Sebastian Loeb, the 300-time* World Rally Champion, is to enter the X-Games Rallycross event in Los Angeles from 28 June. The idea is for Loeb to race against American Travis Pastrana, a hero of the US Rallycross scene. Loeb said of the new challenge: “I love racing and I’m always interested in trying out new categories. A week after the New Zealand Rally has finished, I’ll be in Los Angeles to take up the challenge set for me by Travis! Rallycross here in Europe provides some very spectacular racing, but the American version seems to be even more extreme. So, I didn’t need to be asked twice when the opportunity arose to race against drivers like Marcus Grönholm in a 545bhp Citroën DS3!”Citroën

Racing has developed a special version of the World Rally Championship DS3 “It’s always exciting to try out a new category and attempt to get the most out of the regulations,” said Cyrille Jourdan, lead engineer for the project at Citroën Racing. “From a distance, the Rallycross DS3 looks quite similar to the WRC. Although the design of the chassis and suspension systems are fairly similar, the powertrain is fundamentally different. The DS3 XL’s two-litre turbo engine develops 545bhp and 800Nm of torque. Its acceleration isn’t far off that of an F1 car, covering 0 to 100kph (62 mph) in 2.4 seconds”*OK, it is only eight – it just feels like 300