Rendy's Car Skinning Life EP 02: The Rebirth and his Citroën

Believe it or not, my post about skinning deserved a second episode; I've reentered Trackmania Carpark forums as TheRebirth and already posted my comeback post in General section. However, this is NOT the first post I made; the first posts I made pertain to Carmania 5 Winners announcement as I am astonished that one made a Mooncraft Shiden, and I didn't have a courage to open myself that I actually am Rendy under a different name.

Nevertheless, even though my requests for Toyota Corolla WRC, Sauber C9, Porsche 911 GT1, and some others are gone so did the Lost Templates thread, it doesn't deter me. Like I said before, I've found a decent skinnable DBR9 on GTR2 thanks to WSGT mod and DBRS9 and Vantage V12 courtesy of EEC GT3 mod of the same game so I'm not all dead in skinning the Aston Martin (read: Debenhams AMR).

Entering the stage is my brand new skin WIP of mine! Fusing Citroen Xsara Kit Car and Citroen C-Elysee's WTCC livery, comes a fictional Works Trophy Car of Citroen Xsara!

While I cannot post things on Carpark forums using my modem, I thought that I can use this blog as a progress tracker alternative for my WIPs. Enter the fictional Citroën trophy car Citroën Racing Trophée Xsara RC! Using the 2009 WRC-spec body, I could integrate the livery found in Citroën's WTCC contender C-Elysee TC1 over actual Citroën Racing Trophy cars. But why Xsara you said? There's a good reason for that...

A piece of legend; based on the road-going Xsara hatchback, the car was one of the most successful cars ever to compete in the World Rally Championship. Being one of the best F2 kit cars after Peugeot 306 Maxi, the car won Rallye Catalunya and Tour de Corse in 1999 and being driven by some of the sport's big names, including the late Philippe Bugalski and Sebastien Loeb. It continued its path to glory although raced in a WRC spec as a result of F2 category's death in 2001 until it's replaced by C4 WRC in 2007, though Petter Solberg drove a 2006-spec Xsara for the majority of the 2009 season. (x)

The main answer is because Citroën Xsara is one of my favorite F2 Kit Cars ever existed in the world of rallying after Peugeot 306 Maxi. Sadly, because I don't find any 306 Maxi in works for TMUF, this pretty much replaces its existence. This is where you can resort on your second option if your first does not exist in TMUF, let alone being a WIP. So far, 3D WIPs are pretty much focused on road cars of variety types, from American muscles to JDMs (Japanese Domestic Market - read: import Japanese cars), and even European road cars are not exempt from this list even though it's not as frequent as the other two, not to mention some fictional cars. Other than that, the fact that there's a skin based on its F2 Kit Car specs driven by the late Philippe Bugalski in 2002 (by pj059) brought my desire to skin the car and appreciate it more.

You're the inspiration; the Citroën C-Elysee is Citroën Racing's first advent to the world of touring cars. At the time of this post, it dominates this year's competition. Its grey, white and red livery becomes a muse for the skin's creation.

While I understand that white, grey, and red are Citroën's dominant colors, I have to be able to find a distinctive livery that really describes Citroën best and trying to stay in the 2014 trend. Citroën Racing's WTCC contender's livery is the one that describes Citroën the best, especially seeing the fact that I also need to tribute the best men behind Citroën; you can see the late Bugalski for the car used (albeit different spec), you can see the magical Sebastien Loeb for the brand overall, and you can even see both Yvan Muller and Jose Maria Lopez for the colors.

Deviating from the SUPREME CHALLENGE theme, Trophée Xsara is a fictional one-make racing series aimed for advance-level drivers and entry-level ones alike. What makes it unique is that Trophée Xsara has Rally rounds, Rallycross rounds and circuit rounds, making it a multi-disciplinary series. Thanks to the fact that its performances on tarmac and on gravel are balanced, this car GOES with everything, and marginally beats the crap out from the R-class rally cars thanks to its interesting car design and brand legacy.

A big merci to Halogaland de France to make this piece of rallying legend! Even though either the templates' shading or wireframes are out of proportions, the 3D is well-modeled.

I can say that Halogaland de France has done a great job with creating this 3D model. It's a well-made model everyone must enjoy when playing TMUF. The templates are nice sweeters; there are three different templates representing different specs inside the 20 MB-zip file, and it also comes with a lining detail too. However, the only facepalm-er for the templates is that you shouldn't trust the wireframes too much as the left side is out of proportion, meaning that you should take really good care if you want to work on the other side's lining. I worked this with the 2009 WRC-spec one and I didn't know that the wireframes are misaligned after following it.

So, it's just a matter of time for TMUF enthusiasts to be able to enjoy the blast of the past, with semi-recent specifications and most-recent works colors. Who said that older-spec cars can't follow present-day trends?

Get the Xsara here for TMUF, other 2D skins are available for download! (Requires full copy of TrackMania United Forever to be able to use add-on cars)

~[R]