RE: Loeb WTCC teaser: Time For Tea?
Friday 9th August 2013
After seemingly failing to notice it had one of the best all-round racing drivers in a generation on its payroll for the last decade Citroen is belatedly capitalising on the Loeb effect and hyping his forthcoming WTCC entry heavily indeed.
Loeb WTCC teaser: Time For Tea?
Citroen gears up for its WTCC debut as Loeb drives the new touring car racer on film
A game in which we'll happily be complicit in this instance, even if this video of Loeb shaking down his C-Elysee WTCC at Paul Ricard spends rather too much time on the contrived build-up and not enough on the car itself. And, while we're here, Loeb's coolness may be weapons grade but even he's treading a fine line with that DS3 Cabrio and lurid green Oakleys combo. Maybe the Aventador was in for a service or something.
And the race car? Certainly sounds good and Loeb looks comfortable enough at the wheel. But seeing as it takes much from his DS3 WRC car that's probably not a huge surprise. Will his participation raise the profile of the series here too? It took a decade to get around to it but Citroen's going the right way about making that happen.
Discussion
Citroen have gone nuts in motorsport terms for many years now and yet you don't see people really saying "I must have a Citroen" for it's driving capabities do you?
Peugeot rallied and sold the 205/309/405 GTi/Mi off the back of it
Lancia rallied and sold the Delta and - erm - not much else
Volvo did TCs and sold a lot of fast estates
Ford race and rally to add kudos to their RS and ST models
Audi do Le Mans to piss-off EVERYONE IN THE WORLD
Citroen do this and - sell a large range of competent but bland cars to families and young people and about 4 very expensive DS3 'lurid paintjobs' to nutters...
Hmmm
Peugeot rallied and sold the 205/309/405 GTi/Mi off the back of it
Lancia rallied and sold the Delta and - erm - not much else
Volvo did TCs and sold a lot of fast estates
Ford race and rally to add kudos to their RS and ST models
Audi do Le Mans to piss-off EVERYONE IN THE WORLD
Citroen do this and - sell a large range of competent but bland cars to families and young people and about 4 very expensive DS3 'lurid paintjobs' to nutters...
Hmmm
Selling a few motorsport inspired cars to a niche specialist group of petrolheads generally makes a loss for a company.
These days its all about Publicity and brand loyalty.
Look at the model of car, its a C4 saloon that you cant buy in the UK.....Because this is designed for the Asian and eastern euro market, China in particular.
Our UK & Euro markets are saturated with cars and filled with people who take a broad brush outdated view to brands.
In China Citroen is seen in a higher brand status than Peugeot or Toyota for example because they didnt suffer the old citroen models and only know the DS range and newer stuff.
Anyway, we need to face the fact that motorsport is more about advertising and brands than it is about buying a sports car thats inspired by motorsport wins.
Its a shame, but its true.
The Peugeot RCZ-R is the closest thing at the moment with 276hp, same engine as the DS3R
These days its all about Publicity and brand loyalty.
Look at the model of car, its a C4 saloon that you cant buy in the UK.....Because this is designed for the Asian and eastern euro market, China in particular.
Our UK & Euro markets are saturated with cars and filled with people who take a broad brush outdated view to brands.
In China Citroen is seen in a higher brand status than Peugeot or Toyota for example because they didnt suffer the old citroen models and only know the DS range and newer stuff.
Anyway, we need to face the fact that motorsport is more about advertising and brands than it is about buying a sports car thats inspired by motorsport wins.
Its a shame, but its true.
The Peugeot RCZ-R is the closest thing at the moment with 276hp, same engine as the DS3R
I really hope Citroen don't raise their profile too much. My daily drive is a 2011 C4 2.0 HDI exclusive and I couldn't ask for more from a commuter car.
Different enough to the gazillion focii & Astras and almost half price bought at 8k miles and 12 mths old...that kind of steal will be gone once they really start selling.
As my best mate says, it's the car I've complained about the least in my 46 car history (im 39) so it must be doing its job.
Unexciting yes, but well built ,reliable, economical, quiet, laden with kit and yes, different from the herd.
Cheap enough to have nice 2nd cars too!
Different enough to the gazillion focii & Astras and almost half price bought at 8k miles and 12 mths old...that kind of steal will be gone once they really start selling.
As my best mate says, it's the car I've complained about the least in my 46 car history (im 39) so it must be doing its job.
Unexciting yes, but well built ,reliable, economical, quiet, laden with kit and yes, different from the herd.
Cheap enough to have nice 2nd cars too!
tombstone said:
new version of 'Taxi' coming up.....?
Make a cracking replacement for a 406!
Took the words out of my mouth. Make a cracking replacement for a 406!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqhjyws5QpI
LancerG said:
Selling a few motorsport inspired cars to a niche specialist group of petrolheads generally makes a loss for a company.
I could not disagree more and especially coming from a guy with Lancer in his user name i am surprised.I would say some manufacturers have thrived off the back of their motorsport success only imho, Lancia and Subaru for example. Others have sold huge numbers of halo cars due to their on track wins, 205's, Evos etc
If Citreon had jumped on the success of Loebs incredible wins with them i am sure they would have sold a fair few halo cars, even if it was mainly to the French.
RX7 said:
I could not disagree more and especially coming from a guy with Lancer in his user name i am surprised.
I would say some manufacturers have thrived off the back of their motorsport success only imho, Lancia and Subaru for example. Others have sold huge numbers of halo cars due to their on track wins, 205's, Evos etc
If Citreon had jumped on the success of Loebs incredible wins with them i am sure they would have sold a fair few halo cars, even if it was mainly to the French.
I can quote alot more than 2 companies that have failed to make the grade. The motorsport heritage does count, but the car also has to be great. The Integrale & the scooby were both good cars full stop, the rally pedigree just gave them publicity.I would say some manufacturers have thrived off the back of their motorsport success only imho, Lancia and Subaru for example. Others have sold huge numbers of halo cars due to their on track wins, 205's, Evos etc
If Citreon had jumped on the success of Loebs incredible wins with them i am sure they would have sold a fair few halo cars, even if it was mainly to the French.
405dogvan said:
Citroen have gone nuts in motorsport terms for many years now and yet you don't see people really saying "I must have a Citroen" for it's driving capabities do you?
Peugeot rallied and sold the 205/309/405 GTi/Mi off the back of it
Lancia rallied and sold the Delta and - erm - not much else
Volvo did TCs and sold a lot of fast estates
Ford race and rally to add kudos to their RS and ST models
Audi do Le Mans to piss-off EVERYONE IN THE WORLD
Citroen do this and - sell a large range of competent but bland cars to families and young people and about 4 very expensive DS3 'lurid paintjobs' to nutters...
Hmmm
Couldn't agree more I have never understood why Citroen never cashed in with a storming performance hatch with so much rallying success. Chances missed I feel. Someone at Citroen should be shot for missing this opportunity.Peugeot rallied and sold the 205/309/405 GTi/Mi off the back of it
Lancia rallied and sold the Delta and - erm - not much else
Volvo did TCs and sold a lot of fast estates
Ford race and rally to add kudos to their RS and ST models
Audi do Le Mans to piss-off EVERYONE IN THE WORLD
Citroen do this and - sell a large range of competent but bland cars to families and young people and about 4 very expensive DS3 'lurid paintjobs' to nutters...
Hmmm
loader said:
Couldn't agree more I have never understood why Citroen never cashed in with a storming performance hatch with so much rallying success. Chances missed I feel. Someone at Citroen should be shot for missing this opportunity.
I think they do try to cash in on it, with their VTS models (Saxo, C4), and the DS3 racing thingies, which are "as close as" to the rally cars they use as you can get in my opinion, but the thing with Citroen is that it'll always struggle a lot from the "it's a French car" stigma...PascalBuyens said:
I think they do try to cash in on it, with their VTS models (Saxo, C4), and the DS3 racing thingies, which are "as close as" to the rally cars they use as you can get in my opinion, but the thing with Citroen is that it'll always struggle a lot from the "it's a French car" stigma...
Renaultsport seem to do ok If Citroen are to succeed, the halo (road) car needs to be a fire breathing monster. Like the Impreza was for Subaru and they should have an iteration strategy to release madder and madder versions through its lifecycle. Who cares how many they sell, as long as it gets the headlines and raises their image to a builder of awesome cars.
patmahe said:
Renaultsport seem to do ok
If Citroen are to succeed, the halo (road) car needs to be a fire breathing monster. Like the Impreza was for Subaru and they should have an iteration strategy to release madder and madder versions through its lifecycle. Who cares how many they sell, as long as it gets the headlines and raises their image to a builder of awesome cars.
Only problem is that Subaru sell almost no cars now so the Impreza was a disastrous halo car (although a very good car in itself). I would hazard a guess that Citroen sell many times more cars right now per year than Subaru ever did....and thats whilst they are supposedly not doing very wellIf Citroen are to succeed, the halo (road) car needs to be a fire breathing monster. Like the Impreza was for Subaru and they should have an iteration strategy to release madder and madder versions through its lifecycle. Who cares how many they sell, as long as it gets the headlines and raises their image to a builder of awesome cars.
e.g 2011 UK sales figures: Subaru 2500, Citroen 68000
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