Lada WTCC

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Matt

What exactly is wrong with that?

Whats wrong with that??

Put it on the grid next to current models from BMW, Seat and etc. Then you will appreciate how totally out of date and out of place the car is, and looks, before it even turns a (no doubt slow) wheel.

And have a look at the workshop where it is being developed and prepared - is that really the sort of place that is equal to other WTCC teams? My neighbour has a better equipped garage than that.

That car really has no place in a 'world championship' - it will be nothing but a cringing embarrassment, in both looks and performance.
They should just run it in a local series.

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

And have a look at the workshop where it is being developed and prepared - is that really the sort of place that is equal to other WTCC teams? My neighbour has a better equipped garage than that.

You wipe out the whole credibility of your post with that stupid statement. As far as I know its still more important what happens in a garage, not how it looks. And their BMW's were tidy machines, tidier than some of the WTCC teams.

[touring fan01]

I meant have a look at the equipment and facilities they have at their disposal in their garage, to develop and build a car from scratch...I did not mean the size or the condition of it. Do you really think there is any team in the WTCC that has such basic facilities at their disposal?

Lets face it - the car will be a massive embarrassment and anyone that doesn't think so has no real idea of the magnitude of resources (financial and technical) that is needed to design and develop a competitive car. Add in the fact that they are using a 20 year old (very out-of-date) design and its easy to see it will be a disaster.

Why they want to go into the WTCC, when they are not even a factory team, is beyond my comprehension. Surely they would be far better to, at least, develop their car in a local series (say the STCC) first rather than spending a fortune to take it all around the world and humiliate themselves.

[Valker]

They aren't building it from scratch exactly. They got body shells with roll cage installed from factory. Aerodynamics were developed in AvtoVAZ wind tunnel back in 2005/2006 and engine comes from Spiess. So I believe they are pretty much just assembling it from more or less ready pieces rather than developing the car themselves.

btw, I'm not sure if I remember right, but doesn't Russian Bears have some link to Carly Motors?

[helgi]

It was City Motorsports. It compete in an event of Dutch winter endurance championship at Zandvoort with BMW 320i E46 in 2007,and had raced in RTCC with the same car as Russian autosport magazin says.

[tux]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

I meant have a look at the equipment and facilities they have at their disposal in their garage, to develop and build a car from scratch...I did not mean the size or the condition of it. Do you really think there is any team in the WTCC that has such basic facilities at their disposal?

Lets face it - the car will be a massive embarrassment and anyone that doesn't think so has no real idea of the magnitude of resources (financial and technical) that is needed to design and develop a competitive car. Add in the fact that they are using a 20 year old (very out-of-date) design and its easy to see it will be a disaster.

Why they want to go into the WTCC, when they are not even a factory team, is beyond my comprehension. Surely they would be far better to, at least, develop their car in a local series (say the STCC) first rather than spending a fortune to take it all around the world and humiliate themselves.

How do we know it will be a massive embarrassment? It might be quick out the box

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by tux

How do we know it will be a massive embarrassment? It might be quick out the box

Oh, please....do you really think that's likely??!!

It won't even be in the same league as the others, let alone the same game.

A better poll would be to predict how many seconds it 'qualifies' off the pole position time.

[wheadon]

to be honest,

the chassis don't really look that bad,
the car looks very profesionally preped
and the engine isn't really that bad too.
I don't think they will embarress themselves like many people think they will

[stedevil]

Any privateer team is at a severe disadvantage in the WTCC, since they don't have the same "political leverage" as the 3 big teams. But to with confidence say they will be mobile chicanes, even compared to non factory team, is probably pushing it. I would be very surprised if they are not fighting with the rest of back/midfield for the occasional championship point.

And personally I'm VERY happy to not just see BMW after BMW after BMW participating in this years WTCC. Not counting factory entries the only thing not a BMW is 1 SEAT. That type of variation in a TCC makes me wanna Yaaawn.

[awrb]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

I meant have a look at the equipment and facilities they have at their disposal in their garage, to develop and build a car from scratch...I did not mean the size or the condition of it. Do you really think there is any team in the WTCC that has such basic facilities at their disposal?

do we know that these photo's include all of the facilities of the team. How do we know they just haven't got other stuff in another room, for example.

Russian Bears did a pretty good job with those old BMW's and I don't think you should be too critical before we see the car on track. On paper, it looks pretty good in the aero department, or better than the SEAT at least, and if its the Opel engine Chevrolet are using, that can't be that bad either.

I hope they do well.

[Knowlesy]

Please bear in mind that touring fan01 runs the Lada operation and knows it inside out.

[Alex K]

Touring fan01, do you think it would be easier for them to run and develop the car in B/D/STCC rather than WTCC? What's the difference, still competition is as fierce as in WTCC.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Alex K

Touring fan01, do you think it would be easier for them to run and develop the car in B/D/STCC rather than WTCC? What's the difference, still competition is as fierce as in WTCC.

Of course it would be easier and cheaper.

It's much easier to develop a car in your own backyard, using local tracks which they can keep going back to and use as a reference point, than to waste a season shipping the car all around the world to go to tracks they will only briefly visit just once and which won't give them a constant reference point.

[bludvl_x19]

But not nearly as much fun I expect.

Mick

[awrb]

Russian Bears will have known what the challenge was before entering... it's not like they don't know about motorsport. Maybe they had a sponsor lined up who was only interested in wtcc, or maybe the car is good and they feel it'll be wasted in a domestic series.

They knew what they were going for before the season, so let them show you what they can do before you attack them.

[stedevil]

I was just going to mention the sponsor thing as well. Russian Bears don't really have a natural home playground in either STCC or BTCC, so the added exposure of the WTCC might have made perfect business sense for them. And the bigger travelling costs... well they are not in Brazil or Mexico, and who knows if they will be in eg Japan or Macau. Maybe they are just doing the "Europe tour" of the WTCC, at least in the first year while building experience.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by awrb

Russian Bears will have known what the challenge was before entering... it's not like they don't know about motorsport. Maybe they had a sponsor lined up who was only interested in wtcc, or maybe the car is good and they feel it'll be wasted in a domestic series.

They knew what they were going for before the season, so let them show you what they can do before you attack them.

Fine, well lets revisit this thread when they make their debut and those supporters here of this ludicrous Lada project can then tell us how un-embarrasing the dismal performance of their car is

[racer69]

Nice to see you supporting more cars on the grid.....


At least it'll be some variety on the grid, as opposed to the swarm of white BMWs and yellow Seat's

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

Fine, well lets revisit this thread when they make their debut and those supporters here of this ludicrous Lada project can then tell us how un-embarrasing the dismal performance of their car is

Your increadibly supportive behavior to the sport just gave me another reason to hope that the Lada will be able to keep up in Valencia...

[Knowlesy]

Well Lada are obviously going to be tail end charlies to begin with. Why is this deemed a terrible thing?

[Martin Haven]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Well Lada are obviously going to be tail end charlies to begin with. Why is this deemed a terrible thing?

Exactly - let's face it, both SEAT and Chevrolet had to work their way up the order to their current front-running positions...

each talked with candour about taking 3 years to become title challengers, with points the goal in year 1 (podiums would be nice, if lucky), podiums and hopefully wins in year 2 and then hopefully find themselves in the running for the title by Macau in year 3

If we're honest, is the real problem for all of us the old image of Lada? We've learned to drop all the old Skoda jokes - if it was a Skoda coming, would we expect it to be a bag of bolts??

Perhaps we should all withold judgement until we've seen SOME evidence presented.

[werner]

Whe do have the evidence that the car looks oldfashioned.....

[duke_toaster]

That's a matter of opinion. IMO the road car looks a bit old (given that it is, but the S2000 car looks more aggressive than old.

[Bramzel]

The Chevy looks just as old, and nobody ever complained about that....

[andy_b]

anyone got some good side view shots of these cars then. Need them for spotters guide reference.