Anyone know anything about em?

Seems to be a few variations.

From around 1980, RWD, engine seems to be in the back, meant to be over 200bhp, and obv mega light.

No idea what engine they had.

Only pics ive found are these...





Im usually pretty good at finding stuff on net, hell, i found the above and moments before i didnt know they existed, but cant find owt else, like tech info or engine pic...

Help appreciated

 

Citroen introduced the Mille Pistes in 1983. Based on the GT, only two hundred Mille Pistes were built eligible for Group B racing, equipped with four-wheel drive and four carburetors it achieved greater success than the Trophee.

The Visa Mille Pistes


In 1983, the Visa Trophy was fitted with the 1,360 cm3 engine of the Visa Chrono, upgraded to 1440 cm3. It was ready to take part in a series of world championship events: Portugal, Acropolis and the RAC.
In 1984, Citroën was present for Kenya, the Thousand Lakes and San Remo. In 1985, it was at Monte Carlo. The four-wheel drive Visa Mille Pistes took over from the Visa Chrono.
In the 1983 Milles Pistes, Wambergue won the test category and, a few months later in Sarlat, he won the Jean François Piot Trophy.
The Visa Mille Pistes was a modern, affordable sports car intended for racing on gravel.
]


V I S A 1 0 0 0 P I S T E S
As a follow up to the success of the VISA Trophée competition in 1982 and to create an even more competitive car Citroën launched the Visa Milles Pistes (1000 pistes). The reason for this name is not quite clear. It was released late 1983.

They used the GT Tonic (1360cc 80hp) as the base vehicle but changed it to 4 wheel drive and added a more powerful engine of 1360cc with 4 carburettors (as fitted to the French Chrono version). This engine was tuned to 112hp which increased as the cars evolved.

Other details which differ from the Trophée are circular double headlight units (standard), clinked plastic side enlargements (as the Chrono has) instead of covers in 1 piece, and the front grille. This grille received a special badge being 2 times the Citroën chevrons sign with a "x" in between. This is indicative of 4 wheel drive. (they were red colored) On the rear of the car a "VISA 4x4" badge was fitted.

As with the Trophée, the company created a total of 200 cars in Group B spec based on this model. They were meant for the 1984 season. (Citroën-Total-Michelin competition)

The car was a great hit and won a lot of rallies in the class. The status of the car was so good that even years later (until around 1992!) the car was still used in rallies and rallycross.

 

HTH

http://people.opera.com/~karlo/visa.html

 

http://www.citroenvisa.net/vindex.htm

 

EIL- NO. They are the more normal models. Easy to find that.

Neither of the other 2 links tell you anything about the above cars either...

Info on more normal special versions are easy, but on these ones, im lost.

 

Visa Politecnic/Strakit/Lotus

In 1981, Citroën did the first efforts to make a competition car out of the Visa. Guy Verrier, the leader of Citroëns sport department, had a first Visa prototype prepared by the French constructor Politecnic. It had a midship engine of 2 litre. After that, two further prototypes were built: the Strakit and the Lotus (pictured) The Lotus featured a centrally fitted 2.2 litre Lotus engine. Sensational, but not very successful alltogether, so it remained a one off. Today it is part of Citroën's historical collection

 

Been digging....













Visa Lotus : Ce prototype à moteur central est motorisé par un moteur type Lotus Esprit Turbo. Doté d’un turbo compresseur Garrett, ce moteur de 2174 cm3 développe 210 ch à 6 500 tr/mn pour un poids à vide de 1020 Kg. La VISA, ça décoiffe…

TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH USING GOOGLE TRANSLATOR:


So that is the Lotus connection then, its got an Esprit turbo motor in there. Thats not huge power though, sure they could coax a lot more. The standard n/a 2.2 lotus engine makes 180 bhp in the later '86 Lotus Excel.

steve

 

SteveT= Awesome work mate

2.2turbo, how cool it that

 

Oh dear, a Citroen 2CV race car

 

in a strange way that 2cv looks kinda cool to me... althogh i'd want wider rims thanks!

 

They look pretty damn good, never actually seen one before

Guessing thats the sream pipe next to the exhaust

 

screamer pipe?

yeah, deffo will be

 

There is a 2cv race series, in fact I believe a month or so ago they did an endurance race at Snetterton, they take it quite seriously!

Never seen that Visa before, quite cool!

Z

 

Good find steve, never heard of those before either

 

OK! New question!

If that car is a 1-off by Lotus, whats the OTHER two Citroens next to it in the pic I posted?

Both have rear mounted rads at LEAST, but look more like they rear engined.
Both look way wilder than the Trophy and 1000 Piste models...