The competitive debut of the Citroen DS3 R3 in the hands of Bryan Bouffier has been a success. Bouffier finished in fifth overall on the British Rally section of the Todds Leap Ulster Rally and took victory in Class R.
There’s a close resemblance between the DS3 R3 rally car and the new DS3 Racing road car – right down to their power outputs: the rally car puts out 210bhp while the road car isn’t far behind with 204bhp.
Citroen types say the DS3 Racing road car has been developed by Citroen Racing – the team behind five World Rally Championship Manufacturer titles and six Driver titles for Sébastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena and the DS3 R3.
Surely the similarities end there?
Pretty much, yes. DS3 Racing prices will start at £23,100 and orders can be placed from September 2010, while the DS3 R3 rally car starts from £82,000. Add the tarmac specification and this will add around a further £5100 to the starting price. Go for the gravel specification and this will cost you a further £6400.
So that’s a potential outlay of over £89k for something essentially based on the lowly C3. Not cheap.
How did the Citroen DS3 R3 perform in Ulster?
It was the first time in Ireland for both the DS3 R3 and Bryan Bouffier, and neither disappointed the fans that lined the twisty lanes of Ulster.
Bouffier was glowing as he came off the final stage (SS14). “This rally was so much fun”, said the Frenchman. “The Citroen DS3 R3 showed that it is a quick car and very reliable over some of the toughest tarmac stages in the world.
“The car was perfect. The only things we changed were the dampers – we added a few clicks and made the car stiffer – and from then on, we simply changed tyres and filled the car with petrol.
“I myself am more confident of driving on Irish roads – I think the Irish accent is the only thing that I haven’t picked up, so maybe I’ll come back to get some more practice in.”
And elsewhere…
On the World Rally section of the event, Derek McGarrity pipped Gareth MacHale by 1.1 seconds to take the honours.
Craig Breen came home in first position on the Rally NI section, with Keith Cronin finishing the rally in second place and Alastair Fisher following in third.
Meanwhile Cronin’s title rival, Gwyndaf Evans, crashed on Stage 10. The Welshman managed to coax the car to service but the Evo X was too badly damaged for Evans to continue. This means that Keith Cronin only has to finish in the top eight on the Trackrod Rally, which takes place on Saturday 25 September, to retain his British Rally Championship crown.