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And here it was, in Swedish Lapland, no great distance
from the little town of Gällivare, that Citroën had,
during the months of July and August, invited 400 of the
best-known journalists of the motoring
press of 13 European countries.
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In both CX 2000s and CX 2200s, over a 420-km (261-mile)
circuit, including 38 miles of tracks, they covered a total of
105,000 miles.
Now, while it is known that journalists do not step particularly
lightly on the gas, consumption figures were remarkably low.
The cumulative average for all tests was 8.18 litres per 100 km
for the CX 2000 economy version, 10.06 for the standard CX 2000,
and 10.74 for the CX 2200 (respectively 34.5, 28.5 and 26.5
m.p.g.).
The record for the lowest consumption per group was set by the
first French group of journalists, with 34 m.p.g. in CX 2000s.
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First the Africa Long-Distance Run, and now here comes the
Arctic Run: after the new CX 2000 and 2200 had been tested by
the European press, some twenty young Frenchmen, selected at
random among the 100 who had taken part in the 1973 Africa Run,
were invited by Total and Citroën to come to Lapland, as a
follow-up on the pressmen.
After leaving Le Bourget airport on 26 August, on an SAS
scheduled flight, they had by the same evening, and after three
changes of aircraft, reached the land of the reindeer herds and
vast pine and birch forests. Then came an evening meal of
marinaded salmon and reindeer venison, followed by a night spent
in the Lapp huts of Bjornfallan; and so they set off for a
2,113-mile, 6-day run through Europe.
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On Sunday lst September, dead on the dot of 4.30 p.m., they
were back in Paris, in the Citroën Showrooms on the
Champs-Elysées, after following the entire length of Sweden and
crossing Germany,Belgium, and northern France.
The cars, which had already covered a total of 105,000 miles
during the European motoring press tests, nevertheless each
covered the 2,100 miles odd of the return journey without the
slightest hitch. After the ancient earth tracks and modern
motorways of Sweden, they took to the autobahns of Germany (on
which no speed limit exists), and then to the Belgian and French
roads and motorways.
During this “long-distance test”, the CXs not merely confirmed
their qualities of sturdiness and extreme reliability, but also
their very moderate thirst: the average consumption over the
entire run, for each and every one of the cars, remained under
10 litres per 100 km (28.5 m.p.g.) at speeds which were at times
very fast (between 105 and 115 m.p.h. in Germany), over a route
which also included the crossing of large, traffic-engorged
cities (Gothenburg, Hamburg, Cologne, Aachen, Brussels, etc.).
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