December 14, 2008
 SCX Citroen C4 WRC Review By Eric Cropper It happened back in 2002 or 3 during a late evening of channel surfing. I came across these guys driving balls to the wall on snow and ice. We’ve all done doughnuts in empty parking lots in the winter. Heck, I was known for parking my Chevette in the gravel parking lot at school by yanking the parking brake and sliding it into the parking space between two parked cars. Fun at the time, however, looking back about as smart as the time I urban surfed from the top of Mt.Adams down to the Cincinnati Art Museum back in 88’. I sat for an hour and watched the WRC Rally of Sweden. I saw cars doing things they shouldn’t be doing. How would you handle going 70 MPH down an ice covered road and over a jump only to have a full sized moose jump into the middle of the road? The driver simply tapped the brakes, made sure the moose kept running straight down the road, passed him and I picked my jaw up off the floor. I quickly became a fan of Team Ford’s Markko Martin and Michael Park. They were my guys. To this day, they are the only sports figures I gave a damn about, followed, and actually cheered for through the TV screen. Sadly, this all came to a crashing halt, literally on the last leg of the 2005 Wales Rally of Great Britain. They’re car left the road and hit passenger side into a tree. Michael died instantly they say…little blessing. This was also the year that Sebastian Loeb was about to win his 2nd World Rally Championship. In 2005 he dominated the WRC. Actually, dominated is an understatement since he has won the WRC title in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and most recently in 2008. 5 years in a row!!! He won a record 11 rally events this year and has the most WRC wins in history with 47. Needless to say manufacturer Citroen loves Sebastian Loeb. He gave them win after win and he will always be associated with the team, just as Colin McRae (RIP) will always be remembered behind the wheel of a Subaru. While I’m at it, RIP Richard Burns who was diagnosed with a brain tumor after blacking out in route to a rally in 2003 and later lost his battle in November of 2005. Forgive my flashbacks. I usually don’t give a damn about sports. People find out I’m from Cincy and say, “How’s those Bungles?” “They ruined a perfect season,” I reply. I’ll tick a bunch a folks off with this one, SPEED stopped covering the WRC and added like 3 to 4 more NASCAR shows to its roster. That ticked off a lot of faithful WRC fans here in the States. I know that it’s the biggest racing drawl here, but I don’t care. I was passionate about the WRC for a couple of short years after randomly discovering it and then it was gone due to politics and money. Thank goodness SCX loves rally cars and my desire for the WRC can at least be fulfilled in 1/32 scale. How was that for an intro? LOL. Now on with the show… Appearance: First, I took these at my place with limited lighting options. So, they’re not the greatest…sorry. I don’t have the dual million watt spotlights that Shawn has at his place. The car is red in case it looks orange in some of the pictures.  This Sebastian Loeb’s Citroen C4 from the 2007 Rally of Monte Carlo. The race was the C4’s first rally challenge and Loeb and the 2nd team car finished 1-2. That’s a way to get someone’s attention. SCX did an incredible job of recreating this dirt slinger. It’s a sleek hatchback that hovers just above the track surface. The overall finish of the car is very well done and didn’t have any of the clear coat issues that the Honda Accord WTCC had in the last review.  The easiest way to recognize the C4 is the grill that replicates Citroen’s brand logo printed on the hood. There are the usual hood vents and silver painted hood pins up front too. I love the shape of the headlights.  Here’s the view that the other drivers in the WRC has seen for the past 5 years minus all the dirt, rocks, mud, snow, sand, and dust. The best thing about the rear of any rally car to me is the wing. The rally wing has started to mimic F1 wings over the past 5 years along with the F1 team budgets. There are raised silver painted pins, the C4 lettering and Citroen logo residing on the rear hatch. Yes, there’s even a license plate since the rally is run on public streets.  The above view gives you a better sense of the F1 styling of the wing. The roof sports two antennas and an air scoop painted like the French flag that helps cool the interior of the car on the hotter circuits. I just wish SCX would use rubber for their antennas instead of the brittle plastic they are currently using on their cars. They don’t hold up well during those roof rides and that’s if they don’t come bent and broken from the factory. Speaking of fragile in the picture below, the side mirrors on the C4 are the smallest I’ve seen on a slot car. I can’t believe they were still intact after testing.   The half tray interior is all black with the only hint of color being the white & red navigator and driver figures. Even the rim of the spare tire molded into the interior tray is black. Nothing a brush, some paint and time couldn’t remedy. Performance:  Removing the Citroen’s body requires the removal of 5 screws pointed out by the arrows in the above picture. You also see a gear up front and in the rear. This baby is 4X4 just like the real deal. I still remember seeing the real cars missing one of the rear wheels and still finishing the stage. The magnet resides in a pod that can be adjusted up and down via 2 screws. However, rally purist will yank it all together.  The body removed shows all the electronics for the front and rear lights. This is still an area that a lot of us wish would change on SCX releases. Too many cars with flickering lights or none at all have been reported with this setup. We’ve reviewed several SCX cars with this very problem straight from the box or shortly into the testing stage of the review. The lights are nice and bright. The headlight design reaches far into the side of the C4 and produces more light because of it. Below, we see that the C4 comes powered by SCX’s RX-81B motor with a rating of 18K RPM. Also, unlike other brands SCX is a direct drive 4x4. No rubber bands running from the rear axle up to power the front axle. Personally, I think this is the way to go. Bands can break and slip. Also, the bands coupled with a powerful motor can make the front wheels break and chatter from my experience. Plus, the front rubber in theory should be pulling equally as much at the rears are pushing the car around the track. Thus, allowing for smoother acceleration and greater braking power. This is my personal opinion and yours may vary. It’s okay.  Under the hood both axles get brass bushings and the guide is spring loaded to keep it in the slot. However, the guide needed some attention right out of the box. The 2 shots below show that the brass power leads needed some gentle adjusting to get them level under the guide. Plus, one of them was in between the guide and braid. Easy fix, but odd to be an issue on 2 separate cars. So, check yours out before placing it on the track to insure smooth and unrestricted movement of the guide from side to side.  Track Time: I ran the Citroen on my Sport track currently setup on the basement floor with standard power and controls. I know, lame!!! However, it’s what I have to deal with since I wasn’t at Shawn’s place. Oh yeah, no track timing currently set up either. (I might lose my review license after this one) So, how did it run, right? Pretty darn good. I use to own an old SCX Citroen Xsara and if memory serves me right I sold or traded it to Matt M. (How it’s still running?) There have been times I wish I still had it. It was really broken in and fast. It slid in the turns and was easily driven out of a slide by the front end. Basically, just like this C4. It took off without hesitation or wheel chatter. Drifting through the hard turns was easy to control. This is where dedicated front wheel drive saves the rear end from straying out too far in a turn. The gear mesh wasn’t rough out of the box and will only get better over time. Once both gears get worn in good this car will be a beast on any rally track. It was a pleasure to drive and in my book it’s a winner. As always HomeRacingWorld.com would like to thank SCX Worldwide for sponsoring this review. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via my email link below. Eric Cropper - legionofone/Minion ecropper@hotmail.com Thanks Go To SCX For Sponsoring This Review!
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