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15 Aug 2010, 10:19 (Ref:2744734) | #1 | ||
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BTCC 2011 rumour mill
About a year to the day that I created last year's rumour mill, I'm back again.
So, any news/rumours out about what could happen next season in terms of the driver market? Despite the first year of the NGTC cars coming in to play, I doubt we'll see many nor see many changes to the grid. |
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15 Aug 2010, 10:39 (Ref:2744740) | #2 | ||
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So who will be the first of the top teams to build an NGTC car, i would love to think an Arena Ford Mondeo!
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15 Aug 2010, 10:48 (Ref:2744745) | #3 | |
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15 Aug 2010, 12:48 (Ref:2744770) | #4 | ||
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I'm curious to see what the take-up will be on the TOCA-badged NGTC engine, for me the jury is still out on that. It's clearly a big heavy lump and whilst it seems to work in the Vectra it will be interesting to see if it works in smaller cars. Hopefully we'll get a better idea after seeing Glew's SEAT at Silverstone. |
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15 Aug 2010, 14:59 (Ref:2744796) | #5 | ||
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Have Swindon Racing Engines solved the issues they were having with the NGTC unit blowing up every time it hit the track?
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15 Aug 2010, 15:04 (Ref:2744798) | #6 | ||
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15 Aug 2010, 16:49 (Ref:2744831) | #7 | ||
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As for a rumour to mill over, I did hear a month or so back that a certain team has signed a long term deal with a sponsor and they will be going for the best drivers based on who's the quickest, not on what budget they bring. |
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15 Aug 2010, 17:02 (Ref:2744832) | #8 | ||
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Only two current teams fit that bill... WSR or 888
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15 Aug 2010, 17:03 (Ref:2744833) | #9 | ||
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Dos anyone know how Thorney have got on building their Insignia? I rememer them saying it was to be built this year, run in Britcar possibly, ahead of next season. Is that still the plan?
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15 Aug 2010, 17:10 (Ref:2744837) | #10 | |
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15 Aug 2010, 17:58 (Ref:2744852) | #11 | |
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15 Aug 2010, 18:06 (Ref:2744857) | #12 | ||
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If it is WSR, they should get rid of Neate. I mean, it's good to see him racing after his big accident in Britcar, it was a real "feel-good" story at the start of this year. But, results pay. There's no other way around it but to say that he's been pretty average this year at best, and if WSR are serious about becoming champion again, Neate needs to go.
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15 Aug 2010, 18:39 (Ref:2744868) | #13 | |
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I doubt there are any deals done for 2011 in BTCC such is the nature recently of these being concluded near xmas and into the new year with many drivers only turning up days before the first event.
Redshoes is right that a concern exists to the new rules next year not allowing BTC-T cars which could reduce the field, notably Sunshine with the Integras who run on a shoe string budget, to lose this team and Paul O'Neill would be a disaster. Do we however want to see a fielde full of Toyota Avensis's with an engine that has so far proved unreliable and sounds dreadful on track...the BTCC needs the variation of cars to remain appealing rather than a one make series. As for Andy Neate ...well the results speak for themselves and he is in a top line car. |
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15 Aug 2010, 18:43 (Ref:2744869) | #14 | ||
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I don't think we will see an all-Toyota series, just that the Avensis is the test mule being used for developing the spec subframes. I wouldn't be surprised if several of the front running teams go NGTC.
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15 Aug 2010, 19:10 (Ref:2744875) | #15 | ||
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- Silverline Chevrolet obviously have no reason to go NGTC. - A Team Dynamics developed Honda (Accord?) would make sense from a marketing point of view as the Type-R Civic is being killed off but Honda are barely putting any money in now. I doubt they would be willing to stump up the development costs. - I doubt Arena would want to build another car whilst there is much mileage in the Focus, especially once they fit a legal NGTC-spec engine. - Triple Eight need a manufacturer or a big sponsor - WSR have the capability but like everyone else need a backer. - I don't think Motorbase are the sort of team who would want to get into building/developing their own car from scratch, and again there's still plenty of mileage in the BMWs Unless there's an influx from other series I'm running out of front running teams. |
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15 Aug 2010, 19:51 (Ref:2744894) | #16 | ||
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It always surprised me that Team Dynamics went with the Civic rather than the Accord. After the success that NTech had with the Accord in 2008 I would have thought that would have been the better path to go down.
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15 Aug 2010, 20:31 (Ref:2744914) | #17 | |
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N-Tech's success was down to a certain driver at the time -James Thompson who out drove that car in many races but long term I agree the Accord was the better bet.I guess at the time the Civic was new out in 07 and seemed the perfect ploy to get Honda on board based on the Civic Type R's UK sales sadly this failed to materialise.
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15 Aug 2010, 20:41 (Ref:2744922) | #18 | ||
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15 Aug 2010, 22:44 (Ref:2744971) | #19 | |||
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I hadn't read too much about next years rules so far, but if it truly means we'll lose the older cars I think it's a bad move |
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16 Aug 2010, 11:54 (Ref:2745160) | #20 | ||
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We need to move on though. It'd be as if we were in the latter years of Super Touring and there were several non-turbo Sierra RS500s pootling around towards the back.
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16 Aug 2010, 11:57 (Ref:2745163) | #21 | |
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Equally, we don't want to start 2011 with about a dozen cars on the grid...
As ever, it's about finding the right balance between moving teams on to running the new regs cars as soon as possible, and maintaining a respectable grid size I hope they get it right- there isn't a National Saloon Car Cup to provide a ready-made Class B this time round... |
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16 Aug 2010, 12:17 (Ref:2745173) | #22 | ||
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16 Aug 2010, 12:40 (Ref:2745190) | #23 | ||
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What about doing what they do (or did) in Portugal and allow SEAT Leon Supercopa cars with the restrictors tweaked?
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16 Aug 2010, 12:56 (Ref:2745201) | #24 | |
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A few comments on all the above.
o In the current economic climate, I think there may be a U-turn on the BTC cars obsolesence. I know many here feel that with one or two exceptions, the guys driving these cars should be on the grid... but its important to TOCA to have a decent number of cars out and only a dozen would be a problem I would have thought. o The Swindon motor was mainly aimed at privateers, but something needs to be done on reliability. I'm sure the Dunns will sort it out before next year. In terms of its suitability for non VXR chassis, Phil Glew will be the guinea pig, so we'll know that before the year's out too. I don't see any front running team going with an NGT motor UNLESS Alan Gow decides to crank up the boost pressure and give it an unfair advantage. Of course he may then risk alienating some of the bigger teams who could leave the series altogether. Its a delicate balance for sure. o Andy Neate brings significant funding to WSR with his Ceravision business. His results have been poor, but as I've said many times before, I feel the series needs gentleman drivers in order to survive and never more so than now. He'll more than likely be back next year. |
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16 Aug 2010, 13:28 (Ref:2745214) | #25 | |||
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Allowing restricted RS500s got a couple more on the grid in the early days of Class 2; ditto did running it for a year alongside Group A, and the abundance of M3s (and occasional Sierra) that could be adapted before the new builds and manufacturer support came along. It's important to have some time to cross-over in privately financed motorsport, which is pretty much what BTCC is these days. Having said that, aren't the BTC-T spec cars already a whole regulation set out of date? How many of them have been regulars this season? NGTC seems a whole lot like Eurocars with a bit of extra flexibility...... |
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