Napoleon Bonaparte is considered as one of the greatest conquerors of all time. During his short reign, he managed to put most of Europe on its knees. Oh, how things don’t change. It’s 2003, and once again, it’s the French in command, dominating the rest of Europe in albeit a different way: the World Rally Championship.
Though not as widely promoted as Formula One, the WRC dishes up some great seat-of-your pants entertainment with breath taking power slides and time-stopping jumps—neither of which are seen in a Ferrari or a McLaren. In the midst of Sega Rally favorites Peugeot 206, Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and the Ford Focus, one constructor has come out ahead of the heap. And believe it or not, it comes from the land that gave us Dijon Mustard and the Eiffel Tower: France.
Citroen was a name never associated with the WRC. The company, which is part of the PSA conglomerate—the same group that owns Peugeot, had success in cross-country rally cross races such as the Paris-Dakar Rally. Seeing that participation in WRC will help raise brand kudos, Citroen entered the fray in the late 1990’s.
The company’s first rally cars were in all purposes a front-driver kit-car, designed to compete in the lower classes of the WRC. However, in 1999, the Xsara T4, a full-blown Group A racer debuted. The launch the Xsara T4 created quite a stir since it took the debate of pitting two brands of the same group (Peugeot and Citroen) against each other publicly.
That said, the Xsara T4 shared very little parts with either the Peugeot 206 WRC or the Xsara kit-car that it replaced. Citroen’s team manager, Guy Frequelin, was determined to design and build a unique car rather that relying on technology developed by the already established Peugeot WRC program. Frequelin even persuaded the French national governing body for motorsports to create a whole new domestic formula that would allow the Xsara T4 to gain vital practice mileage in 2000.
Citroen thus campaigned the Xsara T4 on a limited basis, using the 2001 and 2002 seasons as test beds for a full-on assault. The car predictably decimated the competition in the French leg of the WRC in 2000. From the get-go, the Xsara T4 exhibited tremendous amounts of speed—prompting complaints from other teams, saying that Citroen had spies surveying the track ahead of time, thus giving them an unfair advantage. Of course, these all turned out to be false, as if to already submit defeat towards the new French competitor. Unfortunately, reliability remained a big question.
In the 2002 Monte Carlo Rally, Citroen young gun Sebastian Loeb drove through the reliability issue to cross the finish line first. However, a one-minute penalty eventually handed the race win to Tommi Makkinen. During the season though, Loeb and Citroen managed to notch some comfortable point scoring positions including a win.
This season saw the first full WRC campaign for the Xsara T4. With little parts shared with the sedate Xsara family hatchback, Citroen Sport massaged its XU7JP4 series inline-4 engine to produce a massive 310-bhp and a mind-blowing 58.12 kg-m of torque. The purpose-built 2.0-liter integrated a Garrett TR30R turbocharger as well as a steering-wheel operated 6-speed Xtrac sequential shifter.
Comparatively, the Xsara T4 has better power-to-weight ratio than either the Chevrolet Corvette C5 or Aston Martin Vanquish with their monstrous V8 and V12 engines respectively. The all-wheel drive is an added bonus, making sure that the power is well planted whatever the weather or terrain.
Citroen doesn’t just benefit from the Xsara T4’s speed and new-found reliability. Another major strength this year was their driver line-up. Aside from hotshot French Sebastian Loeb, Citroen signed former Ford teammates and WRC champions Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz.
Loeb’s determination plus Sainz’s and McRae’s experience meant a complete domination of the season opening Monte Carlo Rally—more than making up for Citroen’s penalty a year earlier that cost them the race win.
Throughout the remainder of the season, the story was similar. Sadly, the driver’ crown eluded Loeb once again as constant competition from his equally great teammates as well as big-brother Peugeot meant that there was barely enough room for mistakes. Despite excellent performances in Cyprus, Germany and Italy (even Colin McRae said his drive in Italy was absolutely ‘amazing’), avoidable errors such as losing fuel in Turkey and crashing in Argentina as well as mechanical gremlins in Greece, secured Subaru’s Peter Solberg the driver’s championship.
However, for all it’s worth, Citroen showed to the rest of the word that the long and winding road to success would eventually be realized. Critics who blasted PSA’s decision for allowing Citroen to compete in the WRC alongside with Peugeot have nothing more to say. Though it’s still too early to say, the Citroen Xsara T4 will definitely have a place among the great French rally cars alongside the likes of the Alpine A110, the Renault 5 Maxi, the Peugeot 205T16 and the 206. It seems that the Bonaparte spirit of conquest lives in the soul of its WRC runners.
By Ulysses Ang | Photos Courtesy of Citroen
Published in the Manila Times
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