Goodwood Festival of Speed - A Thrilling Ride

On Sunday July 1st, in the closing hours of the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2012, I was given the rare opportunity by Citroën UK to have a co-drive with Citroën Junior World Rally Team driver Thierry Neuville. Having last been in a World Rally Championship car back in 2008, this was an offer I simply could not refuse.

For those who don’t know him, or the World Rally Championship, Thierry Neuville is a young Belgian racing in the Junior World Rally Championship for Citroën’s junior team as he looks to improve and make the step into the World Rally Championship. With eight consecutive World Rally Drivers’ Champion Sébastien Loeb as a team-mate and the backing of the Citroën factory team, his career in the sport looks well planned out with all the support necessary to create a future champion.

Originally looking for a brief interview with the Citroën Total World Rally Team at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Citroën were kind enough to offer me the chance to get to know the twenty-four year old Belgian and experience a co-drive with him on the Goodwood Rally Forest stage in the Citroën DS3 WRC – a 300 brake horsepower car powered by a turbocharged 1.6 litre Citroën factory engine.

As I suited up in factory racing overalls and got fitted for my co-drivers’ helmet, I couldn’t help but feel like a child who was about to be let into the world’s biggest candy store. After all, it’s not every day one gets to be taken around a rally stage by one of the worlds most talked about up and coming junior world rally drivers. And just as I felt I couldn’t get more excited as the Citroën DS3 WRC rolled into view, out of the co-drive seat jumped a Top Gear Magazine journalist. Telling me this was an experience like non-other, I prepared myself for the drive of my life.

Getting into a World Rally car is not an easy thing, especially when there is six foot three of me to get into it! Squeezing through the tight roll-cage of the car, I got ‘comfortable’ in the tiny race seat that awaited me. With very little room to breathe in the car, far-less do anything else, a Citroën team member leaned in to strap me into the seat. The four-point seatbelt is designed not just as a safety feature that has to be there, but as a life saver. As such, I am strapped in around the legs, as well as over the shoulders, and the belts are tightened so that I cannot move an inch of my upper body – after all, if this car is to roll or encounter an accident of some sort, the one thing the car can guarantee is that you won’t be thrown from it.

In the ironic knowledge that I am quite possibly in the safest situation I have ever been, Thierry switches the ON switch on the dashboard and presses a red button which fires up the Citroën DS3 WRC. The roar of the engine is epic. Although we are both wearing helmets that have ear protectors built into them, meaning you can only speak to each other through radio controlled elements built into the helmet, the engine still puts out an impressive growl, especially considering it is only a 1.6 litre. Thierry puts the car into gear and we start to creep forward towards the start of the stage.

Our run is delayed slightly as the car in front of us has had a considerable ‘off’ – tearing the front left wheel of the car completely off. As the damaged rally car is towed past us, I can’t help but remind myself of the dangers involved in Rallying and the risks these drivers put themselves through every time they get in the car. I also feel much more secure knowing that I am so tightly bound to my seat.

Now it is our turn – this is it. Thierry pulls the car onto the start line. A marshal opens the door, tells Thierry that we ‘GO’ in thirty seconds. We both watch the clock, and as ten seconds approaches, Thierry throws the car into first and revs the engine to its maximum 6,000 rpm. Counting the final seconds down, the red light goes out, Thierry lifts the clutch, and the four wheel drive Citroën DS3 WRC surges forward, throwing us beyond 60 miles per hour in a matter of seconds. The acceleration is comparable to that of a super-car as I am pushed hard back into my seat.

The forest rally course ahead of us is 1.67 miles of loose dirt and mud. I have already been warned that the car will have little grip as it takes on the challenges of the track, yet I still feel secure in the car… The reason being? Thierry is not just a good driver – he’s a GREAT driver. And to add to this, he likes to talk. I am not left to wonder what is coming next, or why the car is acting a certain way. Every corner we go into on the rally stage, Thierry is telling me exactly how the course is acting, and how he must drive the car to adapt to the ever changing stage. There’s no time to ask questions, because before I’ve even had the chance to think of one, Thierry has already answered it.

Thierry makes the Forest Rally Stage and driving a World Rally Championship car look like a Sunday drive. He’s laid back, focused, and dedicated. He’s knowledgeable, and he knows every inch of the ground that is beneath the car. Every twitch of the steering wheel has reasoning behind it, and if any mistakes were made during the run, I certainly didn’t notice. Dedication is literally what powers these drivers. As long as one is dedicated to something, everything will be ok. It is only when one begins to panic or be non-committal that things go wrong, and this was certainly not going to be the case today.

As I sat and enjoyed every second of the co-drive, I kept thinking to myself not just how lucky I was for this experience is, but how lucky Thierry Neuville is to experience a thrill like this on a daily basis. He’s deserved every bit of it, and his driving shows this.

We complete the entire course in less than two minutes with no bumps, bruises, damages or panics. Besides the car being a little dirtier, it is practically without a scratch. As my co-drive with Thierry has now come to an end and I ungracefully clamber out of the Citroën DS3 WRC with the world’s media watching, words cannot express how faultless I believed his drive to be and it really is no surprise that seven-time World Rally Manufacturers Champions Citroën Total World Rally Team have given him their backing.

At just 24 years of age, Thierry Neuville is destined to have a long and successful career as a World Rally Championship driver. The fact that he has Sébastien Loeb as a mentor and a Championship winning car to drive should simply mean the possibilities are endless.

I wish Thierry the best of luck in the remainder of the 2012 Junior World Rally Championship, and thank him, Citroën UK and Citroën Total World Rally Team for an unforgettable day and experience.

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