Nagle and Meeke to unveil the C3
THE new Citroen rally car that Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle will drive next season will be unveiled to the public for the first time at the Paris Motor Show early next month.
Meeke and Nagle have sampled the new C3 World Rally Car on several occasions so far this season during private test sessions – more recently in San Remo in Italy – but it has never been seen officially in public yet.
In test form the car has been heavily disguised but the Paris Show, the world’s biggest auto show and a short distance from the French team’s Versailles base, is the ideal venue to unveil the 2017 world title challenger to the public. The rally car is based on the C3 model and Citroen has already confirmed it will unveil a new model of the road car at the show.
Mondial Paris runs from October 1 to 16 and attracts over one and a half million visitors.
The show clashes with Rally Corsica, the French round of the World Rally Championship, where the Kerry/Tyrone pairing will make their final scheduled appearance at the wheel of the current Citroen DS3 World Rally Car. The 2017 season gets underway with Rally Monte Carlos in mid-January where the new cars compete for the first time alongside new cars from rivals, Volkswagen; Hyundai, Ford and Toyota.
However, Meeke and Nagle could make an appearance on Wales Rally GB in late October in the DS3. Citroen are due to enter three cars for the penultimate round of the 2016 series with one of them earmarked for team mate Stéphane Lefebvre.
However, the Frenchman was injured in a crash on last month’s Rally Germany and he may not be fit in time for the October 27-30 event, paving the way for Meeke and Nagle to contest the rally where they finished second last year.
“I’m not saying I want to go to GB to do something special, or to try to win it, but I want to keep the edge. It is a long gap between Corsica in September and Monte Carlo in January and although I have testing scheduled it is not the same as competition,” said Meeke.
Meanwhile, last Friday night Killarney and District Motor Club honoured Nagle (who won two rounds of this year’s WRC alongside Meeke) and British Junior Rally champions Rob Duggan and Ger Conway with a special function at the Avenue Hotel.