Professor Tomato Returns! Why My Car Was Gone for FOUR YEARS!

追加: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Make sure your insurance doesn't come up short. Get GAP cover with ALA. For more information, follow the links in the description. Hello everybody. Today, a very special episode of JMO Cars in which I welcome back to the fleet and introduce to the channel for the first time a vehicle that I haven't seen for 4 years. Interested? Well, stay tuned to find out more.

[00:00:38]First off, I want to tell you a little bit about where I am and what I'm doing.

[00:00:42]I'm here at Rustville now in its fourth showing, and this is one of my all-time favorite car shows for a great number of reasons. The main one being this has to be by far the most diverse and inclusive car show on planet earth. And to many people, for some reason today, diversity is seen as a dirty word. But this is proof it isn't because all are welcome here at Rustville. An amazing thing run by the brilliant Ian aka Hubnut, his partner Steph from iDrive Classic, and Matt from Furious Driving. There's a bunch of other YouTubers over there, big and small. My friend Jack from number 27 is here today in his Alpine, which is just over there. And I've got my buddy Lori down here. He's brought his Road Roller and his Toyota MR2. And countless others are here, too, creating content.

[00:01:36]So, if you want to see more of the show, please check out their videos. But here's a little highlights reel of what I've seen today.

[00:01:47]HEAT. HEAT.

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[00:02:07]HEAT. HEAT.

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[00:02:48]HEAT.

[00:02:54]HEAT.

[00:03:09]HEAT.

[00:03:16]HEAT.

[00:03:32]HEAT.

[00:03:47]And inspired by that montage, I remind you whatever you've got from an Austin to an Audi, a Lauder to a Lamborghini, if you need parts, don't forget about Autodoc. They ship to 27 European countries and they have literally millions of parts for tens of thousands of different cars. You can search depending on make and model to make sure you get something that will fit yours.

[00:04:10]And best of all, with my discount code JM5, you can get 5% off, too. They have a website and a mobile app, too. So, even if you're on the go and you need something last minute or you remember there's something you got to buy for that project, hop on there, find it, buy it, and it'll arrive in fairly short order. I want to say a big thank you to Autodoc for sponsoring today's video.

[00:04:31]And this is one of the many cars I personally have bought parts from Autodoc 4, my good buddy Will's E320 Mercedes-Benz W124.

[00:04:41]I have brought it along today because sadly Will couldn't make it. But we still wanted him to be represented, and it's getting a lot of love, but this is not the car I'm here to talk about.

[00:04:53]Instead, that's one two doors down.

[00:05:13]This is my 1990 Citroen BX GTI 16 valve phase 1. I actually bought this car back in 2021, right at the end of the year. And it's a rather famous BX for it was on TV, the program flipping bangers, where they pulled it out of a hedge where it had been stored for some 15 years. It then went through a series of owners before landing with my good buddy of also YouTube fame, Jack from number 27. And he did a few bits to it and I looked at it and though it's never been a car I've been particularly enamored of, I always wanted to own a French hot hatch. But sadly, by the time I realized just how brilliant they were, many of them had become unaffordable, or to put it more accurately, were more expensive than I was willing to pay for. A 306 GTI 6 being by then some £10,000.

[00:06:11]Thinking I was going to save money, I instead bought this for about three. And when I got the car, I did know a few things needed doing. Cosmetically, it needs a respray. As you can tell, it's fairly heavily patentated. And no, a quick polish will not fix it. A few owners have clearly thought the same thing and they've polished the paint off some of the parts. The first drive home with the car, it performed absolutely brilliantly. And the BXGTI is a fantastic thing. Far more comfortable than you would expect, but also far more capable than you would believe. It's got the famous hydronneumatic suspension, so it can sit right down when it wants or indeed lift itself all the way up. It's got distinctive styling, too. not just with that rear spoiler and its squared off looks, but also those half-covered rear wheels. And I think it's a very, very cool car. But sadly, after that entirely uneventful first journey, things didn't go so well for the BX. In fact, the very next time that I took it out, it just cut out suddenly. I was driving it along and it felt like somebody took the keys out of the car.

[00:07:16]That was rather disconcerting. I turned it around and halfway back home it did it again. And so I figured right, it needs sorting. I then called a friend, asked some questions about it and they said, "Yeah, not something we can diagnose remotely. You probably need to get it down to me." Okay, I thought went to start it and it wouldn't start.

[00:07:38]Summoned the AA, they came out, looked at it, tried everything they could and said, "Nope, we can't fix it either."

[00:07:45]And so it went down to my good buddy Rich of Up and Down, also a YouTuber and BX a legend and he's had this for almost 4 years. And if you want the full story, head over to his channel where you'll find almost 20 videos on this car alone.

[00:08:06]Everything from the initial inspection to a dyno run. But for a summary, I'll hand you over to the man himself. The first time I saw this car would well it was on TV. Uh it was on flipping bangers and then I at the time ran the BX register in the UK and the people who owned this car it was up in Manchester possibly, I can't remember. They it resurfaced and they said they were looking to move it on and then Jack number 27 um said uh I'm looking for a BX16 valve. And he contacted me and said um do I know of any? And I said, "Well, there's this really nice white phase 2 that's all sorted and ready to go, or there's this one that was on TV." And he said, "I'll have that one that was on TV." And he bought it. I went up to his house, did the cam belt on the driveway.

[00:08:54]Um, he did a lot of work on it, but he sort of, it had been off the road. They didn't do as much work on the TV program as they might make out. He scratched the surface and put it on the road and then used it long enough that he could enjoy it, but not long enough for the sort of issues that are underneath it to rise to the surface. Um, and then it came in because you bought the car and it didn't start. I think I think it was recovered to me. Sorted that problem out. Found there might have been some others underneath it and it kind of snowled like a boulder down the side of a snowy mountain. it just got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and it's kind of to be honest it's a it's a learning a learning curve in cars that have been set up a very long time. Um you know the foy balls it's not just cuz it's a BX any car from that kind of era. Um but yeah it's had a life that's been in a bush for a good portion of its life but it is a low mileage straight unac damaged car. It's got a really good engine in it. Really strong. Um and uh yeah it does drive quite well. It's not it's not quite there. I've done as much mechanical stuff with it as I think we can realistically do. And now you obviously the next stage is to make it look pretty. But I've done um hydraulics, uh pipe work for the front struts, pipe work for the front brakes, rebuilt the front brakes, rebuilt I changed the doser valve, which is a BX version of a master cylinder, made an exhaust for it, took the back axle off, had rust above the back axle, quite common on these. um emptied the fuel tank out that was full of wood lice. Um >> yeah, I mean honestly I I've probably has 20 videos on it to be honest and that's only scratching the surface of what I did. There's so much I've done on it. Um I've done welding in the scuttles both sides. Um I've done the boot floor in the back corner. Uh the spars in the rear quarter panels.

[00:10:52]Even recently I was doing the the window the window regulator was gummed up again. Nothing wrong with it. It was just all the all the grease had turned to chewing gum basically. So it was just very very slow to go up and down which is a good name for a channel. The steering rack was a funny one because that had the um the original steering gator we were supplied didn't fit and I ended up making a Peugeot 205 GTI one fit which ironically fit better than the one that was listed for a BX. So that got done twice. It at the end of the day I had it set in my head it has to drive here today. It's the furthest I've driven it. Um it has to drive here today so it can go home with its owner and I don't want any trouble. And the only thing that's gone wrong on the journey here is the side light bulbs gone out.

[00:11:39]So, I'll take that as a win. Um the uh yeah, other than that, it's it's been pretty good. It's not done. I think it needs tracking and obviously it needs the paint doing. But if you're going to track it, it needs a baffled sump. Um which you can you can buy those. Um but other than that, it does drive quite well now. The engine is an absolute peach in this. I think it's one of the best 16 valve units of the 80s, to be honest. I think I'm I think they're the best Citroen ever made, which well people will laugh at when you've had cars like DS's and SM and things like that, but thing is those are very complicated. The BX was a car that brought 80% of what all those cars do, but let people who don't know about cars enjoy it. So they handle like more like a Peugeot because it's Peugeot DNA in this. It's not a Citroen really. It's Peugeot suspension with hydronneumatics.

[00:12:26]You get the best of both worlds. This isn't as wafty as a as a lot of Citroen.

[00:12:30]You'll drive it and think, "Well, that's not actually quite as wafty as I thought." Cuz they are stiffer, these, but I think the BX is just such a good allrounder. You can drive a CX or something and you think, "Oh, it is smoother than a BX, but not massively so." But the BX is so much lighter and more pointy around corners, and it's it's just a better everyday car. I think the only thing that lets them down is they are quite tiny, quite flimsy and tiny, but nothing actually falls off.

[00:12:52]You notice nothing actually falls off.

[00:12:54]It just sounds like it's going to, but it doesn't actually fall off. Um, so yeah, for me I think it's just that it's kind of that simplicity coupled with the technology. It's a it's a perfect mix.

[00:13:04]And obviously as after the BX it started to go a bit too far towards the conventional for me. The BX was that happy medium, you know.

[00:13:11]>> And so what's next? Well, I need to get it home, enjoy it, check everything is indeed working, and then we'll continue the restoration. But with that being said, welcome to the channel, Professor Tomato. In case you're wondering where the name came from, well, it was already called the tomato on account of the color. And I called it Professor partly because it's got a PhD and also as a nod to one of France's favorite fast suns.

[00:13:41]So, if you want to see more content on cars like this, don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe, comment down below, and I'll see you for the next one.

[00:13:51]Oh, by the way, I'm taking it on track in two days. I mean, got to make up for lost time, right?

[00:13:58]Bye-bye.

[00:14:15]Heat. Heat.