| December 31, 2005 Review |
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 AutoArt Citroen Xsara WRC By Shawn Smith Appearance:  The Citroen Xsara WRC, being the only one out of the three review cars we were recently sent to sport a racing livery, gets an automatic thumbs up as race painted models continue to be heavily favored by slot car racers.  And while racing liveries are well loved its paint jobs like the one AutoArt has provided on this Citroen that make a good looking slot car in to a fantastic looking slot car. Paint quality is by far one of the best in the business with the colors, graphics and clear coat all being expertly accomplished.  Detail wise AutoArt again pulls off another winner with a combination of elements to acheive their goal. Chrome accented details like the grill, tiny detailed features like painted windsheild fluid jets as well as the tiny painted hood pins and hood vent screens add up to total really nice work from AutoArt.   Rear details such as the separately applied chrome exhaust tip and flat black painted rear spoilers add to the normally 'die-cast like' qualities AutoArt is famous for.  Moving to the interior both driver and co-driver sport multi-color painted helmets and racing suits while sitting firmly inside of the silver and black two-toned interior. Almost ironically... I found some humor in the fact that the co-driver's driving instructions are blank considering the otherwise flawless levels of details.   Other notable details include the roof mounted communications antenna, four of them, and roof mounted air scoops. Items such as the side-view mirrors look terribly fragile however through testing held up without breakage.   The wheels of the AutoArt Citroen are fifteen-spoked recreations of the Citroens O.ZRacing rims and all four carry the O.Z brand logo as well as the smallest Citroen logos placed any where on the car. Behind all four wheels AutoArt has added brake rotor details and went as far as making different sized and differently grooved rotors for the front and the back.  And of course AutoArt hasn't let down fans of lit ralley cars by once again using bright blue-ish-white LEDs in the front of the Citroen that create an abundance of bright light. The back end gets the light treatment as well with considerably more dim red LEDs. Performance:  Four screws need to be removed to separate the body from the chassis, two in the very rear of the chassis and two on either side of the guide. While still looking at the bottom of the car a dual, side-by-side magnet set up can be seen as can the openings to allow for the dual-gear driver all wheel drive system.  Body and chassis now apart you'll need to unplug the white wiring plug to get the chassis away from the body although pay attention to where the wiring runs for reassembly. Because of the full interior, and the drive shaft of the AWD system, the wiring and plug need to be specifically placed to get the two parts back together properly.  Under the front hood the circuit board for the lighting system gets screwed in to the car and the LEDs, both front and back, are well hot-glued in place.  Gearing in the Citroen Xsara WRC follows AutoArt's assumed intentions of making fast top speed cars with 10-tooth pinion gears and 28-tooth crown gears on both axles. This gearing arrangement provides for decent acceleration considering the amount of magnetic downforce from the chassis but does make the car lighter in the braking department than most short track owners will care for.  Even though the chassis has the two magnets carrying too much speed in to the corners will find the rear end whipping around to smack a wall or leave the car facing the other direction. And even though the back has a lot more downforce than most rally slotting enthusiasts will approve of I found the front end stayed planted in the slot much better than expected.  And speaking of the front end my test Citroen had the tell-tale sounds of loose bushings in the front and it was confirmed after some super glue on the drive shaft bushing stopped the chattering noise.  The two-piece rims have a small amount of flashing that could stand to be removed however I found that the tires without some glue could spin on the rims. I could not get them to roll off of the rims during testing, which is good, although acceleration did feel improved once I stopped the tires from rotating on the rims. Once sorted out the stock Citroen Xsara was pleasantly quick on my 60-foot test track ripping off a fastest lap time of 5.895. That time places the stock Citroen right in the middle of the times run by the recently tested AutoArt Ford GT and Porsche 911 (996) GT3RS and I know slotting rally non-magnet purists might be turned off by this. Taking the magnets out however will mean being very creative with weight placement and tires especially will be a place to focus on when searching for unfound grip. The harder treaded design offers little in the way of usable traction and without the magnets the car has less than desirable grip. The Final Verdict:  Ok... looks wise the new AutoArt Citroen Xsara WRC is a fantastic looking car with lot of visual appeal. Stock performance the AutoArt Citroen is pleasantly fun to drive although I would like to see AutoArt adopt smaller gearing to provide for better torque and overall acceleration as well as help resolve the lack of braking their cars all seem to have. If I was to be granted one slotting New Years wish it would be for AutoArt to take a serious look at tire options as all three recent AutoArt cars could benefit from a better gripping compound and for non-magnet rally slot racers the tires really hold the cars back. Everything else considered the AutoArt Citroen Xsara is another nice product from AutoArt that many will enjoy and will make a great addition to any collection. Special thanks go to SlotCarWorld.com for providing the new AutoArt Citroen Xsara WRC for review. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions and I will be happy to answer anything that I can. Happy Slotting! Shawn Smith SJSlots@hotmail.com |
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