Thursday 22nd December 2016

Citroen C3 WRC revealed

Say hello to Kris Meeke's new 'Group B-style' WRC car

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The ridiculously tantalising prospect of WRC masters Citroen Sport finally launching an all-new car for the 2017 season has become a reality with of the C3 WRC. No pressure: it simply has to immediately start adding to the brand's haul of 8 manufacturer titles and 96 wins.

Watch out Ford, Toyota and Hyundai!

To be driven by up to four crews, with at least two cars entering every 2017 round, the lead pairings will be Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle, plus Craig Breen and Scott Martin. When Stephane Lefebvre and Gabin Moreau, plus Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi and Chris Patterson join in, the chances of it hoping for a few podium lock-outs are high, you would think.

Team boss Yves Matton is certainly hoping so. He wants to win rallies in 2017 "and then go for world titles in 2018". Kris Meeke will be the man in pole position here: a trained engineer, he's been developing the C3 WRC from the start of the project back in April 2015, and has already been praised by Matton for being "undoubtedly one of the main reasons we were able to stick to the schedule and meet our goals". With more than 6,000 development miles already logged by the C3 WRC, sound like Meeke's winning important political points within Citroen Sport...

New 2017 features for the C3 WRC include more engine power (up to 380hp), more influential aerodynamics and the return of the centrally controlled differential. Matton reckons the cars will be much more Group B-like: "The sense that the drivers will need to tame an aggressive, roaring beast is something that will certainly see next season. There is an extremely spectacular side to this new generation of WRCs." Hurrah!

How long until the Monte?

That being said, is there another brand with such a motorsport history - think of the recent WTCC dominance too - yet such a lack of race-to-road kudos transfer? Citroen is one of the last brands you think of when you muse on performance icons, something which can surely be blamed on its near-complete lack of recent models to capitalise on the success. It's weird: Citroen's road division seems like it would almost prefer us to ignore its motorsport activities completely.

Maybe that will change, finally, in 2017? Perhaps we'll get some sort of C3 WRC road car to challenge the upcoming new Fiesta ST? Who knows. The fact it's now actually keen to tell us it's going back into rallying is at least a start. We remain in hope.

For now, let's indulge in some past heroes from the Citroen Sport division that has remained fairly under the radar since its creation. Dakar Rally? Check. Xsara WRC, C4 WRC and DS 3 WRC? Check. Monster BX 4TC? You bet. The videos below are certainly worth a watch. How soon before the C3 WRC joins them?

BX 4TC vid

ZX Dakar Rally Raid vid

Xsara WRC vid

[SevenR]

Article up for a day and I'm the first to comment on it. Proves your point though. Nobody is interested in fast Citroens. Shame Really. I liked the Saxo VTS.

[em177]

SevenR said:

Article up for a day and I'm the first to comment on it. Proves your point though. Nobody is interested in fast Citroens. Shame Really. I liked the Saxo VTS.

More proves that nobody is interested in WRC unfortunately.

[blearyeyedboy]

Expecting Citroen to release a road going version of this car is rather like the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth... You might expect a different battle plan from the previous 17 but it's the same plan all over again. There won't be a sporty road-going version of this, ever.

And that waste of goodwill that would have transferred to road cars is why there are so few comments on this page.

[ArnageWRC]

em177 said:

SevenR said:

Article up for a day and I'm the first to comment on it. Proves your point though. Nobody is interested in fast Citroens. Shame Really. I liked the Saxo VTS.

More proves that nobody is interested in WRC unfortunately.

Probably both. There is a mistaken view that these new 2017 cars are suddenly going to re-ignite interest in the WRC? Why? The cars are NOT the problem with the WRC - it's many things; which still need to be addressed.

If the WRC event threads next year start getting 100's of comments, then I'll happily be proved wrong - but I don't think it's going to happen.