Chevrolet Citation 660 Turbo
So, the Chevrolet Citation is a tale of two extremes.
One extreme was its lack of quality, build and driving characteristics included, which no doubt caught out buyers who’d purchased based on its 1980 Motor Trend Car of the Year victory. X-platform cars were generally terrible, and the Citation was often used as the fiery poster child for GM’s engineering and management ineptitude through the 1980s.
There's no other way to slice it. In a New York Times profile of Alan Spiegel, (likely) the world's only X-11 enthusiast, Spiegel admits to the car's various faults (paywall):
“[The odometer] could have been 30,000 or 130,000…It’s hard to tell with these cars, because they aged badly and quickly.”
“The plastic was junk…It would break down from sunlight and turn chalky white and then disintegrate.”
“But I think it’s the only reason the headliner didn’t fall in. It’s held up by the sunroof frame.”
“It’s a computer-controlled nightmare…The man who rebuilt the engine actually worked on these engines in the factory, and even he said he couldn’t do much more for it.”
Against a normal Citation, the X-11 variant is rather easy to spot — its lack of chrome around the window frames and hood bulge are dead giveaways. • Chevrolet
Spiegel’s car was from one of the best years for the X-11, 1982.
Still, out of the goodness of its heart, Chevrolet gave us the performance-oriented X-11 trim on hatchback and ‘club coupe’ models. From 1980-1983, and again for the revised Citation II’s run between 1984-1985, buyers could opt for a small set of (mostly) appearance parts, and for some years, upgraded suspension, tires, shorter gearing, and more horsepower.
Keep your shirt on — at most, it was like 135 horsepower and 165 lb-ft of torque.
At the time, this was enough to claim multiple wins in SCCA competition, with Bob McConnell driving a 1981 X-11 to SCCA Showroom Stock B championships in 1982 and 1984. Slow clap.
Other good news? Within General Motors, the X-11's development helped launch the career of John Heinricy, the company's performance vehicle guru.
Now, for today’s car, which was built using an X-11 as its base.
That’s right: the 1983 Citation 660 Turbo was built on an X-11 — then given a healthy dose of special sauce.
