Citroën DS4 Racing Concept revealed

Somehow or other we missed the news when details for this rather stylish Citroën DS4 Racing Concept were released a few weeks back. But as it will be making its debut at Geneva in the next day or so it seemed timely to bring you these pics.

Based on the regular DS4 the Racing Concept has been lowered by 35mm and, more impressively, has had its tracked widened: 55mm wider at the front, 75mm at the rear.

It gets the familiar 1.6 litre turbo from the Citroën/Puegeot/MINI line up but as this is a concept model they can pretend they’ve turned the wick up to 256hp. That’s 190kW and while it would be very welcome the most we’ve seen from that engine, in production form, is 160kW in the MINI Countryman JCW.

The nicely sculpted bodywork is set off with 19″ alloys running 235/40 rubber. It looks great and we like it!

[Thanks to Andrew for the reminder]

DS4 RACING CONCEPT: a hot-blooded concept car

Citroën has sold more than 180,000 DS line models worldwide since launch. The adventure continues at the Geneva Motor Show with the reveal of the DS4 Racing Concept. As with the DS3 Racing, the engineers at Citroën Racing and the styling team have firmly stamped the DS4 with the image of the Brand’s racing department.

Making its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show, the DS4 Racing Concept features “100% Racing” attributes. The chassis is 35 mm lower than the regular model and track is 55 mm wider at the front and 75 mm wider at the back. The concept car also sports an air diffuser, a front bumper panel, a lower-body belt line and wing extensions. Citroën Racing has tweaked the 1.6-litre turbo engine to develop 256 bhp, or 160 bhp per litre – a record for a series-production car. This spectacular performance comes hand in hand with controlled CO2 emissions of 155 g/km.

Citroën Racing engineers have also redeveloped the running gear with the utmost precision. The concept car is equipped with four-pot, fixed calliper brakes at the front, with special discs widened to 380 mm in diameter, and shod with larger, 19-inch wheels (235/40).

Another stand-out feature of the Citroën DS4 Racing Concept is its matte grey, textured-effect paint – a first in the automotive sector. The grain of the paint catches the light differently and further enhances the body styling, while the colour is sober, modern and robust and ideally suited to a sports car. To refine the exterior aesthetic, the concept car gets a two-tone roof and specially-designed, two-tone wheel rims.