel Crisis Europe, probably as unsaleable as the doomed GS Birotor.

Equally, the Lancia engineers, headed by Sergio Camuffo, were relieved at not having to commit to what they perceived as the weight and complication of Citroën’s suspension.

But they had just three years to re-engineer the Gamma to take MacPherson struts and massive coil springs all round, adapted from the Beta, plus a cleverly conceived and widely imitated rear axle using parallel lower links.

The brilliant Camuffo had famously created the Beta in just two years, so he was used to working under pressure.

Even in GTi form, the Citroën’s twitchy steering makes it slightly clumsy through tight corners

Even so, you can't help wondering if the co-operative’s delays sowed the seeds of disaster for the Gamma.

After Fiat’s takeover in 1969, Camuffo had taken charge of a demoralised and depleted engineering team at Lancia, with no future projects in the pipeline and no new engines.

He was open to suggestions, but plans for a wide-angle V6 and V4 probably did not leave the drawing board before he settled on the light-alloy flat-four designed by Ettore Zaccone Mina, also known for the Fulvia’s V4.

The compact boxer engine was a natural solution on several fronts, not only because of its synergy with the outgoing Flavia/2000’s horizontally-opposed unit.

A quirky binnacle and unusual dials in the Citroën CX

The choice of this all-new and compact single-overhead-camshaft design, with timing belts rather than chains, was mainly dictated by the layout – shared with the CX – that put the engine well forward of the front wheels.

This, in turn, dictated the space-saving, camshaft-driven power-steering pump that could, in certain circumstances, cause the cambelt to jump teeth with sad but not unexpected results.

At 2484cc, the Gamma’s oversquare boxer engine was the world’s largest production four-cylinder.

Its low-slung position in the nose allowed for a 0.37 coefficient of drag that was just 0.01Cd behind the CX.

A Jaeger gauge sits behind the CX's distinctive, single-spoke wheel

Its modest weight (2910lb) helped the Gamma’s exceptional handling and, had it been reliable from the start, buyers might even have been willing to accept its throbby, offbeat character compared to its smooth six- and eight-cylinder rivals.

After all, four cylinders didn’t hold CX sales back: Citroën had built more than 100,000 of them by the time the Gamma was announced.

Then again, it was not chasing the same buyers, at least not at first.

As launched in 1974, the CX was only available with the weakest of the carburetted DS engines.

The Citroën CX’s long nose aids its low-drag packaging

It took three years for the 128bhp, 114mph GTi to pose a credible alternative to the lusty 121mph Gamma – as well as a rash of Euro-executive offerings from the likes of Rover, Renault and Audi.

The svelte, futuristic shape looks even better today than it did almost 40 years ago.

More striking but less familiar than the Gamma, it is also, arguably, more conventionally beautiful than the DS, with a road presence that asserts itself even among overblown moderns.

Being a GTi, it has alloys and an amount of then-fashionable matt-black trim but, like the Gamma, it has a conventional bootlid rather than the hatchback its outline suggests.

With a stylish body and a flat-four engine, the Lancia Gamma was designed to appeal to marque enthusiasts

It still makes a capable daily driver – as the owner of this smart 1978 GTi, Richard James, can attest.

“I like the earlier cars with the chrome bumpers,” says the Nailsworth-based Rolls-Royce and Bentley trim specialist.

Since buying the CX in France last year, Richard has gone through the suspension, steering, brakes and electrics to make it into something he can drive to work in every day: “It’s modern enough to use, but quirky enough to be interesting.”

The Gamma Berlina followed in the footsteps of the earlier Lancia Flavia/2000

With little more than 1000 miles under its wheels, ‘our’ Gamma Berlina must be one of the lowest-mileage examples in existence.

It was discovered in a Turin Lancia dealership with just 16 miles on the clock, having been ordered in right-hand drive by an Englishman working in the city who planned to take it home when his contract finished. The trouble was, he never collected the car, so it sat for 37 years until its previous owner rescued it in 2014.

More formal than the CX, the Gamma has a chunky elegance that is lifted by brilliant details such as a flush-fitting fuel-cap cover in the fat C-pillar and distinctive headlights with vacuum-actuated self-levelling.

Its double-hinged bootlid features slats and an additional reversing window above the rear parcel shelf to aid rear vision, and reveals a huge luggage area.

The Lancia’s sober dashboard is a far cry from the eccentric Citroën’s

Being an unofficial ‘Series 1.5’ (Lancia tweaked the design regularly, but with little fanfare), this Gamma has the ‘L’ cloth trim supplied by designer Ermenegildo Zegna.

Leather was optional, as was air conditioning, but generally there was one standard luxury specification (including rear sunblinds and electric windows), and a standard of fit and finish comparable to the Flavia and Fulvia.

Both have elegant interior details, but the Lancia's looming, boxy dashboard – complete with wacky pushbutton vacuum controls for heating and ventilation – is as drab as the CX’s ‘floating’ binnacle is sculptural and striking – although not everyone gets on with the Citroën’s fingertip rocker switches for lights, wipers and other major functions.

Neat detailing in this classic Lancia’s cabin

With its long induction tracts, the CX’s Bosch-injected engine looks quite handsome under the bonnet compared to the Lancia’s flat-four, which is hidden under the giant pancake air cleaner of its big twin-choke Weber carburettor.

Quiet at tickover, Citroën’s pushrod motor is smooth and flexible on the road, while the narrowed ratios in the GTi gearbox provide a crisp edge to the acceleration.

On paper the cars are very evenly matched, but the Gamma leaves a greater impression of liveliness thanks to a torque curve that has almost peaked at 2000rpm and blends into a sharp uptake in acceleration when the last half of the throttle engages the secondary chokes.

Funky dials help to lift the Lancia Gamma Berlina’s otherwise drab interior

Where the French car tails off beyond 4000rpm, the Gamma remains strong well into three-figure speeds, and its high-rev silkiness never seems to run out of breath.

Ideally spaced gearing helps keep interest levels high, although the clutch is fairly heavy and the change itself lacks charm, being clunky when cold and rubbery even when warmed up.

If not exactly a jewel, the engine is both the Gamma’s Achilles’ heel and part of its intriguing personality.

The other is its steering – highly geared, accurate, lots of feel – and the overall composure on the road.

Incorporated into the Lancia's neat nose were side repeaters and self-levelling headlights

The lack of tyre squeal, a near absence of understeer and the modest amount of roll make it feel more like a giant Alfasud than an executive barge.

With its super-sharp brakes, linear rotating dials and that twitchy, high-geared, self-centring ‘DIRAVI’ steering, the CX requires acclimatisation to drive smoothly.

All of the controls ask for a light touch – brutal inputs result in lurching progress – and, while it is certainly capable of generating high levels of grip, the softly sprung, nose-heavy CX is not a prime candidate for being thrown around (even with beefed-up damping and anti-roll bars in GTi form).

Leonardo Fioravanti's fastback Gamma design bears a similarity to the CX, and both avoid full hatchback openings

It feels stable and planted in long, fast corners but slightly ponderous in tighter, slower ones where the Lancia nips through like something half the size.

The vague gearchange doesn’t help, but, once you are into top on a dual carriageway, the CX gets into its stride nicely with low levels of wind and road noise.

It is generally more refined than the Gamma, although at high speed the differences are less marked.

Like the CX, the Italian car is also very stable and its firm but acceptable low-speed ride smooths out to a level of comfort that can be compared with the Citroën, even if the Gamma falls well short of its sumptuously majestic deportment on almost any kind of surface.

The Lancia Gamma feels sportier than the softly sprung Citroën CX

A great ride was the least buyers expected from a new big Citroën for the 1970s and ’80s.

Perhaps the Gamma’s problem, apart from the fact that its parents appeared to adopt a ‘not invented here’ policy almost immediately, was that nobody seemed to know what was expected of a ’70s Lancia flagship.

Not quite a replacement for the more substantial Fiat 130, yet somehow not really a natural follow-up to the Flavia, the Gamma was a talented machine that displayed moments of brilliance.

It got some of the easy bits spectacularly wrong (I’m certain Citroën would never have signed off on a car with the dashboard wobbles and scuttle shake the Gamma suffered from), yet got tricky stuff, such as the handling, amazingly right.

The flat-four in the Lancia Gamma had a poor reliability record

Unlike the CX, the Lancia never quite evolved into a credible option in the big-car world.

A beautiful coupé variant added gloss to the car’s image, but not much profit; ditto the tax-busting Italian-market 2-litre model and the improved S2 versions from 1980 with fuel injection and optional automatic gearboxes.

If the Italians lacked the staying power or enthusiasm to sort the Gamma properly, the French, with so much riding on the success of the car, made sure the CX got the basics right.

Conversely, you get the feeling that the failure of the Gamma didn’t matter so much to Fiat.

‘On paper the cars are very evenly matched, but the Gamma leaves a greater impression of liveliness’

If anything, its problems strengthened the argument for the rationalised, totally Fiat-based Lancias of the future.

Great to drive but too often a nightmare to own, the fascinating but underdeveloped Gamma, as others have sagely observed, was an inspired design but a poor commercial product.

Images: Luc Lacey

Thanks to: Richard Carp of HC Classics for providing the Lancia

Factfiles

Citroën CX 2400 GTi

Sold/number built 1977-’84/88,231
Construction steel unitary
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, ohv 2347cc ‘four’, Bosch fuel injection
Max power 128bhp @ 4800rpm
Max torque 145lb ft @ 3600rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, FWD
Suspension independent, at front by equal-length parallel transverse links rear trailing arms; hydropneumatic self-levelling springs, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering variable-ratio power-assisted rack and pinion
Brakes powered discs
Length 15ft 3⁶⁄₈in (4666mm)
Width 5ft 8⅛in (1730mm)
Height 4ft 5½in (1359mm)
Wheelbase 9ft 4in (2845mm)
Weight 3031lb (1375kg)
Mpg 20
0-60mph 10.1 secs
Top speed 114mph
Price new £6350
Price now £10-12,000*

Lancia Gamma Berlina

Sold/number built 1976-’83/14,554
Construction steel unitary
Engine all-alloy, sohc-per-bank 2484cc flat-four, twin-choke Weber carburettor
Max power 140bhp @ 5400rpm
Max torque 153lb ft @ 3000rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, FWD
Suspension independent, at front by MacPherson struts rear struts, twin lower transverse links, coil springs, telescopic dampers; anti-roll bar f/r
Steering power-assisted rack and pinion
Brakes discs, with servo
Length 15ft ⅓in (4580mm)
Width 5ft 8⅛in (1730mm)
Height 4ft 7½in (1410mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 9⅛in (2670mm)
Weight 2910lb (1320kg)
Mpg 19
0-60mph 9.6 secs
Top speed 118mph
Price new £7136
Price now £8-10,000*