Thursday 20th March 2008

Seat To Race First Ever Diesel BTCC Car

Spanish firm looking for a win at Brands Hatch with diesel-powered Leon

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Seat are to become the first manufacturer ever to race a diesel-engined car in the British Touring Car Championship.

Jason Plato and Darren Turner will drive a pair of Holiday Inn supported SEAT Leon TDIs at Brands Hatch on Sunday March 30, with both cars fitted with new 270bhp turbocharged diesel race engines.

Brands Hatch was the venue for the first BTCC race back in 1958, and while the series celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, SEAT Sport UK is starting its fifth racing season.

Seat Sport UK has racked up 320 miles of uninterrupted testing at Brands Hatch earlier this week and says that the Leons performed ‘faultlessly’.

Plato said: ‘The early signs show that the Leon TDI has huge potential, and I’m looking forward to the challenge of finding out what makes it tick. ‘Technically, it’s a very exciting project to work on, as we have to relearn everything we did before with the petrol-engined Leon.

‘It really is a very different car, and the set-ups that were so successful over the last two seasons, where the Leon won 20 BTCC races, will have to be completely reworked.

‘The turbocharged TDI has plenty of torque and there is a lot more weight over the front axle, so set-up is different and I’ve had to change my driving style.

‘It’s a fun car to drive and it’s a car that can win races in the BTCC, but right now we have a lot more to learn before we find the most competitive package. ‘That said, we’ll be at Brands Hatch to try and win.’

[chrisbr68]

Was only a matter of time till this happened, I am looking forward to seeing how it compares - so long as the rules keep things fair and dont give these boys an advantage!

[dinkel]

Wasn't there a Golf Diesel racingseries a few years ago?

[fiesta86]

NO IM SURE A BMW SERIES ONE WAS THE FIRST DIESEL TO RACE IN THE BTCC, I GRANT YOU IT RAN AT THE BACK BUT IT WAS RACING

[fiesta86]

sorry to the last reply we must have written at the same time im not sure about the golf but 2007 def had a series 1 running

[Millga]

Seat are to become the first manufacturer ever to race a diesel-engined car in the British Touring Car Championship.
The BWM and Golf were privateers if i remember correctly.

[Munter]

Millga said:

Seat are to become the first manufacturer ever to race a diesel-engined car in the British Touring Car Championship.
The BWM and Golf were privateers if i remember correctly.

Yeah that was my thought as well. A clever bit of wording. There was also at one point a gas powered car. I think it was a vectra...

[dean_ratpac]

they should have a seperate series for diesels, i'm sorry le mans and other racing will be runined.
in le mans terms - even if you had an endurance race with 2 fiestas: 1 petrol, 1 diesel, which do you think would win.

pants to diesel...

[7 Sevens]

The BMW 1 series belonged to Rick Kerry, that should be more developed for this season but its not a manufacturer car.

Aren't these SEAT's the diesels that ran in the world touring car series?

[New Scot]

320 miles of testing - hardly more than my drive to work ...

[twin sparky]

Saw it at Oulton park last season ... We felt sorry for it in the end. But it kept going while others crashed out or broke down, probably only had to fill it once for the whole days racing!

[7 Sevens]

Rick's car was over weight, still had a manual gearbox and initally dropped all its boost every gear change! lets hope he can find some more pace. Although its never easy against the big teams. I do enjoy supporting the individual effort though.

[PILCH 23]

Pistonhead members please say 'No to Diesel'.

Do not support teams who race diesel! It is dirty stuff and bad for the environment in contrast to what Labour says. The engines sound awful and this is ruining Le Mans.

Take a stand!

[johnph]

PILCH 23 said:

Pistonhead members please say 'No to Diesel'.

Do not support teams who race diesel! It is dirty stuff and bad for the environment in contrast to what Labour says. The engines sound awful and this is ruining Le Mans.

Take a stand!

Diesel is perfectly fine. Fuel snobbery is highly prevalent round here.

Labour are not fans of any internal combustion engine, whatever it runs on. So long as it allows freedom of movement they'll persecute it.

Re. diesel in racing...

Touring cars: In case you haven't noticed touring cars are very close to production models, and the majority of Leons, 3-Series etc sold are 2.0l diesels. It makes perfect sense from a technologial and marketing standpoint to run diesel. However, I think the works teams should have to run one petrol and one diesel each and that the two should be rigourously equalised.

Le Mans etc: Read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Mans_24_Hours#Purp...
The whole point of Le Mans and the endurance racing upon which it was based was to develop new technology for production cars. Audi and Peugeot are merely continuing in this spirit. Regarding your comment on them 'sounding awful': They hardy make any noise, and this year Pug and Audi are entering 3 cars each in a field of 55, that still leaves 49 amazingly noisy racecars . I find the sound of the R10 and 908 suits the way they look, the same kind of sound coming from a Corvette would be unacceptable as it doesn't suit its aesthetics. Besides, the Corvettes were running cellulosic (as in non-food based) ethanol at Sebring at the weekend and they sounded as amamzing as they always have done

Edited by johnph on Thursday 20th March 15:25

[DE1boy]

COUGH COUGH CASNOGENICS MUST TAKE A FACE MASK FOR PROTECTION. WHATS WRONG WITH MORE BIO FUEL CARS TO KEEP THE GREENIES OFF OUR BACKS.

[Robinlarge]

I had cause to hunt around various support sites and forums in USA looking for (yet another) gearbox for yet another ridiculous US motor that I run, I was told that if I wanted to talk big horsepower and gearboxes then I should be talking to 'the diesel guys'
So I did.
I was thoroughly gob smacked to be honest. I had no idea diesels could do the things they do (wheel standing a 1300bhp RAM Truck)
OK - so I was at Le Mans in 2006 and the sound of the Corvettes (and Astons)was something awesome - but these diesels dont have to be surgical and quiet.
I am definately considering diesel as my next vehicle, particularly over the 1000 bhp mark

[johnph]

DE1boy said:

COUGH COUGH CASNOGENICS MUST TAKE A FACE MASK FOR PROTECTION. WHATS WRONG WITH MORE BIO FUEL CARS TO KEEP THE GREENIES OFF OUR BACKS.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_particulate_fi...

2. I'm in a city centre 30 weeks of the year where the roads are mainly filled with diesel taxis and buses, i don't have/use a face mask and have never needed to, and i'm asthmatic.

3. Biofuels have lot of potential, especially when made like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel, however they are not in widespread use yet, diesel is in widespread use.

4. The diesel the Audis are using is Shell GTL diesel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_to_liquid
http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=shellga...

5. Try and make sensible, reasoned posts rather than stabbing the keyboard with the capslock on.

Edited by johnph on Thursday 20th March 17:00

[Galileo]

The Seat TDi has already done well in the WTCC

[Gingerbread Man]

fiesta86 said:

NO IM SURE A BMW SERIES ONE WAS THE FIRST DIESEL TO RACE IN THE BTCC, I GRANT YOU IT RAN AT THE BACK BUT IT WAS RACING

Did you mean this one?



It did race yes but came very much last most races.

But this is racing on Bio Diesel, I'm guessing that means that it is not a diesel car as such?

David

[flattotheboards]

You need noise at a btcc race its all part of the atmosphere, and diesels dont provide much noise.

[johnph]

flattotheboards said:

You need noise at a btcc race its all part of the atmosphere, and diesels dont provide much noise.

Theres only two of them in the BTCC this year (plus the BMW) and from what i could hear on the WTCC coverage the Seats sounded similar to the petrol cars.