It’s easy to get lost in all the different classes and categories of the various FIA series, but Citroen’s newest mini makes the page.

The upmarket Citroen DS3 has been rollcaged and worked up to enter the FIA’s supermini rally class, the R3T, and will debut on the world stage at the end of the year.

Aptly named DS3 R3, it will come in either turn-key or kit form, featuring lightweight parts, more power, and modifiable suspension.

The springs and struts are designed to accommodate tarmac to rough gravel, with a redone front subframe and independent camber and toe adjustment on the rear via removable hubs.

The engine, a 210hp 1.6-liter turbocharged four, with a standard six-speed semi-automatic sequential gearbox with carbon fiber paddles. It comes caged, but without seats, belts or firebombs.

Toyota is bringing its most successful WRC cars from the eighties and nineties to the dirt track at Goodwood this year, and setting sights on the fastest hillclimb prize with a full circle Celica assault.

Carlos Sainz, Didier Auriol and Juha Kankkunen all drove the Group A Celica ST185 from 1992 to 1994, securing the manufacturer’s first championship in 1993. It is accompanied by the insane Group B Twin Cam Celica TA64 which tackled the now defunct but brilliant Safari and Ivory Coast rallies of the early nineties.

The Corolla WRC car which secured multiple round wins through the late 1990s will also feature, and for the first time Toyota will display its Land Cruiser Dakar Rally car.

On the cleaner, tarmac front, Lexus will show off its class-winning Nürburgring 24 Hour LFA (as well as the production version), debut the hybrid Lexus CT 200h and the Toyota FT-86 sports concept, race a supercharged prototype of the super-light iQ, and eye the prize of the quickest car up the hill with a 750hp Sprint Series Celica.

A rather controversial opening round of the Australian Rally Championship was played out last weekend, where the right rubber for the unpredictable north-western coast around Burnie, Tasmania, would prove crucial for the ARC title.

The first round of our gravel rally championship is actually a tarmac surface, with some short blasts around super-special street stages and farmland punctuated by long, windy mountain climbs and descents. Newly extended by 5km, the 30km Savage River and Savage River reverse stage made up almost half of the rally’s competitive kilometres - and it was here, on the punishing coarse-chip mountain gravel that the real controversy began.

The debut of a new pairing is always inconsistent to begin with, and most competitors found the availability of the new Kumho control tyres with the right compound and width to be a rally-changing issue.

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year (or are unfortunate enough not to have cable or be awake at 3am for the broadcast), you would know that the Intercontinental Rally Championship is the most exciting thing to hit the world rally scene since, well, the WRC.

lat year, the title was taken by a Brit called Kris Meeke in a Peugeot 207 hatch. And just like Citroen with Seb Loeb’s fifth world title, the carmaker is celebrating with a limited edition livery for the roadgoing version of the same car.

The 207 S16 edition is actually a Sport spec 1.6-litre 207, tarted up with a new mesh grille, small rear diffuser, unique alloys, full-sic dark tint, some badges, and a signature from Meeke himself. And, if you like, a wild red, white and blue Griffin-themed vehicle wrap.

A run of 250 cars in the UK will sell for £14,695 (US$23,375), which is barely £600 more than the standard mid-spec version. Which may be worth the spend for some French drivers who want to stick it to the Brits on their own roads…

Volkswagen has successfully defended its crown as king of the heavy-duty enduro, with a clean sweep of the Dakar Rally podium.

Rally legend Carlos Sainz and Spanish compatriot Lucas Cruz finished 02:12secs ahead of team mates Nasser Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk, with Mark Miller and Ralph Pitchford in third position

The 300 hp diesel-powered Touareg team led the field for 11 of the rally’s 14 long days, and claimed half of the stage victories.

The final stage of the Dakar Rally produced the fastest average speed for 2010, with Al-Attiyah clocking 152.070 km/h over 200km.

Fourth and fifth place went to BMWs, sixth was taken by Mitsubishi, and 2009 winners, Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz, finished seventh in another Touareg. A Hummer claimed eighth place.

“Volkswagen has achieved something historical with this one-two-three,” said VW Motorsport Director Kris Nissen.

“We are not only unbeaten in South America, we are also the only manufacturer to have won the world’s hardest rally up to now with diesel technology.”

The Dakar Rally is arguably the toughest cross-country trek in the world. This year’s 9000km route loops around the capitals of Chile and Argentina, crossing the Andes ranges not once but twice, and traversing Chile’s desolate Atacama Desert, which is claimed to be the driest in the world.

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