Citroën CX 25: Schimanski's emergency vehicle

He's slowly getting too old for all this crap. Constantly rushing through Duisburg, from one crime scene to the next, all the night away. Having to go out on the road in all weathers and at all times - and nobody really cares about them. But the Citroën C X 25 GTI Turbo 2 Kat can't let Schimanski down.

It is a trademark of the Duisburg crime scene inspector - like the Schnauzer, the sand-colored M 65 field jacket from Alpha Industries and the cowboy boots.

Schmuddel-Bulle aus'm Pott drives French elegance

The then 43-year-old Götz George takes over Hansjörg Felmy's area in 1981 as Commissioner Horst Schimanski. Felmy played the distinguished Essen crime scene investigator Heinz Haferkamp. Schimanski's role is completely different from that of his predecessor. Schimanski lives as a bachelorette party in a dirty high-rise apartment, feeds on canned beer, eggs in a glass and currywurst. Schimanski fights himself a lot, takes most cases personally, constantly on the verge of suspension. Often even his loyal friend and colleague Christian Thanner cannot slow him down in his furious frenzy.

Schimanski takes no account of regulations and certainly not of cars. In the early episodes he mostly harassed Ford models, Taunus or Granada on business. Even his own 17 M experiences only a few happy moments. Later, Shimei comes across a Citroën CX. An off-road vehicle, or rather a Leopard II tank, would actually suit him - something indestructible with which he can thunder without damage into a shop window or knock down a gazebo.

But not an extravagant, slightly bitchy and especially French limousines, whose talents never included unshakable reliability and invulnerability. The Citroën CX quickly loses its new car elegance. Schimanski supports this process by not even roughly considering any form of car care and maintenance. If the car is missing something, it will contact you. It is not cleaned, the rough dirtthe rain washes away. Only with this bitter patina does the Citroën CX even match Schimanski. Just like his jacket only looks good when it looks like he dragged it across Duisburg behind the car.

No consideration for losses: the Citroën CX is an emergency vehicle - that's that!

The fact that the years with him by no means go by without a trace on the car is due to Schimi's driving style: he plows through corn fields with the Citroën CX, hits through barriers, thunders through glass doors into the foyer of office buildings or ironing meter-long buffets at garden parties - where there is a Schimanski and a Citroën CX, there is also a way.

No other company car play such a prominent role in the crime scenes as Schimanski's Citroën CX models. A red man dies in a shootout from a tank connection with a subsequent explosion. On the other hand, Shimei kept his silver Citroën CX Turbo 2 for many years, even when he quit duty in 1991 after more than ten years, 29 crime scenes and two movies. When he returned in 1997, he returned to Duisburg in Turbo 2. Shimei is now no longer chief detective, but in 14 cases so far as a freelance occasional special investigator of the Kripo.

Cozy interior space as emergency accommodation - Schimi-tested

Duisburg, where the Rhine swallows the Ruhr: that is the largest inland port in Europe, encircled by a city of half a million. In the early evening the Citroën CX moves into its territory. The long way here suited him. Its wide wheelbase, the hard-to-beat hydropneumatic suspension and the superior drive predestine the Citroën CX for the motorway. The cozy, furnished interior is good for hours of driving. Or for days of observation. Or for weeks of staying overnight. Shimei knows and uses it all.

Long stays in the car can be bridged splendidly by memorizing the controls and their functions. Citroën has nothing more to prove when it comes to designing the most cryptic cockpit landscapes possible that contradict not only every convention, but also every intuitive operation.

For the 1986 model year, when the Turbo 2 was added to the range, Citroën redesigned the Citroën CX, widened its fenders, made fashionable front and rear aprons out of plastic and tried its hand at a less challenging interior design. So the late Citroën CX meets the unencumbered driver with a slight gentleness of age. But it also opens up a wide repertoire of mistakes: ignition lock on the left, radio between the seats, flasher rocker switch on the operating satellite, a high-pressure brake that decelerates fully when the driver only blows in the direction of the pedal and the single-spoke steering wheel that is always off whirls back even in the straight ahead position.

Racing with a 160 hp turbo engineSchimanski for help

In the engine room of the CX 25 GTI Turbo 2 Kat, the spare wheel and the 2.5-liter turbo gasoline engine form a shared apartment. Incidentally, the bike in the Turbo 2 version also does this with a 120-hp two-and-a-half-liter turbo diesel. But Schimanski would certainly never have the nerve for preheating. And it can be 160 hp for Shimei. The turbocharged gasoline engine pushes the sedan forward powerfully without turbo lag. Anyone who drives like Schimanski - that is, accelerates wildly and brakes suddenly - needs a strong stomach. Although the GTI in its strongest version has firm springs and waves through short bumps, it sways up and down like a ship. In addition, the smooth steering reacts very quickly. But because the turbo engine hums so nicely and the streets of Duisburg are so wide, you always drive as if you were after the devil. The sun is now deep in the west, and every now and then it is darkened by a pale brown cloud that spits out one of the chimneys.

The Citroën CX roams with open windows through Duisburg's twilight, past drinking halls and kebab shops New economy glass palaces and disused mines. Duisburg does not sleep. When the day wakes up in the morning haze, the CX is on the banks of the Rhine. Across the street, two men have been fishing for hours, standing rigid like stakes up to their knees in the river on which container ships fight their way upstream. The Citroën CX is still crackling from the night it drove through. But he has to go again: a corpse in the landscape park. 'Shit man, human being', Horst Schimanski shakes his head, gets in, lets the wheels spin when driving off, 'I'm too old for all this crap.'