Citroen XM Forum

You could always tell as the engine had a very french purr like sound.

Yea .. 1.4 was the ohv from the 5/9 / 11 cars and the 1.7 was ohc ..

Those 340's were really a bit poor at handling, but if you went barreling into a roundabout too fast they would lift a back wheel right up and bleed the speed off nicely.

I had a 340 for a while. Handling (didn't really have any) aside it wasn't a bad car really. Mine died when the propshaft splines stripped themselves outside Bicester.

It was an odd arrangement - an engine speed propshaft back to the transaxle where in the early 343 the elastic-band Variomatic transmission originally sat. It was easier to make a manual transaxle fit the space vacated by the Variomatic rather than modify the bodyshell to take a conventionally placed 'box.

The propshaft was made of alloy as far as I recall and if the spline pinch-bolts worked loose - as they did on mine - the splines got wrecked in a short while.

Best one I had was a 1970 164. 3.0 ohv with twin strombergs married to a 3 speed Borg-Warner auto box.

Still don't understand why I sold her.