BTCC 2013

[MG CHRIS]

So nearly the end of the 2012 season and a couple of rummors and news around for the 2013 season.

Calander been reliesed

Rnd Date Circuit
1. 30-31 March Brands Hatch Indy
2. 20-21 April Donington Park
3. 4-5 May Thruxton
4. 8-9 June Oulton Park
5. 22-23 June Croft
6. 3-4 August Snetterton
7. 24-25 August Knockhill
8. 14-15 September Rockingham
9. 28-29 September Silverstone
10. 12-13 October Brands Hatch Grand Prix

So some news circulating

MG looking to expand to 4 cars if it be like honda with pirtek or 4 cars under one team tom ingram might be a mg driver with being under the banner of plato's scheme.

No news on honda or pirtek but would be a hugh surprise to see them leave.

Motorbase with one ngtc focus looking to expand to 2 ngtc focuses for mat jackson and possible aron smith.

WSR hinted at ngtc bmw for a while selling of there s2000 cars.

Speedworks/ dynojet again no word yet but surprised if they are not on the grid.

RAR looks uncertain been a lot of problems this year with budget hope to have both back out next year.

Welch automotive looks to be back in 1-2 ngtc protons

AMD tunning selling the golf wants to be back with a ngtc car.

Team hard looking at several ngtc cars no word yet on what car

Btc racing will be back with ex rml ngtc chevrolet cruze for chris stockton.

Thorney looking at selling the insgnia to different teams have 4 teams intrested it could fund building more however i don't think that will happen.

Rummors of seat coming back aswel.

Might have missed things out but can't remember anything else.

Next year will be full ngtc with if enough cars a seperate s2000 class just like the old btc car.

[btcc123]

It will be very interesting at Media day in 2013 to see what teams are completing and in which cars.

My main concern is that alot of teams that run the S2000 cars want to run NGTC next year and the prices I have heard to buy a car Like a MG,Honda or Focus is mega expensive and to buy and run two cars could cost £1 million pounds plus.

Due to the cost I can see a possibility of a two tier championship.

The NGTC cars: Two MGs,Four Hondas,Three Focus,Three BMWs and a few teams with one car.

There is not alot of sponsorship money around at the moment and if you want to be driving in the BTCC although you will not be at the front of the pack would you buy a S2000 Vectra,Honda,Focus or BMW with a turbo engine for between 50k and 80k or have an NGTC car at 350k.

[LiamM45]

Will Dave Newsham be stepping up into an NGTC car?

Hope RAR will be out next season and I will happily sponsor the roof for the odd round when funds allow!!

Going to be a fantastic season, tipping the Fords to do well, maybe if they can get another driver in at Matt Jackson's level? Don't think Aron Smith has a race win in him yet, I think Griffin is only there to bump up the budget

[btcc123]

I think Dave Newsham has the ability to be in the Motorbase team with the Focus or WSR in the BMM?.He will probably need a bigger budget next yeay or possibly driving for a big team you perhaps do not need a massive budget as they have a big main sponsor such as Ebay etc.

[rdjohn]

What happens to the BMWs with NGTC rules?

[btcc123]

I would think that WSR team will make a full NGTC BMW or a different car.The S20000 BMW that they ran this year will be probably sold off but can be still used next yeay.

[Vocal Minority]

Those 3 series' are getting seriously long in the tooth now, so despite them being comeptitive on and off, I would expect an outfit like West Surrey will want to be on the NGTC train.

Edited by Vocal Minority on Friday 12th October 10:36

[rdjohn]

Don't NGTC have to be FWD? Surely, that would be totally at odds with BMWs USP.

Is it likely that WSR will need to use a BMW Mini platform? I notice that their WRC effort ended today.

[designndrive62]

rdjohn said:

Don't NGTC have to be FWD? Surely, that would be totally at odds with BMWs USP.

Is it likely that WSR will need to use a BMW Mini platform? I notice that their WRC effort ended today.

Rob Austins Audis are rear wheel drive, mainly due to exploiting a loophole in the rules i think seeing as they are 4 wheel drive in the real world so they got to pick the system they wanted as 4wd is banned. so BMWs would be fine

[SmoothCriminal]

rdjohn said:

Don't NGTC have to be FWD? Surely, that would be totally at odds with BMWs USP.

Is it likely that WSR will need to use a BMW Mini platform? I notice that their WRC effort ended today.

Audi is ngtc and rwd isn't it?

[Vocal Minority]

rdjohn said:

Don't NGTC have to be FWD? Surely, that would be totally at odds with BMWs USP.

Is it likely that WSR will need to use a BMW Mini platform? I notice that their WRC effort ended today.

That's been a sad story and no mistake....

In fairness, a mini of some description would fit in better with the general profile of cars being entered. Eg. Civics, MG6 and Foci - though I guess there are really a size down, rather than a size up like the 3 series (though the same price bracket...go figure)

[F1GTRUeno]

designndrive62 said:

Rob Austins Audis are rear wheel drive, mainly due to exploiting a loophole in the rules i think seeing as they are 4 wheel drive in the real world so they got to pick the system they wanted as 4wd is banned. so BMWs would be fine

Seem to remember the Mondeos that Rouse built in the early Super Tourer days did the same thing when they found out the 4x4 version wasn't quick enough?

Is it next year when we get rid of the likes of the Vectra/Golf Mk.5/other old cars that aren't on sale anymore?

[btcc123]

BTCC cars have to be a minimum length so the Mini would be too small.The NGTC Honda is also too small and should not be allowed in the championship but were allowed in after talking to Alan Gow nicely.

S2000 cars such as the Vectra,BMW,Golf,old Honda Civic etc are allowed in the BTCC next year but will not be given parity so will have lower turbo boost levels than the NGTC cars.

[Allyc85]

Formula Ford will be one of the support races next year.

http://www.btcc.net/html/generalnews_detail.php?id...

Looking forward to seeing it at Thruxton as you aleays get great slipstream batttles there!

[IainW]

designndrive62 said:

Rob Austins Audis are rear wheel drive, mainly due to exploiting a loophole in the rules i think seeing as they are 4 wheel drive in the real world so they got to pick the system they wanted as 4wd is banned. so BMWs would be fine

All down to the NGTC kit not being suitable for a front wheel drive longintudinal engined car, it's only suitable for rear wheel drive. So they were allowed to run the Audi in that configuration. It was supposed to be front wheel drive only ruleset, until the BMW teams objected to it and they made allowances for them.

F1GTRUeno said:

Seem to remember the Mondeos that Rouse built in the early Super Tourer days did the same thing when they found out the 4x4 version wasn't quick enough?

That's right, the original 93 Mondeo was supposed to be RWD, but it wasn't competitive in testing. Vauxhall also tried it in 1990, running a car in FWD, RWD and 4WD configurations, before settling with FWD, despite John Cleland raving about the RWD handling.

[MG CHRIS]

IainW said:

designndrive62 said:

Rob Austins Audis are rear wheel drive, mainly due to exploiting a loophole in the rules i think seeing as they are 4 wheel drive in the real world so they got to pick the system they wanted as 4wd is banned. so BMWs would be fine

All down to the NGTC kit not being suitable for a front wheel drive longintudinal engined car, it's only suitable for rear wheel drive. So they were allowed to run the Audi in that configuration. It was supposed to be front wheel drive only ruleset, until the BMW teams objected to it and they made allowances for them.

F1GTRUeno said:

Seem to remember the Mondeos that Rouse built in the early Super Tourer days did the same thing when they found out the 4x4 version wasn't quick enough?

That's right, the original 93 Mondeo was supposed to be RWD, but it wasn't competitive in testing. Vauxhall also tried it in 1990, running a car in FWD, RWD and 4WD configurations, before settling with FWD, despite John Cleland raving about the RWD handling.

Was just about to say that.

2 teams i forgot es racing are looking at ngtc cars and lea wood aswel could be another honda civic.

[btcc123]

The only reason that the Audi is rear wheel drive is that Rob Austin hates front wheel drive but loves rear wheel drive.

Apparantly he wanted some help from Audi in Germany regarding his car and they said "we dont make a rear wheel drive Audi A4 so we cannot help you"

I would have thought that the NGTC components that all teams have to use is designed for a front wheel drive car as the original development car was the Toyota Avensis and most of othe NGTC cars are front wheel drive.

[MG CHRIS]

btcc123 said:

The only reason that the Audi is rear wheel drive is that Rob Austin hates front wheel drive but loves rear wheel drive.

Apparantly he wanted some help from Audi in Germany regarding his car and they said "we dont make a rear wheel drive Audi A4 so we cannot help you"

I would have thought that the NGTC components that all teams have to use is designed for a front wheel drive car as the original development car was the Toyota Avensis and most of othe NGTC cars are front wheel drive.

No because there are only 2 types of gearboxs allowed fwd with a transverse engine ( side to side ) or rwd box with a longitudenal engine ( front-rear ) with the audi its either fwd or 4wd and as the engine is mounted longitudenealy instead of creating a new gearbox toca allowed it to be rwd not because rob hates fwd. At the time toca needed all the ngtc cars it could get so if it didn't allow the audi then it wouldn't of looked good.

Also formula ford will be on the support package next year aswel but with wings and slicks hope the racing will be better than the formula renaults.

Edited by MG CHRIS on Friday 12th October 20:03

[IainW]

MG CHRIS said:

No because there are only 2 types of gearboxs allowed fwd with a transverse engine ( side to side ) or rwd box with a longitudenal engine ( front-rear ) with the audi its either fwd or 4wd and as the engine is mounted longitudenealy instead of creating a new gearbox toca allowed it to be rwd not because rob hates fwd. At the time toca needed all the ngtc cars it could get so if it didn't allow the audi then it wouldn't of looked good.

Indeed. Also why Welch Motorsport didn't go ahead with their Seat Exeo last year and switched to the Proton. Old-shape A4, same layout, same problem.

[Fonz]

MG CHRIS said:

Also formula ford will be on the support package next year aswel but with wings and slicks hope the racing will be better than the formula renaults.

Edited by MG CHRIS on Friday 12th October 20:03

FF does not have wings, one of the reasons that the racing is usually so good. I can't wait.