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Citro"en reveals limited-edition DS3 Cabrio Racing

We know it may be hard to believe for those of us now covered in snow, but the summer wasn't that long ago, and won't be that long away, either. Just this past summer, Citroën rolled in to the Goodwood Festival of Speed with the DS3 Cabrio Racing Concept, a show car that - not unlike the Fiat 500C Abarth - combined the best attributes of the DS3 Cabrio and the firecracker DS3 Racing hot hatch. It wasn't long after that the concept was mooted for production, and now that day has come.
Announced together with Citroën's motorsport program for next season (when it will contest both the World Rally Championship and World Touring Car Championship), the most we've seen until now of the production DS3 Cabrio Racing has been a solitary image released with little in the way of details. But with a little prodding, the folks at Citroën were kind enough to spill the full beans on the new cloth-top hot hatch.
What we're looking at is a fairly faithful translation of the concept to production, with only a few discernable trim differences (like black mirror caps instead of chrome and body-colored front lip spoiler instead of red) to be gleaned. Power comes from the same 1.6-liter turbo four as the DS3 Racing hatchback (now quoted at an incrementally higher 207 horsepower that likely comes down to a rounding error), driving the front set of 18-inch wheels through a six-speed manual. Only instead of the glossy grey paintjob with flashy graphics and bright orange roof, this version has a matte grey finish with subtle anodized red accents and a fabric roof panel that folds back.

Kubica crashes out of first full WRC event [w/video]

Robert Kubica seems to have more bad luck than most top-tier race car drivers, but maybe that's because his high-profile crashes since 2011 have garnered more media attention than his achievements. When we left off with him last month, he was within spitting distance of winning WRC2, and he indeed won the championship in late October. Now here's the bad news: he crashed out of his first full WRC event on Friday, ESPN F1 reports. Fortunately, Neither Kubica nor his co-driver were injured.
Kubica recently graduated to WRC with the Abu Dahbi Citroën Total team and was participating in the Wales Rally GB this week. He finished Thursday, the first day of the rally, in seventh place and reportedly was heard saying "I have a lot of things to learn" as he stepped out of the car that night. The next day, on the fourth special stage, he rolled his Citroën off the road into the trees.
The former Formula One driver was involved in a high-speed rally crash in February 2011 and suffered major injuries, including a nearly severed right arm. The damage left Kubica with limited movement in the arm, which many people say could be the nail in the coffin for his return to F1. Fueling that thought, Scuderia Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali recently said in an interview that he doesn't think Kubica would race with Ferrari due to physical problems with his arm.

GM, Peugeot strains kills joint small car, possibly whole alliance

The relationship between General Motors and PSA/Peugeot Citroën got off to a bumpy start last year, and Automotive News says that the tie-up between the two automakers will be short-lived. Heavy losses from both companies is causing the alliance to be scaled back, but PSA's talks with China's Dongfeng could kill the deal altogether.
Originally, about 40 shared vehicles were planned between Opel, Peugeot and Citroën, but the report says that, in the end, only two will make it to production - small vans like the Opel Meriva and Citroën C4 Picasso. For now, GM and PSA will continue a joint purchasing agreement, but this means that co-developed versions of the next-gen Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208 and Citroën C3 small cars are dead. Instead, another AN report says that GM will intensify its efforts to develop future Opel products on its own, which includes said next-gen Corsa that will reportedly switch from its current Fiat-based platform to GM's Global Gamma platform shared with the Chevy Spark and Buick Encore.
It isn't clear what would happen with the shared vehicles and joint purchasing, though, if Dongfeng manages to acquire a 30-percent stake in PSA/Peugeot Citroën. Dongfeng is a Chinese rival to SAIC Motor, which works with GM in China. While this soured deal mostly has implications for small cars in Europe, we wonder what it means for GM's fullsize commercial van plans in the US.

Kubica stepping up to the big leagues with WRC2 title in sight

Robert Kubica may never race in Formula One again. But that's alright, because he's apparently finding a new way for himself in the World Rally Championship.
As you may recall, Kubica was a budding F1 driver, having won the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2005 and his first F1 grand prix in 2008. But before the start of the 2011 season, Kubica suffered a catastrophic crash at the Ronde di Andora rally, in which his Skoda Fabia S2000 was impaled on a guard rail, leaving Kubica with serious injuries from which to recuperate.
Kubica hasn't been up to returning to grand prix racing, but undeterred by his terrifying crash, he's been having a go in professional rallying since last season. Now competing for Citroën in the second-tier WRC2 category, Kubica is within spitting distance of locking up its inaugural title. And he's already stepping up to the big leagues.

Dongfeng to take 30% stake in PSA Peugeot Citro"en?

PSA Peugeot Citroën, the European automaking giant responsible for forbidden fruit like the Citroën DS3 and Peugeot RCZ, has been struggling mightily, with a 510-million euro operating loss ($689.2M USD) in the first half of 2013, while cutting over 11,000 jobs and closing a plant, all in a bid to stop hemorrhaging cash. Help could be on the way, though, thanks to one of China's many emergent automakers, Dongfeng.
The company, which currently operates three joint-venture operations with PSA in China, is reportedly looking at taking a 30-percent stake at a cost of $1.63 billion. Dongfeng is in the midst of "preliminary research," according to a report from Automotive News Europe. PSA reps have reportedly declined to comment outside of saying that the company is looking at new projects with different partners.
While this deal does sound like it's in the earliest stages, a tie-up with Dongfeng could be big for PSA, which has had no shortage of trouble outside of the sluggish European market. The arrangement also raises some interesting questions for PSA's two largest shareholders - the Peugeot family and General Motors. Dongfeng would be the largest shareholder in PSA, replacing the Peugeot family, which currently holds a controlling 25.5-percent stake. GM, meanwhile, only owns seven percent, and has previously gone on record as saying the partnership between the two wouldn't be broken. That said, as part of GM's alliance, it reserves the right to end the partnership if control of PSA were to change.

Sebastien Loeb crashes out of his final WRC event

Rally ace Sébastien Loeb had a rare off in the final World Rally Championship race of his career, as the wet tarmac at the Rally of France saw the French star deposit his Citroen DS3 WRC into the forest. Loeb, who won the WRC's Driver's Championship every year from 2004 to 2012, and co-driver Daniel Elena emerged from their car unscathed.
The wreck, according to AutoSport, happened yesterday on the first stage of the final day of competition in France. Loeb's been running a limited WRC schedule in 2013, and recently announced that he'd be campaigning Citroen's C-Elysee WTCC in the World Touring Car Championship next year.
There's on-board footage of the wreck in the video below, although exterior footage is limited to the very end of the crash. Scroll down for the full video.

PSA aims to sell Chinese on French quality by giving them wine

China is the house that every robber baron is trying to break into. PSA Peugeot Citroën has been in-country since the early eighties, getting there with Volkswagen, but the French brand largely spent its time sniffing the plum blossoms while the German brand grabbed the dragon and tamed it. No more: PSA expects China to be its largest market by 2015, and it has spent more than a year rearranging its affairs to make a cohesive push for Chinese hearts and minds and renminbi.
After rationalizing its business operations there, Peugeot will move its wares upmarket to put space between it and Citroën, the Citroën DS line will be a standalone brand - the only place in the world where that will be the case - and according to a report in Businessweek both brands will heavily promote their association with French luxury by giving away wine and perfume to those who visit dealerships.
France, as the number one destination for Chinese tourists, does have a strong pull for the locals. But those visitors are interested in France mainly because of brands like Louboutin and Louis Vuitton, so it will take time and serious investment to find out if "premium mainstream" and "near-premium" brands can truly form a consumer bond with some of the definitive marques for sybarites.

eBay Find of the Day: Corvette-powered '64 Citro"en ID19 restomod

Take a look at the fastest Citroën ID19 (read: DS) you'll probably ever see: a 1964 model with a Chevrolet LS1 V8 swap that produces over 400 horsepower - a most unusual eBay find of the day. What's more is that this particular hot rod Citroën has been driven by rockstar Alice Cooper, who will apparently provide an autographed guitar and tour photo to the auction winner, along with two tickets to his Christmas Pudding show and the opportunity to play a round of golf with him in Arizona.
As far as we can tell from the eBay Motors ad, the Citroën doesn't actually belong to Alice Cooper, but who cares when it has a custom rear-wheel-drive chassis by Art Morrison and more than enough grunt to break the rear wheels loose on command? Finally, that beautifully sleek, aerodynamic shape can be put to use at over 100 miles per hour. But it wasn't always so, which is part of the charm of this custom build.
The Citroën DS was many things - ahead of its time, innovative, comfortable, complex - yet a hot rod it was not. It was known more for its power steering and plush ride quality courtesy of its self-leveling, height-adjustable suspension than for being able to take a corner at high speeds. It had front disc brakes, but more importantly, they were the first power-assisted disc brakes on a production car. The DS even was designed to house an air-cooled flat six more than a decade before Porsche 911 started production, but in the end, Citroën had to use its antiquated four-cylinder mill instead.

2014 Citro"en C4 Picasso proves MPVs can be beautiful

Jelly-bean shape aside, the Citroën C4 Picasso is one people mover we wouldn't be ashamed to drive. It looks like a concept car, except it isn't - it's just a five-passenger MPV that's meant to get a family about as quickly and comfortably as possible. The stylish new Picasso first arrived in April, representing the second generation of the French MPV, and packing a range of small four-cylinder gas and diesel engines. We won't dig into all six engines, but we can promise you this: there's not a hot version of this Citroën.
With it being shown on the Frankfurt show floor, these photos represent the first live look we've had at the C4 Picasso since it arrived at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show as the Technospace Concept. The production form has largely stayed true to the concept's sleek, stylish design. The C4 is far more successful at the twin headlight design that Jeep is trying to make work, while the aerodynamic figure is as flattering as a little, black dress.
The C4 Picasso has just the sort of design flair that we appreciate about French cars, and is one of the big reasons we wouldn't mind seeing them on US roads. Take a look up top for a full gallery of live images from Frankfurt, and then scroll down below for the gallery provided by Citroën, along with a press release and a video staring the new C4 Picasso.

Citro"en WTCC C-Elysee Racecar leaves the dirt behind

On top of the funktastic Cactus Concept, Citroën showed its new C-Elysée racecar, which will campaign the World Touring Car Championship with Sebastian Loeb and Yvan Muller at the helm. The C-Elysée racer debuted back in July packing a 1.6-liter, turbocharged four with 380 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque.
We stopped to take a few snaps of the new WTCC challenger while making our rounds on the Frankfurt show floor. Take a look up top for the live gallery, and then scroll down for the press release and stock imagery. You can also click over to our full coverage of the C-Elysée WTCC from July.