1998 Citroen Saxo VTS from UK and Ireland - Comments

That's a very sensible and realistic post mate, well done. About time there were some honest people on here. Whats the power to weight ratio on the saxo and the 172 cup? My Octavia Vrs only does the 0 to 60 sprint in 7. Odd seconds and that's 180bhp. Can't beat the feel and sound of a turbo and dump valve though no matter how fast a saxo is lol.

106 gti was never tested with 4 passengers 0-60mph. If it was it would have got there in about 12sec. lol.

VTS is cheap slow junk.

I've never owned a VTS, but have driven 5 of them when helping a mate find one that he wanted to buy. Every single one of them dies a bit when you put it in 2nd gear, because 2nd gear is too long. Granted, I've not driven a 106 gti and my gear ratio comment was to do with me reading that somewhere in some magazine. I know they are nearly identical cars that use the same engine, but that doesn't rule out a slightly different gear ratio. Could a 106 gti owner please confirm if this is in fact true or false? Does the 106 gti hit 60mph in second gear? None of which takes away from the fact that you're talking about a car with 120bhp FWD with no LSD to stop the inside wheel from losing traction every time you go a bit quickly round a corner.

In todays market, with the cars now considered hot hatches with 200bhp+, they just are a bit too slow. But they are light so their power to weight ratio is like awesome. 120bhp to about 935kg I think. Just to let you know a JDM teg Type R weighs 1060kg and has 197bhp (a proper car)

"8th Sep 2007, 05:31.

VTS is cheap slow junk."

A very constructive post there, well done.

Octavia VRS owner - the VTS has 130 bhp/ton and the 172 cup has 171 bhp/ton IIRC.

ITR owner - the VTS/GTI have identical gear ratio's without a shadow of a doubt. In regards to the flatspot issue you mentioned, I can only imagine you were dropping below 4.5k revs when changing into 2nd causing you to drop out of the powerband (they are pretty gutless below 4.5k). You need to change gear just before the rev limiter (7250rpm) to get the best from these engines.

If you were getting problems with the inside wheel losing traction from the examples you had tested, they all must have been running poor quality/conditioned tyres (unlikely all 5 had defective tyres), or it was caused through poor driving (more likely). My VTS has 160bhp and weighs around 830kgs, but I don't suffer from the mentioned traction issues, unless provoked (hell, you could spin the inside wheel of a 1.0l micra round a bend if you tried hard enough!) and I don't run an lsd.

Anyway, for what it is, the VTS is a great little nimble lightweight pretty quick hatch that can be picked up for around 1.5k, cheap to run, look good (standard) and can be turned into a great little track tool with a few choice mods.

Type R owner here, I've been driving fast cars for about 10 years now, from the little fiesta 1.6 Sport, saxo vtr's, vts's, through to more powerful stuff including leon cupra and cupra R, honda civic type R, integra type r (car I have now) 320bhp integra type r turbo (my last car) an audi s3 a clio 172,focus st170 and RS focus, sapphire cosworth a couple scoobys and an evo 8.just to let you know I'm used to driving powerful cars and know how to handle them. the point I made about the inside wheel losing traction is valid, you won't have noticed it through fast sweeping bends its round abouts and slower corners where you are more likely to lose traction. same can be said of all FWD cars without an lsd. my point was that I can put down a lot more power through these corners than a vts. and driving the nuts off the car redlining every gear it just doesn't seem very quick and 2nd gear is too long to keep up a good pace. And no-one has even mentioned how terrible the brakes are on these cars! an ex GF of mine had a vts and she had uprated the discs with grooved ones had brake line kit fitted with green stuff pads and fresh fluid and it was still awful. after driving my honda the first time I took it out I forgot how bad they were and nearly didn't stop at the first junction I came to and I wasnt even going fast.

Octavia vrs owner here. The integra is one of the best front wheeled drive cars ever made without a shadow of a doubt, but why did you sell a 320bhp turbo'd one for a standard one? obviously there no proof to these cars anyone has owned I just can't see that though in my opinion. If you did own these cars You cosworth would be worth a fortune now so you should have kept that. Also your evo 8 would be pushing 300 brake and four wheeled drive too so that would have been a better car than the integra surly?

Type r owner here- I haven't owned all the cars I mentioned, but have driven all of them either on extended test drives or they are cars of friends that I've driven. the reason I sold my turbo type r was purely done to money reasons... i had bills to pay lol. i swapped my turbo for a standard one plus £2500 cash my way. the cosworth was a friends car as was the evo 8.my turbo teg used to blow them all out the water tho, more power than all of them and easily lighter than them. the guy I sold it to took it santa pod the week after he bought it (something I never got round to) and in his words (i fluffed the starts and still got low 12's lol) Anyway back to subject matter I really think people are over rating the little saxo into something its not... a sports car!

Octavia vRS owner here. Sorry for misreading your post about your list of cars Integra owner. However, I don't recall anyone saying the VTS is a sports car. It's sold and bought by teenagers (most of them would sell for mine and your car if they could insure them) as a hot hatch. And I think it's silly not to admit that. It's one of the fastest 1.6's ever made, and makes fools out of a lot of more expensive and higher powered cars, mine included. It's undeniable. I don't think anyone is saying they're the best cars ever made and everyone should buy them; they are what they are, and that's a very quick, cheap, small, light go-kart.

Octavia vRS owner - you've hit the nail on the head! A VTS does exactly what it says on the tin, and does it very well. It's the narrow-minded people who dismiss this car as just a pile of french junk and don't give it a chance due to it's image.

It's the lesser powered models (1400cc westcoasts/furio's etc) being driven by youngsters who try and race anything and everything off the lights and usually hang around macdonalds car parks "pumpin' out da choons innit" that give the VTS a bad rep. It's hard to distinguish them from these models due to looking very much alike exterior-wise, and a lot of the owners simply badge their furio's up as a VTS (the VTS is actually a pretty rare sight, believe it or not). Also, sticking on these stupid looking bodykits and gigantic silly looking wheels don't help matters. Luckily, being in the grp.14 insurance category, it is out of reach for most of the teenagers.

Now, going back to the teg owner. The VTS can take slow corners, roundabouts ect without the inside wheel spinning up everytime if driven correctly, I can assure you. I have done plenty of trackdays ranging from tight and twisty sprint tracks, to long, fast sweeping circuits like donington in my VTS when it was in standard guise to it's current spec (160bhp@fly, 136bhp ATW) and would never suffer from inside wheel spin through tight corners (maybe a slight loss of traction over a corner on a crest or a bumpy one). I don't see why you felt the need to add "my point was that I can put down a lot more power through these corners than a vts" as we are not comparing the teg to a VTS.

If working sufficiently, the brakes on a VTS stop you fine. There's a vid on the net somewhere showing a vts braking slightly slower than a 911 turbo (993) from 100-0 mph. They aren't great on track I must admit, but I've now upgraded to 266mm (247mm standard size) items off a 306 xsi and stopping power is awesome and suffer no brake fade.

Octavia owner here (never thought I'd have to announce myself as that before. Should have bought a Lambo LOL).

As far as I'm aware, the only difference between the VTS, VTR and Furio is disc brakes on the rear of the VTS. Is that true? Not sure what insurance group mine is, but my mate couldn't get a decent quote cos hes got points, so the saxo was his option and he's never looked back. How did you get yours to 160 break? Turbo?

You I agree. "real" VTS's are pretty rare. There are only 1 or 2 in my area. The biggest giveaway is the discs instead of drums at the back. VTR's are the same setup, but have different wheels and don't have the 16v badge.. since they are 8. I have a 1895cc 3 series coupe and a VTR. Acceleration is very similar, it would probably be in favour of the VTR to about 80/90. Hard to tell though as they are both very different cars.

Got to agree with the guy who said the brakes are terrble on the vts how did we forget to mention that? The day I test drove my 172 cup I nearly went throw the wind screen like one guy said these cars are what they are and that's a fast hatch which you can pick up on ebay for just over a grand a performance bargain.

To the guy who said vtr, s have drums om the back both the vtr and vts have discs all round.just thought I would let you know.

Type R owner here- to the vRS owner, if you look at the first few comments on this review you will see a VTS owner stating that in his words "beaten an Integra Type R" on the back roads, just wanted to prove that he was way out on that wild dream LOL.