ixo-MODELS
Rally Cars Modern Series
RAM210 – CITROEN Xsara WRC No 1
Rally Monte Carlo 2006
Car #1 driven by S. Loeb – D. Elena finished 2nd Place
Die Cast
1:43 Scale
Retails for $34.95
2006 Apr Schedule release, in US May 2006
Discount price is available for regular customers.
About the Rallye Monte Carlo: Automobile Club de Monaco - “Rallye De Monte-Carlo”
Since 1911, the Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo is one of the oldest and prestigious in the sport. This is the first Rallye of the year in the World Rallye Championship (WRC). Stages run through French Alps were on a top of a very difficult terrain crews need to be ready to sudden, very difficult to predict weather changes. A stage could start on dry asphalt but this can change in no time to icy road and / or heavy snow. Generally, stages are tight and twisty goes up and down on slopes of Southern Alps, but they do have very fast stretches. It gets dark early up in the mountains; and it is very trilling for fans to see bright halogen spotlights screaming into to the view.
FIA restricted rally to the Monaco harbor area (2005 and 2006 or 73rd and 74th seasons), however organizers of the Rally Monte Carlo confirmed that in 2007 the rally will return to the “mythical” stages of the French region of Ardeche after FIA gave exemption to the Principality.
The 74rd Rally Monte Carlo took place in Monaco on 19 – 22 January, 2006. Rally Surface – Asphalt. In my best knowledge it were twentyseven entries and fifteen cars finished the race. The winner of the race was FORD Focus RS WRC No 3 driven by Gronholm Rautiainen Loeb – Elena team took 2nd place with time 4h 12m 45.7s losing 1m 2 s to the winning team.
CITROEN Xsara WRC.
In 2003 Citroen debuted the Xsara with its full WRC season, though the first WRC event for the car was in Spain 2001 and the first WRC win was at Rally Corsica 2002. The Citroen took the Manufacturers Championship with its drivers Sebastian Loeb finished 2nd and Carlos Sainz 3rd. The Xsara has dominated the 2003 World Rally Championship. In half-way through the season had a lead over the previous year’s Champion Subaru.
4 WD Xsara: Engine – Front-Transverse 4 in line 16 valves 2 overhead Camshaft 1998 cc (3370 if turbocharged) with max power 300 bhp @ 5500 rpm, max torgue 53@4000 rpm (kg/m); Transmission 6 speed sequential; Suspension – Front and Rear MacPherson (Extremetech). Dimensions in mm/inch L 4167/164.06, W 1770/69.7, H 1390/54.7, Wheelbase 2555/100.6,
By now (April 2006) Xsara has 27 wins at WRC including 2003, 2004 and 2005 Rally Monte Carlo, all these three wins belong to S. Loeb.
ABOUT THE MODEL MAKER
ixo-MODELS are made in China by SONIC INTERNATIONAL (TOYS) LIMITED.
Packaging is attractive, a model attached w/a screw to a black plastic display case base w/ the model name printed on it, has a clear acrylic top, display packed in a carton sleeve.
The brand is on a market just for a few years. However, 1/43 scale die cast car models collectors familiar with high quality models that were on a market for several years in the lines of Vitesse Group (Skid, Onyx, many models from Vitesse and 2-Wheels, 1/24 scale motorcycles) were made by the same people that now works at IXO.
You can find numerous models released under the IXO badge that were previously released in Vitesse Group lines. New castings (models) and previously released models of sport and rally cars in new liveries are issued on the regular basis.
The current IXO product list consist of 10 collections: Modern Rally Cars, Classic Rally Cars, Modern LeMans and GT Cars, Classic LeMans and GT Cars, Modern Road Cars, Classic Road Cars, MotorBikes (1/24 Scale), Ferrari Collection and the latest one ixomodels Junior.
As a collector I can say it is a good product indeed. Models are very high quality that is very competitive to Minichamps 1:43 scale models; but the price is much more affordable. It is especially noticeable with sport and rally cars.
It appears that IXO issued their models on the Limited Run basis. You probably know what it means but if you don’t it is simple. Recently it became a common practice with high quality model-makers. Relatively small number of models released on a market at a time. The company will release a new quantity of the same model only when a demand for a model will be strong again. As a result not all models from a company catalogue are available on a market all the time. It means if you want a model get it as soon as you can, otherwise you don’t know when and if the model will be available on a market again. In addition it is very unlikely that the model will be made in the same appearance, color and / or livery probably will be different if the model (tooling) will be run again.
