A strong rumour now circulating around the South African rallying circles is that French car maker Citroën is said putting together a programme to support four (or more) C2 R2 MAXs in in this fiercely contested domestic rally championship. A three-year programme has apparently been confirmed by Citroen, which includes substantial prize monies supporting a “Citroen Challenge” within the South African Super 1600 Class (formerly Class R2).
The cars are believed to be underpinned with the R2-spec chassis with a incredible 190hp enginet at the weight of 1030kg, equipped with a 5-speed sequential gearbox and state-of-the-art Boss shock absorbers (3-way adjustable). According to sources, one of South Africa’s local rally teams spent some time in Europe in last 8 months finding out more about this project.
A quote from Dave Ledbitter’s website RallyWorld.Net: “It is indeed a low cost maintenance rally car. We had the opportunity in getting involved with teams in Europe to find out more about the running costs of the C2 R2 Max, and to our surprise the endurance and development of this car along the past few years has made it a tough little monster platform that no more has to prove itself. It’s definitely a winner especially with the involvement from Citroën SA,” he said. Already two teams are said to be committed with two cars and another two are close to signing a deal.
There are talks of a national team supported Citroën South Africa in the near future.