Wednesday, April 4, 2012

BTCC 2012

British Touring Cars Championship could possibly be the best racing series around, just let me explain. First let's take a quick look at the cars and their technical regulations. BTCC's cars are based on two types of regulations -

WTCC/S2000 spec:
 - based on a production model, normally aspirated 2-liter engine, 6-speed sequential gearbox, no electronic driver aids and a maximum price of €168,000

NGTC (New Generation Touring Car) spec:
- 300+ bhp turbocharged 2-liter engine, slightly wider tyres, maximum price of £125,000 (including engine) ... the rest is basically the same as S2000
- these regulations were specifically made for BTCC

This year there are lots of NGTC cars, in 2011 there was only Frank Wrathall's Toyota Avensis, team Dynojet. You should be getting one of BTCC's big advantages - the variety of cars on the grid is very wide. You can have rear wheel drive, front wheel drive, turbocharged, N/A, hatchback, saloon,... It's basically up to you as long as it meets the regulations. There are literally 11 different cars at the moment, if you've ever heard of DTM (German touring car championship), there are only Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Honda Yuasa Racing Team - Honda Civic

Then there's the atmosphere, all the drivers are very friendly, they take it more as a pastime than a job. There are only 2 manufacturer teams (Honda and MG) and lots of private racing teams racing just for joy. If you take Formula 1, there's really no pleasure for the drivers at all, they are under constant pressure, have to make their sponsors happy at every corner and so on... 

Dynojet - Toyota Avensis
And last but not least - the crashes! Oh yeah, BTCC resembles destruction derby more then often. These guys aren't afraid to hit you in order to get in front of you. But if they do, they don't get punished by the marshalls, it's just a custom here.

Ok, so what's it all about? 23 cars, 7000bhp, lots of crashes, breathtaking maneuvers and a brilliant atmosphere. So tune in next weekend - Donigton Park is gonna smell like rubber! (in case you don't have itv, all the races can be found on youtube, you just have to search)

Official info - http://www.btcc.net