Seb beat the Pugs!

NiSk · Unread post by **NiSk** » 09 Feb 2004, 22:46

and the Subs and the Focususes!
Congrats to Sebastien Loeb for winning the Swedish (WRC)Rally in his CITROËN Xsara WRC. To cap it all, he is the first non-scandiavian driver to EVER win the event.
//NiSk

VisaGTi16v · Unread post by **VisaGTi16v** » 10 Feb 2004, 01:44

and his first win off tarmac which is good for him and he was at least until the end of last year, classed as a tarmac driver. Also the xsara's weakest surface is snow/gravel apparently so the signs are good for the year. Hopefully he can take the drivers championship as well this year.
I remember back to 98 or 99 when citroen entered the then front wheel drive xsara kit car in the san remo rally. It came from the french national series and was down on power to the 4wd wrc's but won the rally much to the main teams total disgust

This success was probably what guaranteed them the budget for a wrc attempt

Kowalski · Unread post by **Kowalski** » 10 Feb 2004, 15:55

It won back then because the 2wd drive cars were allowed more power (less air intake restriction) than the 4wds to make up for their lack of traction on poor surfaces. On Tarmac they were just a little bit quicker than the 4wds...

VisaGTi16v · Unread post by **VisaGTi16v** » 10 Feb 2004, 16:37

nah, the 2wd's were 280bhp compared to the 300bhp of the wrc 4wd's. The 4wds also had more torque due to being turbo charged. However the 2wd's were far lighter so therefore quicker and on tarmac 4wd is nowhere near as great a benefit as on loose surfaces