Man Maths: Citroën Visa GTI

But I’ve never driven one. I arrived on the motoring journalism scene the very year it went out of production and as a hack in general and 2CV superfan in particular, it’s an absence from my motoring education I feel to this day.

But while with such cars I am usually drawn to the most humble iterations, like the aforementioned Club, because they tend to be most pure of all, when it comes to the Visa I make an exception. Because while it came as a hatch or convertible, with a range of seven engines as small as 652cc (the twin) and large as 1769cc (the diesel), there is one I want not only to drive, but own, more than all the others combined. The Visa GTI.

This was essentially the running gear of the Peugeot 205 GTI, including its 105bhp, 1.6-litre, single cam ‘XU’ engine, inside the spacious, five-door surroundings of the Visa. The package came with 40 per cent stiffer suspension, big, ventilated disc brakes at the front, a lowered ride height and body pack including a quad headlamp frontal treatment. Am I the only one who finds the prospect delicious?

I’ve been looking for one for years, but finding even one, let alone one in the kind of good, usable condition I’d want appears to be impossible. Those few that do come up tend to be cars that have been used for Group N rallying in Europe. According to the How Many Left website, 10 years ago there were just four in the country, a number that fell to one by 2019. That car clung on as the sole representative until 2022 when finally there were none. In this country at least, the Citroën Visa GTI had become extinct.

But what is this? In 2023 one was once more taxed for use on UK roads, and last year it was, wait for it, five. And now there are six Visa GTIs, more than there have been in the last decade: it’s like a captive breeding programme that reaches critical mass and takes off. What’s happening? Is one individual bringing them in and hoarding them? Has the enthusiast world in general finally woken up to them. And, most of all, if any Visa GTI owning person happens to be reading this, can I come and drive it please, just to see if it really is all I hope it’s cracked up to be?

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