Citroën Visa

Citroën Visa (1978-1981)

The visa was a small car of the French brand Citroen, which was manufactured by summer 1978 to autumn 1988. The plan was the model as a modern successor to the 2CV, but actually overlapped the production of both vehicles.

• 2.1 décapotable / Plein Air
• 2.2 C15

History

Citroën developed in the early 1970s should have a designated successor to the 2CV, the more powerful engines, a more modern chassis and a contemporary, ajar to the Citroën GS body shape. In the development of Citroën worked with Fiat, because there needed a replacement for the Fiat 127 as Citroën after costly investments in Maserati and comotor economy got into trouble and was taken over in 1974 by Peugeot, the new owner, the platform of the Peugeot 104 decided to use as the basis for the new VD ( Vehicle of Diminuée ). A three-door version with distinctive design has been deleted; could instead buyers from 1976, a little altered version of the Peugeot 104 Z acquire as Citroën LN.

The design of the visa body went back on a Citroën design from before the PSA membership, but could not be realized because of the common platform. The plans were sold to Romania and the original visa was built there as Oltcit ( he eventually came in the form of the Citroën Axel also to Western Europe), and had not a single component with the Visa together.

The visa was provided with the slightly larger and with aluminum cylinders and electronic ignition modified air-cooled 2- cylinder boxer engine of the Citroën 2CV with 652 cc (during 2CV maximum 602- cc engines had ) or, as Visa II, with water-cooled Peugeot engines.

Its launch was in September 1978.

Facelift

Already in March 1981 an extensive facelift under the direction of the coachbuilder Heuliez was carried out because of visa was initially difficult to sell because of its unusual design ( plastic grille, wide C-pillars outside, Einspeichenlenkrad and operating satellites inside).

Now the Visa got a conservative designed front end and wide Kunststoffbeplankungen which should hide the original form of the Visa.

In 1983, the sports version of " Visa GT" with 58 kW (80 PS), as standard 5 -speed gearbox, alloy wheels with TRX- wide tires, spoiler, front / rear and tachometer out. The consumption of the Visa GT according to DIN 70030: 7.4 l at 120 km / h 5.6 l at 90 km / h in city driving 9.6 L. The top speed was 170 km / h The Visa GT there were about 1983 for 14,200 DM and the basic models from 9,950 DM

In October 1988, the production of the visa was terminated.

Rear view

Citroën Visa 14 TRS

Motors

Both introduced in September 1978 Visa as two years previously published LN were also initially only with an enlarged to 652 cc two-cylinder boxer engine available as Spécial a follow up of the aggregate of the 2CV. At the same time offered PSA to both vehicles with the water-cooled 1.0-liter (10 E) and 1.1 -liter engines (Super E, 11 E, 11 RE) with 32 to 37 kW from the Peugeot 104. The Citroën planned for the project VD air-cooled four-cylinder OHC boxer GS never came, however, to use. For this, a 1.4 - liter four- cylinder engine still appeared in July 1984 with 44 kW ( 14 RS / TRS).

With the introduction of new diesel engines XUD series (17 D / RD) in March 1984 was also the visas to the 44 kW 1.8 -liter diesel engine. However, the new, comparatively heavy aggregate required strong modifications to the front of the car and on the suspension. With these changes was the use of the powerful gasoline engines in the XU family, the Super X versions (1981-1982), GT (1982-1985) and GTI (1985-1988), it is possible that even led to rally versions of the Visa.

Other body styles

Décapotable / Plein Air

The Visa was originally only available as a five-door hatchback sedan. As of February 1983 was offered as a four-door convertible sedan supplement that was initially sold as décapotable. At first there was only the equipment line Super E.

In early 1984 the name décapotable by the name Plein Air was replaced. The Super E was also detached from Plein Air 11 RE.

C15

In October 1984, based on the visa van was introduced in the Citroën C15.

The body resembled to the B- pillar of the visa, the rear part of the car was independently designed and extended the wheelbase. The rear wings of the C15 came not from Visa, but from the Citroën BX, and were mounted on roller bearings.

The two-cylinder boxer was not offered in the C15, instead there were produced in Douvrin small four-cylinder engine of the Peugeot 104

From mid-1987 gasoline engines with injection ( 1.1 i 1.4 and 1.4 i E ) of the TU series and the 1.8 -liter diesel ( XUD series) were installed. The end of 2000 were replaced by the latter 1.9 -liter naturally aspirated DW series, which remained as the only power source until the end of 2005 in the program.

The C15 was also obtainable in a glazed version with five seats ( Familiale ) and in a version with an extended construction and an additional side door ( RALLONGE ). Since he was also openly offered without the box, there were various special bodies, including some campers, a six-wheeled variant and an all-wheel drive version, all of which were distributed by Citroën dealer.

Then ended on 2 December 2005 at the factory Vigo ( Spain) production of C15 by approximately 1,800,000 copies. In the last year of production of the Visa or C15 exclusively with the 1.9 -liter diesel engine in France and several other European markets such as was Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and Spain available.

The C15 survived the visa - the former basic version of this series - by 17 years and was with an uninterrupted construction period of 21 years produced one of the longest Citroen cars at all.

The Visa outside Europe

In the spring of 2009, production of the Visa was resumed after twenty years of interruption. Producer is the Malagasy carmaker Karenjy, now mounted the model under the name Karenjy Visa. The body parts are made of fiberglass and are thus insensitive to rust. The vehicle is intended for the domestic market.

In mainland China, however, the model was launched in 1987 as a copy under the name Wuling LZW 7100 by Liu Zhou Wuling. However, the serial production did not begin until 1991.

By the end of 1994 904 units of this model were fitted. Equipped with these models were three-cylinder Daihatsu engines.