Triumph 2500PI vs Citroën DS23 vs Lancia 2000IE: fuel for thought

By Andrew Roberts

| 19 Feb 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Triumph 2500PI vs Citroën DS23 vs Lancia 2000IE: fuel for thought

Each era of motoring has its key phrases: in the late 1970s, it was ‘turbocharged’ or ‘front air dam’; by the early 1980s it became ‘trip computer’ or ‘drag coefficient’; and, from the late ’60s to the early 1970s, it was ‘fuel injection’.

A carburettor is limited to supplying the engine with only the amount of fuel/air mixture that it is capable of ingesting, whereas with injection each cylinder may be allotted an exact quantity of fuel.

Such precision, argue the system’s supporters, results in improved performance at low revs, reduced fuel consumption and noticeably quicker acceleration.

The Triumph 2500PI Mk2, with struts and semi-trailing-arm suspension, is the sportiest of our trio

By the mid-1960s, injection was already associated with exotic sporting machinery, but with this group we will see how it affected the prowess of three quite different interpretations of the well-appointed luxury saloon.

The Triumph would have been the most familiar member of our trio to a 1970s British business motorist.

In its original Mk1 2000 form, this was the car that, together with the Rover P6, had virtually created the junior executive market sector back in 1963.

Triumph had been considering an increase in power since shortly after the launch, however, with deliberations stimulated by the 2000TC in 1966 and the knowledge that a 3.5-litre V8 P6 was due in ’68.

The Triumph 2500PI uses a Lucas fuel-injection system

Plus, the TR4, with its aged four-pot, needed a performance boost.

At that time, the Stag’s V8 was at far too early a stage in its development to be used in the 2000’s bay, but Canley’s engineers had already produced a version of the 2-litre straight-six equipped with the fuel-injection system that Lucas had been evolving since 1953.

It was decided that the TR and the 2000 would be offered with this updated unit, the TR5 making its debut first in 1967.

The engine was stroked to 2498cc, to provide more torque at low speeds, plus, to compensate for the extra weight, the brake servo and transmission were uprated.

This Triumph 2500PI has a four-speed manual gearbox with overdrive, operated by a switch on the gearknob

When the Triumph 2.5PI was launched in late ’68, it was to considerable press interest because the Lucas system was associated with many Grand Prix victories in the 1965, ’66 and ’67 seasons.

Matt-black trimmings and ‘sports wheels’ plus different dials denoted the only British injected saloon.

Lucas rejected electronic control because its Mk2 mechanical set-up was intended to be easy to manufacture and simple to maintain.

The entire 2000/2500 range was facelifted in late ’69 into the longer-nosed Mk2, which made the PI appear, if anything, even more aggressive.

Later Triumph 2.5PIs were badged as 2500s

Our Pimento red test car seems poised to storm the M1, an exotic tintop that would look down with mild disdain on carbureted P6s, Granadas and XJ6s in the directors’ car park.

Indeed, the Triumph is such a handsome and dynamic vehicle that it is difficult to believe that only six years separates the debut of the Mk2 from the demise of the final Standard Vanguard.

Unfortunately, beneath that suave image lay some problems: too few garages understood how to fettle the injection and, even in the early ’70s, BL’s lack of quality control was becoming a joke.

There was also the issue of emissions controls – neither the PI nor the TR5 was ever officially marketed in the States – and that the 2.5 was devised on a limited budget.

The Triumph 2500PI boasts a spacious cabin

Just as those ‘sports wheels’ were, in fact, hubcaps, the Triumph’s fuel pump was basically a modified wiper motor that often overheated.

This caused the fuel to vaporise and would bring your executive express to a halt until the temperatures dropped.

In ’75, the 2500PI, as the car was then known, was finally replaced by a twin-carb model, a decision made in light of the 1973 Fuel Crisis and the poor reputation that the Lucas system had acquired.

This was a shame because the 2.5PI was – and is – such an agreeable car: rapid, refined and having genuine presence.

The Triumph’s conservative dashboard with Smiths gauges

By the time this dashing Mk2 had left the factory, BL’s management had decided that the 2000/2500 would be the last large Triumph saloon.

The lingering impression remains that, had the injected versions been better understood – and better built – this may not have been the case.

The second vehicle of the set, the Citroën DS23 IE Pallas, would invariably have appealed to a driver who saw the Triumph as ultra-conventional.

Here was a car aimed at those types who watched BBC2: a front-drive saloon of unmistakable profile with a five-speed ’box and a ‘computer controlled engine’.

All three had neat midlife facelifts: Michelotti deftly reworked the Triumph’s styling (left), Lancia (middle) squared off the Flavia lines and Citroën’s Robert Opron updated the DS

When the DS21 became the first French car to have injection électronique as standard in the autumn of 1969, lots of column centimetres were written about the Bosch system’s sensors.

They monitored coolant temperature, atmospheric pressure, engine speed and throttle opening.

All of this information was conveyed to a transistorised controller – high technology, indeed, when this car was new and you could still buy a new Morris Oxford.

In ’73, Citroën unveiled the 2347cc DS23, in carburettor and injected forms, with a choice of four-speed semi-automatic, three-speed auto or five-speed manual ’boxes.

The Citroën DS23 EFI Pallas leans the most in corners, but it grips keenly

When you consider that UK drivers of that time mainly associated the latter transmission with the Austin Maxi, this does convey how radical a DS23 IE Pallas would have appeared after 18 years of the Déesse.

‘Our’ car is, like any ‘D’, both utterly familiar and truly enigmatic, for it is one of those rare classics that transcends time.

Yet one detail – that was no doubt advanced when new – absolutely anchors it in a particular era.

The late-model dashboard with its huge ‘STOP’ warning lamp really does look as though it was hijacked from Stingray.

The Citroën DS23’s aged ‘four’ isn’t keen on revs, but this car’s forte is fast cruising

If you were considering a change from an upmarket British car of the period, the DS23 may have appeared formidable, although after a few miles many drivers would not contemplate taking the wheel of anything else.

The vast, single-spoked item needs only three turns from lock to lock when parking a substantial motor car and the steering-column gearlever – a slow, deliberate shift – is easily used to gain the best from the high ratios.

Best of all, the seating is so comfortable that Citroën owners might be tempted to consider setting up home in their DS.

The four-cylinder powerplant may lack the purr of the Triumph’s ‘six’, but it allowed the big Citroën to be propelled at a steady 115mph in top along the A20 L’Occitane autoroute, sailing past Peugeot 504s and BMW 520s with ineffable élan.

This Citroën DS23 was specced with the plush Pallas trim

The DS does not boast especially startling acceleration, but it has the highest top speed of our group.

Bosch injection was a fairly costly option, upping the new price by 10%, but it really focuses performance.

Car aptly described the model as offering ‘an unworldly sort of motoring’ and, no matter how blasé you may become about the ‘Goddess’, a DS23 IE still induces a sense of awe as you experience what philosopher Roland Barthes called ‘the new Nautilus’.

The last member of our trio is a car that would have been the least familiar to ’70s UK motorists – the Lancia 2000IE.

There’s little excuse to miss the Citroën’s funky warning lamp

The initial impression is just how imposingly formal it looks compared to its British and French rivals.

Middle-class German saloons of the 1950s, ’60s and even ’70s have a reputation for their severe styling, but large cars from Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia from the same era are often just as understated.

The coachwork of the 2000 dates back to the original, slightly less bluff Flavia Berlina.

Its high roofline is a reminder that at the time no self-respecting member of the Italian middle class would have been seen without the correct headgear.

The ‘cornet de frites’ indicator on this Citroën DS23

There is no place here for the Triumph’s exuberant hubcaps because the Lancia’s status is denoted by discreet script.

That said, the fascia – with its ‘veneer’ fillets – is not exactly subtle.

The unveiling of the Flavia at the 1960 Turin Salon marked the launch of the first-ever front-drive Italian production model.

If that were not innovation enough, the new Lancia was also the country’s first car with four disc brakes.

The Lancia 2000IE Berlina grips and rides well, with sharp ZF power-assisted steering

Power came from an all-alloy, 1.5-litre flat-four and, two years later, the Flavia was offered with a 1.8-litre unit.

Kugelfischer injection was an option from ’65, so that the Lancia would remain competitive against BMW’s Neue Klasse, which later used the same system.

Plus, a facelift in ’67 – known as the Milleotto – gave the Flavia saloon more formal but still handsome styling.

Alas, Lancia was in desperate financial straits by then – a situation not assisted by the cost of making the Flavia.

Fine corduroy in the Lancia 2000IE’s roomy cabin

Fiat took control of the firm in October ’69 and one of its early decisions was to rationalise the range.

The 1.5 and 1.8 were dropped by 1970 and only the recently launched 2-litre model was to remain in production.

In ’71, even the Flavia badge was discarded – it was believed to have too many associations with unreliability – when the Lancia was relaunched as the 2000.

The following year brought the IE, with easier-to-service Bosch electronics instead of the complex Kugelfischer mechanical set-up.

The rear curtains are one of the Lancia’s many quality touches

The shield-shaped grille on our Pistachio 2000 is a reminder of how Lancia’s management wanted to differentiate its flagship saloon from the Fiat-derived Beta.

The Art Deco-style instruments were also not to be found in the likes of the 130 or 132, although the 2000 needs no mod cons to establish its sense of individuality.

The sheer quality of the Lancia is conveyed not in the electric windows or the ZF power steering that were standard fittings on the IE.

Even the rear screen curtains and deep green upholstery, wonderful though both are, are not necessary to establish the 2000’s place in the motoring world.

The Lancia 2000IE’s door lights are a thoughtful addition

This is a member of the Flavia family and that is distinction enough, regardless of those deluded passers-by who enquire: “Is it a Lada?”

You sit upright at the wheel of the 2000, master or mistress of all you see, even if the dashboard looks as though it is made from Bakelite and the handbrake feels distressingly cosmetic.

There is also a hand throttle (like a choke), an interesting device that you may not expect with fuel injection, and firing up elicits an engine note that is as simultaneously refined as it is musical.

The IE does not so much offer blistering acceleration – yet it’s joint quickest here – but all that is wondrous about the 2000 in enhanced form.

Lancia’s flat-four engine is sweet-revving – it sounds great, too

It gave Home Counties motorists a moreish taste of La Dolce Vita.

The Lancia handles superbly, too, while its eager boxer unit urges the driver ever onwards.

If its appeal has to be summarised, it is as formal transport for five with the road manners of a Cooper ‘S’.

None of these saloons uses fuel injection as a gimmick, each deploying their respective system for sound engineering and marketing reasons.

The 2.5PI is yet another example of British Leyland’s propensity for ruining the prospects of its most promising models, a car that could have served as an opening act to a new generation of Triumphs had the parent company’s management understood quality control.

The IE Pallas achieves the difficult – indeed near-impossible – task of enhancing the DS formula.

And as for the IE Berlina, it is proof that automotive greatness is often low-key in form.

The 2000 is idiosyncratic, uncompromising and charming – the last of the true Lancias.

Images: Tony Baker

Thanks to: owners Robert Mannix, Lancia Motor Club; Jamie Piggott, DS Workshop; Jim Berriman, Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 Register

This was first in our June 2015 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

Factfiles

Triumph 2500PI Mk2

Sold/number built 1969-’75/49,742
Construction steel monocoque
Engine all-iron, pushrod 2498cc straight-six, with Lucas mechanical injection
Max power 132bhp @ 5450rpm
Max torque 153lb ft @ 2000rpm
Transmission four-speed manual with overdrive or three-speed auto, RWD
Suspension independent all round, at front by MacPherson struts rear semi-trailing arms, coil springs, telescopic dampers
Steering rack and pinion
Brakes discs front/drums rear, with servo
Length 15ft 2½in (4636mm)
Width 5ft 5in (1651mm)
Height 4ft 8in (1422mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 10in (2692mm)
Weight 2767lb (1255kg)
0-60mph 9.7 secs
Top speed 111mph
Price new £1726

Citroën DS23 EFI Pallas

Sold/number built 1955-’75/1,455,746 (all)
Construction steel monocoque, with GRP (or aluminium) roof and aluminium bonnet
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, pushrod 2347cc ‘four’, with Bosch electronic injection
Max power 130bhp @ 5250rpm
Max torque 144lb ft @ 2500rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, four-speed semi-automatic or three-speed auto, FWD
Suspension independent all round, at front by twin leading arms rear trailing arms; hydropneumatic units, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering powered rack and pinion
Brakes powered discs front/drums rear
Length 15ft 11½in (4864mm)
Width 5ft 11in (1803mm)
Height 4ft 10in (1473mm)
Wheelbase 10ft 3in (3124mm)
Weight 2948lb (1337kg)
0-60mph 10.4 secs
Top speed 119mph
Price new £2883

Lancia 2000IE Berlina

Sold/number built 1969-’74/19,965
Construction steel monocoque
Engine all-alloy, pushrod 1991cc flat-four, with Bosch electronic injection
Max power 125bhp @ 5800rpm
Max torque 142lb ft @ 4000rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, FWD
Suspension: front double wishbones, transverse leaf spring rear dead axle, semi-elliptic leaf springs, Panhard rod; telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering ZF power-assisted worm & roller
Brakes discs all round, with servo
Length 15ft 1¾in (4648mm)
Width 5ft 3½in (1657mm)
Height 4ft 11½in (1511mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 8½in (2650mm)
Weight 2723lb (1235kg)
0-60mph 9.7 secs
Top speed 115mph
Price new £2399