Chevrolet Citation X-11 or Ford EXP Turbo? It's a tough choice with this edition of Project Car Hell.
By: Murilee Martin on 9/07/2012
Last week, the Hell Garage Demons went all luxurious with ancient Detroit limousines. That was fun and all, but there's some more recent automotive history that we feel deserves some exploration . . . with you doing the wailing and gnashing of teeth as you bust your knuckles trying to fix up those pieces of automotive history.
The Japanese have been building speedy compact cars for decades now?in fact, you might say that they've tended to dominate the segment?but Detroit never gives up trying to compete.
In the early 1980s, GM and Ford built factory hot-rod versions of the X Platform and Escort, respectively. And yet, do you ever see examples of the Citation X-11 or Ford EXP today? You do not, unless you're some kind of crazed EXP hoarder with a yard full of the things and your town is trying to rewrite the zoning ordinances to remove you and your "EXP museum" forever. What better cars could there be for the Hell Garage?
There's nothing the Hell Garage Demons love better than a full-on restoration of a car that stands as an obscure footnote in automotive history, and the EXP definitely fits that bill.
Ford introduced the EXP (and its Mercury sibling, the LN7), a sporty two-seat version of the Escort for the 1982 model year. This was a full year ahead of Honda's two-seater Civic, and yet CRX sales dwarfed those of the EXP. Ford upped the ante by creating an EXP Turbo Coupe, boasting a respectable-for-the-time 120 horsepower, for the 1984 model year? and car shoppers still preferred the less powerful CRX Si.
There's nothing the Hell Garage Demons love better than a full-on restoration of a car that stands as an obscure footnote in automotive history, and the EXP definitely fits that bill.
Restorable examples (or, for that matter, any examples) of the EXP Turbo Coupe are rarer than Ferrari 250 GTOs these days, but some searching of the List of Craig turned up this first-year EXP Turbo Coupe in Ohio (go here if the listing disappears), with a price tag of $1,000 OBO.
The seller says it has a "brand new turbo" and "completely rebuilt" engine, and that it needs "a little wiring work to get it back running." You may interpret that as you wish; we, the sadists optimists of the Hell Garage prefer to take such statements at face value, and so we picture just a couple of disconnected wires that need 45 seconds of work to get the car driving like new (hardbitten realists might try to tell you that a more likely underhood scenario would involve a mouse-gnawed tangle of zip-cord speaker wire spliced into the thoroughly butchered remains of a '75 Vega GT factory harness and "insulated" with masking tape and Form-a-Gasket, but pay them no mind).
Speaking of running like new, those 21st-century aftermarket rims need to go, because you're shooting for a 100-point concours restoration here. Factory-correct 1984 wheels only! The same goes for the turbocharger? and the interior? and everything else. Notice how the seller doesn't mention rust? We won't, either!
This car has been set up as an "unfinished race car project," including an Autopower roll cage partially wrapped by what appears to be a red velour headliner, Holley four-barrel carburetor, "NOS hook up," and open "headders."
GM needed their first front-wheel-drive compact to be a huge success, and it sold pretty well. Then, of course, nit-picky Citation owners started getting all crybaby-ish over the fact that the Citation proved to be execrably bad slightly deficient in the reliability department.
In fact, the Citation managed to alienate a good chunk of the Chevy buyers who hadn't been chased into the arms of the Japanese by the Vega, and The General had a helluva time repairing the Chevrolet Division's image in the post-Citation world. Still, though, Chevrolet managed to put together a credibly hot (for the period) version of the Citation called the X-11, which featured a 135-horse V6, suspension upgrades, larger-diameter wheels, and cool-looking X-11 decals. Not many were sold, but it's still possible to find the occasional X-11 for sale today; the Hell Garage Demons are pleased to sentence you to eternity with this optioned-up 1982 Chevrolet Citation X-11 in Ohio (go here if the listing disappears).
This car has been set up as an "unfinished race car project," including an Autopower roll cage partially wrapped by what appears to be a red velour headliner, Holley four-barrel carburetor, "NOS hook up," and open "headders." You'll need to tear all that stuff off the car and sell it to some other X-11 racer as you time-machine this thing back to proper 1982 standards. Yes, even the "Alpine sound system from the 80's" will need to go, to be replaced by a genuine Delco factory stereo. The seller claims the rust is limited to "a few surface spots" and that it needs "some mechanical attention." How hard could it be?
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Source: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120907/CARNEWS01/120909905
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