Tom McMahon wrote to us pointing out a video showing a Citroën that participated in the 2021 Cannonball Run Rally in the USA, where 90 hp cars race across the country!
The Cannonball Run is an unsanctioned speed record for driving from New York City’s Red Ball Garage to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach near Los Angeles, covering a distance of about 2,906 miles (4,677 km). As of October 2021, the overall record is 25 hours 39 minutes, with an average speed of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h).
Record attempts are criticized for their illegality and disregard for public safety, but nonetheless draw significant press coverage whenever a record is broken.
In the 2021 race, a Citroën XM participated and finished a respectable 5th!
The host of the video, Ed Bolian, who drove the race in a 2020 Toyota Corolla LE, refers to the XM as the coolest car there, talking about it from the 12:20 mark onward.
Watch the video here:
Update — Nov. 1, 2024: The XM’s driver was Chris Allen who runs the day-to-day operations at Cannonball Storage, a premier storage facility for classic, exotic and show cars in the Philadelphia area. Chris claims the XM rides better than anything he has ever driven. He bought it to spite his father because he was told by him that French cars were pieces of shit. For the 50th anniversary Cannonball Run the XM was fitted with a huge gas tank in the trunk (no problem with weight given the XM’s hydropneumatic suspension) and that enabled the car to do 1400+ miles on a single fill-up. You can view this clip of Chris discussing his XM’s virtues here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1785285288944232