Review: Citroen DS 3 Performance Cabrio

A 210bhp open-topped hot hatch. What’s not to like about that?

This version of the DS 3 has a 1.6 turbo engine sending 210bhp through a six-speed manual gearbox. It has 1.5cm lower suspension and wider lateral track, enlarged Brembo braking and 18” rims.

Better still, despite being a convertible it only weighs 25kg more than the tin-top on which it’s based. So, same question again: what’s not to love?

Answer: the way it drives on poor roads. Give it some smooth asphalt, and it’s a step forward from the standard DS 3, with impressively enhanced performance and dynamics. But this is Britain, and you’ll look long and hard to find a B-road that doesn’t punctuate your journey with shivers and groans from the car’s structure.

Fundamentally, it just doesn’t feel to us as if 25 kilos’ worth of reinforcement was enough.

Certainly, there’s enough power to ask questions the chassis can’t answer on all but a flawless surface. Not that it feels as sprightly as a 210bhp hatch should. Perhaps it’s because the long-throw gearbox turns everything into a lugubrious series of considered processes, but a car like this should feel more eager than the DS 3 manages to.

This despite the fact that the ratios in the gearbox have been tightened up for a punchier 0-62 time. It’s clearly more than an exercise in window dressing, this car.