Portuguese soccer coach André Villas-Boas will be taking part in some demo runs with an ex Citroën Racing Citroën C3 WRC in Portugal this weekend as part of the FIA World Rally Championship 50th anniversary celebrations that is being held in conjunction with Rally de Portugal.
Villas-Boas is a true rally fan, he has contested the Dakar Rally back in 2018 before taking on his home rally in 2021, driving a Citroën C3 Rally2 in the WRC3 support category for privateer drivers. He entered the Rally de Portugal round to raise awareness for his Race for Good charity.
The former Chelsea manager has now purchased an ex Esapekka Lappi C3 WRC directly from the PSA Group at the end of last year to be part of his private rally collection and he will use that car for the first time this weekend.
“I like to collect cars with prestige, I always wanted to own a rally car, so I started investigating. At first, I was in limbo about which rally car to own. I have fortunately a good relationship with the PSA Group, and the first car that came up was actually a [Citroën] C4 from Loeb.” Villas-Boas told WRC.com.
“It was a great car with six wins, but it needed rebuilding. It was actually a car that had been around for a while was sold by Citroën and then was around a few drivers, so the 10 years of its life were very intense.”
“Then came the opportunity to buy the C3 from PSA and we managed to get into an agreement and finally I decided to buy it. It’s one of the most incredible cars I’ve ever driven, if not the most incredible. We did a few laps in Lousada and then I took it for a ride in Vieira do Minho, and it really is something special.”
