Chevrolet Citation
The Chevrolet Citation was a compact car sold by General Motors from 1980 through 1985. The Citation (originally to be the "Condor") and its X-body siblings (the Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile Omega, and the Pontiac Phoenix), were the first compact front wheel drive vehicles sold by GM (the nameplates which once dominated the rear wheel drive X platform were used on the FWD X-cars with the exception of Chevrolet - the Nova nameplate was officially retired). Realizing the consumer need for smaller cars, GM switched from V8 engines to smaller, more economical V6 and 4-cylinder engines. The X-body cars were 800 lb (363 kg) lighter than previous similar vehicles. The Citation was Motor Trend magazine's Car of the Year for 1980. It saw enough popularity at the time to cause significant delays in delivery to customers; some had to wait nine months to receive their vehicle.
Planning for this family of vehicles started in April 1974. The first prototypes were created in mid-summer 1976, and the Citation was released into production in April of 1979. The Citation's initial retail price was under US$6,000. Three bodystyles were available, 2 door coupe, 3 door hatchback and 5 door hatchback.
The X-body cars were the target of an unsuccessful lawsuit by NHTSA, describing a tendency to lose control under heavy braking.
In addition to the X platform, GM also created a new line of engines for the Citation and its sisters. The 2.8 L LE2 V6 was the first of the 60° family of engines still in use today. The X platform was used in 1981 as the basis for the new front-wheel-drive A-body cars.
X-11
In the beginning of 1979, GM was convinced that the Citation was ready to race in the SCCA SSB class. They developed a special suspension, Z19, (not to be confused with the optional F41 suspension in regular Citations) for SCCA racing. The X-11 also used a special High Output 2.8 L V6 engine, the LH7, with 140 hp (104 kW), up from 115 hp (86 kW), and 145 ft.lbf (197 Nm) of torque, up from 135 ft.lbf (183 Nm). This model was sometimes called the muscle car of its era.