Many regard the Goodwood rally stage as the Festival of Speed’s most challenging course. Though it lacks the hill climb’s flint wall and solid haystacks, 1.7 miles of bumps and jumps on narrow, tree-lined dirt roads are certainly daunting enough. This only makes the way World Rally winner, Kris Meeke, can dance his Citroën DS3 WRC car between the hedgerows an even more impressive sight, especially from the passenger seat.
Having won his first World Rally just two months before Goodwood (illustrated in the gallery below), Meeke is well placed extract every ounce of performance out of his DS3's turbocharged 1.6-litre engine. Peak power is a claimed 300bhp and torque is quoted at 258lb ft, and it enables Meeke to balance the car with the throttle so accurately, that he can confidently back it into corners only a couple of metres wider than the car itself.
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evo’s Web Editor, Hunter Skipworth, experiences Meeke’s skills first hand, sitting just inches away from the 35-year old Northern Irishman as he flat-shifts his way up the gears, then bangs his way back down them again to the backtrack of unburnt fuel crackling through the exhaust.
Though this isn’t a proper competition setting, the Goodwood forest rally stage is clearly capable at providing the sights and sounds of world rally. So ride on board with us as we experience a WRC rally winner in his Citroën DS3 WRC first hand. Click here to watch a video of evo’s Henry Catchpole sampling Meeke’s WRC car for himself.
