"Right," I asked the guy delivering my review car, writes Brian Byrne. "Could you not give me something a little more visible?"
I was joking, of course. As you can see from the picture, there's not much in cardom at the moment that has more of a visual impact than Citroen's DS3 Racing.
The Obsidian Black and Sport Orange shout loud enough, but rise to a virtual visibility roar with the special decals and detailing of this one, prepared by the same Citroen Racing Team that has brought to the brand no less than five World Rally Championship Manufacturer titles.
"Boy racer," I muttered as I drove it away. "Not my style."
Except that well before I got home, I had fairly well fallen for this one. Not least because it is very much more than just a fancy finish.
Shifting back to the DS series of cars themselves, this is essentially the one based on the C3 supermini. And while the jury may still be out on whether Citroen can pull off the whole idea of a series of more premium cars in tandem with their bread and butter, I have to say I like what has come out of it so far.
The DS cars‚ so far the 3 and the 4 and another one on the way based on the C5 platform‚ do have a little more style and cachet, and offer something different for not too much extra money. The DS3 in general is a real alternative to the Mini and the Fiat 500 variations that are hooked up to by the young and trendy set.
They're not 'toys' though, and for the money an owner is getting a proper motor with proven top-notch powertrains and adequate room for each of the segments a DS is in. Good build quality and a tough chassis underpins the flashier details.
The basic DS3 drives and handles very well indeed, and is in most ways a match for any of its competitors in a hotly-fought market of small cars.
And then there's the DS3 Racing. In addition to the screaming sport orange exterior trim, the style in the alloys is a signature in itself that this is something more than we might expect. The half-chequered roof paintwork too is distinctive, perfect for a Garda helicopter pilot trying to keep the car in the frame.
Inside, the bright orange dashboard with its own special Racing graphic is nevertheless more elegant than brash. The instruments ahead of the special-shaped steering wheel are fairly standard, which is good. The grip of the gear-shift is good, though the aluminium inserts are cold to the touch until the car warms up from winter.
The racing seats are styled and detailed in the same manner as the rest of the car, but they also proved to be exceptionally comfortable and not at all cramped as some of these things can be.
But at the heart of this car is, of course, the engine. Now, there is already in the DS3 offerings a 150hp 1.6 petrol which is juicy enough to enjoy. It is an engine codeveloped with BMW and used in a number of applications by that German company, Peugeot and Citroen.
The Racing version is that engine ... plus. Citroen Racing has worked some of the same WRC car magic on it, uprating the horsepower to 207hp. Torque is a substantial 275Nm. All the tweaking puts this version into the rare enough company of 'ordinary' passenger small cars that can do the 100km/h sprint in just 6.5 seconds. It's a Band C for Road Tax.
The boffins have fettled the electronically-managed suspension too to make sure that all that juice is efficiently converted to forward impetus. Apart from a bit of quickly reined in torque steer when you try a full-on away from standing, there's a very reassuring sense of a car that does precisely what you want it to do. Yet there's no thumping hard suspension, and the DS3 Racing is overall a car that is as comfortable in slow traffic as it is in high speed corners.
I did have the chance to put a fair bunch of kilometres under this one, and at the end of the week I really left it back with some regret. Certainly if I had gotten to drive it last year before the Continental Irish Car of the Year awards, my choice for the Sports Car category might have been quite different.
There's a price to be paid, of course. The basic DS3 starts out at around €18,000, but you'll have little change out of €34,000 for this Racing version. It's a very limited edition, so you won't see too many of them around anyhow.
Makes it that bit more special, doesn't it?
