Photo: Virtuel Car
Motorsport is a great catalyst for road car development. Without it, we wouldn't have performance hybrids, performance off-road suspension, and performance lady cars. There, I said it. If you ignore the GTIs and STs, superminis are just expensive little cars for bank clerks and such.
Citroen has been stuck in a rut recently. Even its most creative car, the C4 Cactus, has somewhat failed to live up to expectations. However, it had a few good ideas that have trickled down to the all-new C3.
If you grew up in the 2000's like I did, you would remember how the French brand used to stand for super-fast and cheap VTS and VTR models. None of those survived the test of time, but as the company is getting ready to return to the WRC in 2017, so too could hot hatchbacks make a comeback.
So far, all we have is a rumor from a British magazine. To make a hot hatch, you need a team of specialist engineers who know a thing or two about fun. Citroen hasn't hired any of those, but we're still hopeful it might happen.
We're not blown away by it, particularly because the world has a lot more sensible hot hatchbacks than it did in the 2000's. If you want a posh car, you buy the MINI Cooper S. If you want something cheap and fun, it's got to be the Fiesta ST. So Citroen really must try something crazy for this project to succeed.
There's absolutely no mystery surrounding what might power the rebooted VTS. It's got to be a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine with at least 200 horsepower. The 1.6 is found in almost all models made by PSA, so it's well engineered and features a broad torque curve.
If you grew up in the 2000's like I did, you would remember how the French brand used to stand for super-fast and cheap VTS and VTR models. None of those survived the test of time, but as the company is getting ready to return to the WRC in 2017, so too could hot hatchbacks make a comeback.
So far, all we have is a rumor from a British magazine. To make a hot hatch, you need a team of specialist engineers who know a thing or two about fun. Citroen hasn't hired any of those, but we're still hopeful it might happen.
Big wing, or go home!
French publication Virtuel-Car has put together a couple of renderings of the potential C3 VTS model. It borrows the aggressive fascia from the WRC test prototype, as well as a few elements from the Peugeot 208 GTi.We're not blown away by it, particularly because the world has a lot more sensible hot hatchbacks than it did in the 2000's. If you want a posh car, you buy the MINI Cooper S. If you want something cheap and fun, it's got to be the Fiesta ST. So Citroen really must try something crazy for this project to succeed.
There's absolutely no mystery surrounding what might power the rebooted VTS. It's got to be a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine with at least 200 horsepower. The 1.6 is found in almost all models made by PSA, so it's well engineered and features a broad torque curve.
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