Wednesday 26th February 2014

BTCC welcomes back Mercedes-Benz

A-Class will be the first Merc BTCC racer since the 80s

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It's over 30 years since Mercedes was last in British touring cars, and this year will see its return with an A-Class racer. Kind of.

See under the skin of this bewinged A-Class are the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) underpinnings used in a Toyota Avensis last year. Ciceley Motorsport ran the Toyota and will now campaign the Mercedes. So it may not be that much different, but a new shape is welcome at least. Dare we say a C-Class may look better?

Anyway, the A-Class will be driven by Adam Morgan and adorned with Wix filters graphics owing to Ciceley's partnership with Wix Racing. It is the fourteenth different models confirmed for the season opener at Brands Hatch. Looks like PH has got a good season to be involved...

[Source: Autocar]

[Tonto]

Hope it goes well as it looks

[Welshman Adam]

So it's a kit car?

[Chris Eyre]

14 "different" cars confirmed for the BTCC season.

But, drivetrain format notwithstanding, ALL identical underneath ;-)

[gowmonster]

they are all essentially kit cars in the NGTC and iirc all entrants are NGTC this year.

edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Touri...

They will probably end up just having shells like in nascar, with the front end look painted on

Edited by gowmonster on Wednesday 26th February 12:41

[Roma101]

The more the merrier. 1er vs A Class battles should be good.

[Munter]

gowmonster said:

they are all essentially kit cars in the NGTC and iirc all entrants are NGTC this year.

I think it's something like this.

Take 1 car bodyshell of appropriate size.
Chop off everything in front of the firewall.
Chop out the rear floorpan.
Throw the engine, drivetrain, interior, wings, bumpers and possibly bonnet away.
Install NGTC roll cage/spaceframe.
Install front and rear NGTC subframes.
Install NGTC engine, which doesn't have to match the body manufacturer. Any NGTC engine will do.
Install NGTC drivetrain.
Install stylised/aero optimised wings, bonnet, and bumpers.

Feel poor.

Race.

[Chris Eyre]

Summarises it well!

So let's not ever hear a PR man even begin to suggest that what they get out of racing, they put into the road cars!

[renaultgeek]

I don't know why they don't just use real cars.

[AngryPartsBloke]

renaultgeek said:

I don't know why they don't just use real cars.

Cost?

Alot of money to devlope a car.

[HorneyMX5]

renaultgeek said:

I don't know why they don't just use real cars.

Because it's much more expensive to develop a race car from scratch. This way there's a reasonably level playing feild in respect of performance and budget. All you can really spend your money on is set up and experienced staff, maybe a bit of aero.

[renaultgeek]

they should use the road car as a starting point, no?

[soxboy]

Pedantic point but Mercedes weren't in the BTCC, just in its predecessor the British Saloon Car Championship. Raced a 190e 2.3-16.

[Centurion07]

renaultgeek said:

they should use the road car as a starting point, no?

That's the point Horney is making. It's far more expensive to develop the road car, from scratch, into a race car than this way which sees a lot of that race development already done.

It does make it very artificial though.

[Munter]

renaultgeek said:

they should use the road car as a starting point, no?

They do. Step 1 is start with a road car. Then add the spec parts that keep costs down.

Otherwise they all end up redeveloping the same sort of parts independently, for massive costs and in the end none of the cars anything except the shell in common with a road car. Might as well make that official, keep the costs down, and have bigger grids.

[hondansx]

I'm fine with that if it means the grids are a healthy size. However, last season was a bit too clubman for my liking. Would like to see WTCC end and bring the manufacturers back here. Aren't we the biggest market for hot hatches?

[Munter]

hondansx said:

I'm fine with that if it means the grids are a healthy size. However, last season was a bit too clubman for my liking. Would like to see WTCC end and bring the manufacturers back here. Aren't we the biggest market for hot hatches?

This year is full grids, and no swapping drivers about without a death certificate pretty much. Also with drivers like Menu and Giovanardi, returning and teams like United Autosports (of GT racing fame), I don't think we'll be able to call it clubman this year.

[Blackpuddin]

The thing that makes me uneasy about the NGTC format is that manufacturers only enter race series to sell cars. Which is this case are not at all related to what the punters are seeing on the track, other than visually. Which seems a bit dishonest.

[HorneyMX5]

Blackpuddin said:

The thing that makes me uneasy about the NGTC format is that manufacturers only enter race series to sell cars. Which is this case are not at all related to what the punters are seeing on the track, other than visually. Which seems a bit dishonest.

Have you watched any DTM?

The win on sunday, sell on monday mantra died a long time ago, it doesn't even really work outside the UK anymore either. The western car customer is all about mpgs and co2s while the new economy custoemr is all about rear legroom and acres of chrome. Major mainstream manufacturers only get into motorsport for technical advancement these days as the marketing value is much much lower than it used to be. Beside which, most casual viewers will not understand NGTC regs and will just see a Civic Vs an MG.

[Blackpuddin]

HorneyMX5 said:

Blackpuddin said:

The thing that makes me uneasy about the NGTC format is that manufacturers only enter race series to sell cars. Which is this case are not at all related to what the punters are seeing on the track, other than visually. Which seems a bit dishonest.

Have you watched any DTM?

The win on sunday, sell on monday mantra died a long time ago, it doesn't even really work outside the UK anymore either. The western car customer is all about mpgs and co2s while the new economy custoemr is all about rear legroom and acres of chrome. Major mainstream manufacturers only get into motorsport for technical advancement these days as the marketing value is much much lower than it used to be. Beside which, most casual viewers will not understand NGTC regs and will just see a Civic Vs an MG.

Not sure how much tech development they'll be able to apply to their road cars, which ultimately is what manufacturers are in the car business to make. The casual viewer's lack of comprehension is the dishonesty I was referring to.

[TheDeadPrussian]

I could not be less interested in this if I tried.

GT racing is where it’s at for me. At least the cars are the manufacturer’s cars and not ‘shells’ containing the same engines and drive trains…I understand the cost imperative, but since when has motorsport ever been about value for money!

More fun to be had watching British GT and the various tip-tops and one make series - at least in the one make series they're honest in their approach and not trying to 'fool' anyone in to thinking they are watching 'different' cars battle it out on track.