September 2019 Classic & Sports Car 125With 5300km on the clock, Blake’s Birotor is
effectively brand new, being one of an unknown
quantity given a reprieve from the crusher.
In this case, a merciful French Citroën dealer
sent the unsold 1974 Birotor’s identity paper-
work and chassis plate back to Citroen during its
post-1975 cull, pocketed the generous compen-
sation but kept the car, running it on trade plates
when he wanted to take it to a show.
The second owner brought the Birotor to the
UK. When a Citroën specialist, stumped by the
rotary engine, failed to get it running for him
Blake was called in and he had the Birotor fired
up within half an hour. Naturally it was love at
first sight, and in April 2018 Mr Philip Blake
became its first registered keeper.
Sitting higher, on taller wheels with fatter
tyres, it looks subtly more aggressive than a
regular flat-four GS. Its two-box profile suggests
a hatchback, when all you get is a normal bootlid.
Just as most 110S Cosmos are white, most
Birotors seem to be chocolate brown or light
gold with a contrasting roof finish. The brown
theme continues inside where, to justify a price-
tag that was 70% higher than the most expensive
air-cooled GS, Citroën gave the Birotor full
carpeting, circular instruments and front seats
with built-in headrests. On the centre console
there’s a button and a gauge to monitor engine
oil levels, a reminder that rotary oil consumption
is much higher than with a piston engine.
Like NSU, Citroën adopted a semi-automatic
three-speed gearbox for the Birotor to mask the
lack of low-speed torque and overrun snatch.
Known as the C-Matic (in Citroën speak), it
demands that you time your changes carefully
until you have acclimatised: generally smooth, it
won’t be rushed. On the other hand, second is a
useful all-purpose 80mph gear so you don’t have
to use it all that much, even in town driving.
The C-Matic doesn’t compromise the feel of
the car, which is smooth and lively, happier the
harder it is extended and always with that feeling
of smooth unburstabilty as the revs keep coming.
Certainly no other GS had anything like this
car’s urge, and with its anti-roll bars and that
smaller, lighter engine there is less roll, under-
steer and tyre squeal to contend with.
Chasing Blake in the Ro80 back to his rural
rotary compound, the Birotor easily keeps
station with the German car, floating serenely
along on its hydropneumatics like any other GS.
To have such an isolating big-car ride in some-
thing so compact was one of the great features of
these flat-four Citroëns, and the Birotor would
end up being the one and only production car to
mix hydropneumatics and a Wankel engine.
Blake’s green 1969 Ro80 is one of the first
right-hookers, sold new to a British Army
captain in Germany. He returned to the UK in
1973 and kept the car until he died in 2002,
which was when Blake managed to capture it.
I still find the Ro80 beautiful, yet the austerely
practical interior feels at odds with the dramatic
exterior. But you grow to like its simple dash and
pleasingly open floor area in front, which has
minimal transmission-hump intrusion.
On the move it feels far quieter and more‘executive’ than the others, unflappably compe-
tent yet far from just another bland Teutonic
saloon. The body roll appears much more
alarming from outside than it feels from within,
and it rides, grips and stops beautifully on those
skinnily shod Fuchs alloy wheels.
The long suspension travel makes a mockery
of road humps and the strong brakes are much
easier to modulate than the highly powered
type fitted to the Citroën.
The Ro80 is happy to wind around on twisty
roads, but it is at its best when striding out on to
long, straight, high-speed routes where it can
hold its momentum for hours on end in a state of
total stability. This is what the car was all about,
and why it was the true and natural home for the
Wankel rotary engine.
With four spark plugs, four circular lights and
vinyl seats, this car is typical of the ‘Mk1’ Ro80s.
It has done just 76,000 miles, many of the past
10,000 on trips to European NSU meetings.
Blake is not shy of going any distance in these
supposedly ‘unreliable’ cars and, while by no
means blind to their faults, remains an evangelist
for the Ro80 cause, committed to getting more
of them into the hands of people who will appre-
ciate one of the great cars of the ’60s.
Of his many Ro80s, four are currently on the
road and two are for spares, but the rest are
eminently restorable prospects. If you speak to
him nicely he might sell you one, or even restore
it for you. As for the Mazda Cosmo and the
Citroën Birotor? They’re going nowhere, so
don’t even bother asking.