Thread: First drive review: Citroen C3 VTi 82 VTR+

Citroen's economical triple is effortless and good value, but the Ford Fiesta remains the drivers' choiceThis is Citroen's C3 supermini, here fitted with Peugeot-Citroens all-new three-cylinder petrol engine, which made its debut in the 208. PSA engineers say that the engine has been awarded 52 patents, 17 of them related to the cylinder head design alone. The engine block is cast from aluminium alloys and is a complex design that incorporates the engine mounting points and the exhaust ducts. The cylinder head gets four valves per cylinder, and variable valve timing on both the inlet and exhaust valves. The company says that, compared to the current four-cylinder engines, internal friction levels have been reduced by 30 per cent. Only this, more powerful 80bhp version of the three-pot engine gets a balancer shaft. The entry-level, 67bhp version does not on cost grounds, but Citroen is not currently planning to offer this engine in the UK. Cost considerations also ruled out a start-stop system. There are a few neat engineering features: the engines cambelt is lubricated from an oil spay in the sump and is designed to last the life of the car. The belt-driven alternator can also be de-clutched when the car is accelerating, reducing the load on the engine. Interestingly, an engineering source told Autocar that PSA had no plans to build a turbocharged version of this engine, despite the success of Ford's 1. 0-litre, three-cylinder, turbocharged unit. To go along with the new engine, Citroen has modified the C3 chassis, increasing the anti-roll rates by around 15 per cent and the damping rates by around 20 per cent.