The Laddish Tendency
by Ross Finlay (20 Oct 04)

For drivers who don't want attention drawn to themselves, there's a certain "frightening the horses" element about the appearance of the Citroen C2, which may help to explain why something like 40% of sales so far this year have been of the sportier types. In-your-face styling is putting it mildly.

The superseded Saxo VTR and VTS gained Citroen its place as the favourite manufacturer of the warm/hot hatch brigade, and there are corresponding models in the C2 range. Quicker of the two, the VTS has a 1.6-litre engine tuned to give 123bhp, and you can see, or hear, what Citroen has been about as the revs rise towards the peak 7200rpm.

There's a lot more to the VTS than just engine tuning, though. The close-ratio gearbox, whose public "face" is another of those chilly aluminium gear lever knobs, matches the engine characteristics pretty well. Thicker anti-roll bars front and rear, firmer springs and damper settings, more direct steering, 16" Suzuka alloy wheels with Michelin Exalto tyres inside flared wheel arches, a sports front grille, front foglamps, a chromed tailpipe and a modest rear spoiler all play their part.

This approach continues inside, with sports front seats, drilled alloy pedals, fancy grab handles on the doors, and a black leather steering wheel.

What with all that, you'd expect this car to be substantially more expensive than its predecessor, but it's around £1000 cheaper than the long-ago launch price for the equivalent Saxo, and it says quite a lot - about the Saxo, actually - that the C2 VTS has an insurance rating no fewer than six groups lower. Better safety provision, including four front airbags and powerful brakes, with hazard warning lights which switch on automatically if you really stand on the middle pedal - or stop even more abruptly against some solid object ahead - all helped to get the group rating down.

As well as that, the VTS comes with equipment like switchable ESP, air conditioning and a CD player, never offered as standard on the previous car.

To keep the sticker price below the £12,000 mark, Citroen has bundled various items of equipment into different option packs. There's an Automatic Air Conditioning Pack, which adds digital air conditioning, light sensitive headlamps and rain sensor wipers - that includes at least one potentially irritating feature and another fairly pointless one, to my curmudgeonly way of thinking - at £400.

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