Citroen DS3

The Citroen DS3, not really a car you’d associate with performance. The one we bought is the 1.6 e-HDI 90bhp. As i said, with them numbers you wouldn’t think anything of the sort, perfect!
As we bought it in late September the first thing to do was to put some winters on, after all none of the tires that were on matched.
We try to use as many local services as possible, so it had to be Kenmare Tyres.
Wayne the owner has ran the shop for well over 20 years and knows everything regarding tires. He’s massively into cars as well with plenty of stories, so the tire swap felt like it took no time what so ever. We went for Hankook Ventus V12’s, tried and tested they grip in winter.
The next logical step was to get it on the dyno’ to see how it was running as standard. A trip to JDM Dyno at Kirkbride.
After looking at the results it was clear there was a few problems.
Firstly, the boost map. Upon reaching full boost @2200RPM (22psi) it would then drop straight back down to 15 psi. The problem with this is mid mad it looses a mass amount of power.
Secondly, heat! The amount of heat soak after just 1 run was unreal dropping 10bhp.
A trip down to Essex to the boys at Airtec was required to get a custom Front Mount Intercooler made up.
The issue is that the standard intercooler that comes on the DS3 is poor. Probably an oversight due to how small it is and also its location.
As you can see at least 1/4 of the intercooler is covered up by the crash bar and when the bumper is on, air is only getting to about a 3rd of it.
The rather small standard intercooler, that can go in the bin.
The new one all mounted up. As you can see it’s considerably larger and its new position is perfect getting 100% coverage of airflow once the front bumper is attached back on also notice the considerably larger pipe work to allow more air flow.
Back to the dyno and I mentioned heat soak. That is where the air temperature that is going into the engine is very hot. The affect this has on the engine means that it looses power. Cold air is dense air and dense air means that for the same amount of space, there is a larger volume of air which means more fuel can be injected per revolution and as such more power.
The standard intercooler wasn’t efficient at all, As mentioned earlier after the first dyno run the intake air temperature was 69 degrees. With the new Airtec fitted it was time to hit the dyno again. there was a 10bhp increase in power and after 4 runs there was still no drop in power. The IAT of just 9 degrees, a drop of 60 degrees.
Now it was time for a remap and DPF delete. 
138bhp and 219ftlb of torque, what does that equate to in real world terms? Cutting a whole 3 seconds of the 0-60 time.
A car isn’t all about numbers though, who cares about the bhp or the 0-60 times. What defines a car is how it drives and although it isn’t the most powerful car in the world it can defiantly take a turn.
Often on 3 wheels it’s just perfect. With Hardknott Pass just 30 mins away it’s an ideal road for testing on.
Now all that’s left is for it to be summer so that we can put the Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE002 summer tires on and do so track days.