Touring Car discussion - WTCC, BTCC etcTouring Cars

[Furinkazen]

Lada withdraw from WTCC @ Monza after this unlucky but epic practise accident.

 

[Diehardracer]

My first full weekend watching the WTCC. Thanks to Eurosport Player. The £2.99 subscription was money well spent if I can do this all season. I watched it all. Free Practice, Qualification, Warm-up and both races.

Exciting from start to finish. Glad RML did well. But I do think as the season pans out we will see more teams shine as we go to tracks that are more beneficial to cars like the beemers, Leon and the Civic. I think D'Aste could be one to look out for in the Independents this year.

 

[Ardius]

Can we finally all agree now that DTM really is a GT series, not a touring car series?
http://www.touringcartimes.com/2013/03/26/dtm-starts-cooperation-with-grand-am-and-imsa/

I mean these deals effectively place it as some kind of alternative or feeder GT category. Its in a weird place at the moment.

Bizarrely, even some of the GT cars nowadays look more like their road car versions than DTM does! I really wish they'd get rid of the F1-style aerodynamic ridiculous-ness going on.

That said, there aren't a great deal of major touring car series left. Is anyone else following the mess that is Swedish/Scandanavian touring cars at the moment?

 

[raceorama123432]

Bizarrely, even some of the GT cars nowadays look more like their road car versions than DTM does! I really wish they'd get rid of the F1-style aerodynamic ridiculous-ness going on.

👍

 

[Prince.M5]

So I watched both races of WTCC in Monza. Well, they were fine. I already had a thought of Yvan getting away with a world title unchallenged and then this came into the news.

Seriously though, with the superiority of the Chevrolet Cruze, Yvan might just be getting away with a title even before the end of the season being absolutely unchallenged. I mean, I know it's still too early but it seems to be like it. We all know how the Chevy is. I guess Chevrolet factory team pulling out doesn't really change anything.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

The honda's seems pretty quick also, but they had too much wheel spin on rainy track according to the commentator. Let's wait and see until the first dry week-end for wtcc to see if that cruze is really the best car.

I admit it's gonna be hard to beat the duo Cruze-Muller tho.

 

[paulmac2k9]

Dudukalos massive muck up has cost him his seat..

http://www.touringcartimes.com/2013/03/29/mikhail-koslovskiy-replaces-dudukalo-at-lada/

 

[Prince.M5]

Dudukalos massive muck up has cost him his seat..

We saw it coming already. I guess LUKOIL was mad enough and decided to drop him off.. Poor Dudukalo though.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

This may be the most awesome thing ever - Stefano D'Aste's racing suit:

http://cdn.fiawtcc.com/uploads/phot...s/driver_images/2013_wtcc_driver_26_daste.jpg

It's big, so I'll leave it as a raw URL for now.

 

[Prince.M5]

It looks cool! He already had that since last year actually

 

[paulmac2k9]

I liked his special US one.

 

[raceorama123432]

I liked his special US one.

👍 What a legend

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Nice qualification in Marocco, Tarquini got the pole which is really cool.

There's one thing I failed to understand tho, most drivers where cutting a corner badly and there was no penalty. I didnt understood why, anyone knows ?

Edit : adding the actual grid for tomorrow first race :

1. Gabriele Tarquini Honda 1m44.358s
2. James Nash Bamboo Chevrolet 1m44.406s + 0.048s
3. Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet 1m44.504s + 0.146s
4. Michel Nykjaer NIKA Chevrolet 1m44.745s + 0.387s
5. Tom Chilton RML Chevrolet 1m44.863s + 0.505s
6. Alex MacDowall Bamboo Chevrolet 1m45.060s + 0.702s
7. Rob Huff Munnich SEAT 1m45.228s + 0.870s
8. Marc Basseng Munnich SEAT 1m45.552s + 1.194s
9. Pepe Oriola Tuenti SEAT 1m46.341s + 1.983s
10. Fernando Monje Campos SEAT 1m55.405s + 11.047s
11. James Thompson Lada No time
12. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW No time
13. Darryl O'Young ROAL BMW 1m46.327s (Q1)
14. Tiago Monteiro Honda 1m46.396s (Q1)
15. Fredy Barth Wiechers BMW 1m46.412s (Q1)
16. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 1m46.494s (Q1)
17. Norbert Michelisz Zengo Honda 1m46.629s (Q1)
18. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 1m46.660s (Q1)
19. Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT 1m46.713s (Q1)
20. Charles Ng Engstler BMW 1m47.140s (Q1)
21. Stefano D'Aste PB BMW 1m47.390s (Q1)
22. Mikhail Kozlovskiy Lada 1m47.598s (Q1)
23. Rene Munnich Munnich SEAT 1m49.222s (Q1)

1 Honda against 5 chevrolet <.< Come on FIA make something about it, give more boost to BMW and SEAT at least.

 

[Prince.M5]

There's nothing much that teams with BMW could do. It's an old car with no longer any factory support. When a Lada is faster than a BMW, sounds like the end

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

Tarquini has had a big crash at the Hungaroring, got out of the car but has been put in a neck brace, Franz Engstler also took a lot of damage but looks to be ok.

 

[Prince.M5]

Massive for Tarquini indeed. How did Michelisz got away was just unbelievable... Shame that the BMW really had the pace, but lack of straight line speed is such a let down.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Argentina's Termas di Rio Hondo will replace Curitiba on the 2013 WTCC calendar:

www.fiawtcc.com/news/detail/id/1041/t/WTCC-TO-VISIT-ARGENTINA-FOR-THE-FIRST-TIME

Three Argentine drivers - including the notorious Jose Maria Lopez - are expected to compete there.

 

[MatskiMonk]

There's nothing much that teams with BMW could do. It's an old car with no longer any factory support. When a Lada is faster than a BMW, sounds like the end

This article probably indicates a line is about to be drawn under BMW's participation at all.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107886

"I just can't see how we can get a powertrain together for the new regulations, which still aren't even set," Marquardt told AUTOSPORT. "They're talking about 400bhp. That's impossible for us.

"We didn't do a Global Race Engine. Our TC engine was done on a 1.6-litre production block, and that's where our limitation is.

"We're already at the limit of performance on it and I've been told the FIA is targeting performance beyond what we can reach.

 

[Ardius]

The thing is, its not like BMW don't want to compete, they just don't seem so hot on the new regulations. I found it surprising they've got a bit more involved (seemingly giving a bit of support that is) with WSR in the BTCC although of course that is down to their BMW UK division.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Well, the DTM is much more relevant to them than the WTCC. And the BTCC is a much stronger series, so it makes sense to support entries there. If the WTCC were to end tomorrow, I don't think too many people would care that much (expect maybe the competitors).

 

[MatskiMonk]

Well, the DTM is much more relevant to them than the WTCC.

Well, traditionally their way of thinking has been international, production based championships, which didn't really leave many to choose from. On the face of it DTM doesn't really follow that idea, although it's very difficult to find out what exactly the manufacturers do and don't build/develop themselves it's considered a spec/silhouette series - not production based at all, and it's obviously a Deutshceland-centric series.

However with DTM now racing in more european countries, the tie-up in regs with Japanese Super GT, and the plans for US 'DTM', it will become a much more international series. In short BMW are playing the long game on this one.

And the BTCC is a much stronger series, so it makes sense to support entries there. If the WTCC were to end tomorrow, I don't think too many people would care that much (expect maybe the competitors).

This is probably true also, however it will only ever be by way of sponsorship, there is simply no point in BMW motorsport developing their own NGTC engine for use in one series. NGTC has obviously perked up the BTCC, but in general touring car racing around the world has suffered a bit with S2000 being dropped in my opinion. The WTCC has gotten pretty dire of late, I won't be watching it next year if all the E90 chassis' are retired.

 

[Clark]

I've only been watching the WTCC for Thommo and Coronel as he's pretty good in the BMW. Other than that its just always the fastest guys being arses and bashing their way through.

 

[ASH32]

I've only been watching the WTCC for Thommo and Coronel as he's pretty good in the BMW. Other than that its just always the fastest guys being arses and bashing their way through.

When has Muller ever done anything else. I barely watch WTCC too these days, it's a shame it's not better than it is really.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I guess ROAL will step up their GT and italian V8 programs if they retire from WTCC.. I can't see Ravaglia moving to a different manufacturer in the WTCC.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Citroen to join WTCC from 2014, driver lineup spearheaded by Sebastien Loeb:
http://www.racedepartment.com/2013/06/wtcc-citroen-racing-joins-the-2014-season-with-sebastien-loeb/

 

[RACECAR]

Is it just me or is PSA hell bent on taking over Motorsports with Sebastian Loeb?

 

[TheCracker]

At least it proves there's life in the old horse yet (WTCC not Loeb)

Now they need to stop running at all those long, wide circuits they currently run at, which are totally unsuited to running small engined tin-tops, then people may start finding interest in it again.

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

Citroen to join WTCC from 2014, driver lineup spearheaded by Sebastien Loeb:
http://www.racedepartment.com/2013/06/wtcc-citroen-racing-joins-the-2014-season-with-sebastien-loeb/

I reckon Alain Menu will be his teammate, he has already tested their DS3 WRC-WTCC conversion.

 

[Ardius]

I wonder how Loeb will handle the panel-bashing of touring cars? Everything he's raced so far has been relatively sedate in terms of going toe-to-toe with competitors. Even in GT, while there is quite a bit of contact, there is nothing like an Yvan Muller.
Half of the fight in touring cars is simply knowing how to survive contact, let alone actually race on pace with the front.

 

[Clark]

As if that just happened to Franz Engstler again...