Etcc

[Erdosfreak]

I've been critical of the ETCC this year but the last two races in germany were brilliant, the new rules worked really well and it was good to see Tommy Rustad a bit more competitive.
It was also good to see BMW's win especially in the hands of Dirk Muller

[BootsOntheSide]

The thing I still hate about the ETCC is the bland car colours, those whole swarms of white BMWs make for a very dull looking grid. I know its the BMW racing colour but it just makes the cars look unexciting and indistinguishable

[kmchow]

We should all petition BMW to bring back CIBEiemme and their red/green/purple paint schemes!

And have anyone else seen the silver BMW,especially the NATCC one sponsored by CEC and Antera? That one was sweet!

[Alfa Fan]

CiBiEmme should keep the Honda's.

[Speedworx]

Dirk Muller rules!

[touringlegend]

If any of you are interested there's a nice article at TotalMotorsport with pictures of a few cars...

[O'Schumacher]

Alfa Romeo dominated the first half of the season, so the rules were changed to allow BMW to gain the advantage, but yet neither Volvo, Nissan, or Honda were able to benefit as the changes were perfectley suited to enhance BMW's pace. As a result, they now look unbeatable.

How is this allowed, and why should some cars be penalised just for being fast (Audi BTCC 96) and others not (Renault BTCC 97)?

[MaxSport]

TL-thanks for mentioning the totalmotorsport article!
While I go there fairly often I had not seen this yet.

Very interesting piece and some great pictures as well.
The ETCC sure is looking good according to TMS.

KM

[touringlegend]

Mind you I've seen a good few series talked up in the past that have never come to what was predicted.

The names on the windows of the cars are very interesting indeed don't you think ??

[MaxSport]

Indeed- I noticed that as well.

There should be seats available for a few of these touringcar pilots if all the makes talked about do come on board.

I know what you are saying about things not coming about as promised. This has a different feel and more importantly it makes business sense.

Predicting 8 new factory efforts in the ALMS would be foolish.
Saying that about the ETCC is another story.

Kurt

[touringlegend]

Hmm I was suprised by the Plato name appearing on the Vectra, considering BTCT cars weren't technical enough I doubt ETCC cars would be much different. Or is it that he'd get enough dosh there ??

[StuiE]

Originally posted by touringlegend
If any of you are interested there's a nice article at TotalMotorsport with pictures of a few cars...

That Primera looks horrid!

http://www.totalmotorsport.com/Champ...sanetccweb.jpg

the others look nice - those names......... :S

[touringlegend]

This is just my opinion but the Lexus squad will still be sponsored by Total Motorsport I'd think, so perhaps they'd be biased ?? Just my thoughts.

[kmchow]

Somehow from the side view, I like the Nissan Primera more than the front view. For the sake of the ETCC, I hope Nissan does race the Primera. OTOH, perhaps the car is one of those that slowly grow on you.

PS: I notice the pictures listed with the ETCC/BTCC article don't work? Are there more pictures? Are there direct links to them?

[Alfa Fan]

Originally posted by touringlegend
Mind you I've seen a good few series talked up in the past that have never come to what was predicted.

The names on the windows of the cars are very interesting indeed don't you think ??

I think they are made up.

[touringlegend]

Well I can see where the got "Dean" from as Richard Dean was due to drive a Lexus in the BTCC this year, Luby in a Nissan and Plato in an Opel are a mystery to me.

[Speedworx]

BMW are beatable!

Oschersleben was always going to favour them, even without the rule changes. I'm going to wait until Spa to really see how the rule changes have affected things.

[KA]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
The thing I still hate about the ETCC is the bland car colours, those whole swarms of white BMWs make for a very dull looking grid. I know its the BMW racing colour but it just makes the cars look unexciting and indistinguishable

I know what you mean- I was looking at the galleries on the ETCC website earlier, and it does get difficult to tell the BMWs apart....

The Schnitzer 'Original Teile' cars are OK (although the 'skeleton' livery isn't a patch on the old 80's version they used to have on the 635CSi...), but the others all do look very much the same....

Bearing in mind they're all backed by different national importers, I don't see why they couldn't have been a bit more adventurous with the national flag colours- something more like Ekblom's BMW Belgium car, rather than the BMW Spain ones with just the national flag on the roof

(BTW, How come BMW GB have got their name all over cars run by a Dutch-German team, with various Dutch or Italian drivers- you'd have thought that taking the BMW GB branding into a European series with a British driver or team would have got them better press in the UK at least....?

[redshoes]

Originally posted by KA

(BTW, How come BMW GB have got their name all over cars run by a Dutch-German team, with various Dutch or Italian drivers- you'd have thought that taking the BMW GB branding into a European series with a British driver or team would have got them better press in the UK at least....?

Because Edenbridge, who were supposed to be running the BMW GB cars, decided they would be better off at the front of the BTCC Production grid than middle to back of the ETCC grid.

[Daz]

I think that the Lexus IS200 will suit the ETCC as they will be able to rev the engine closer to what the road cars rev to

[racer69]

At the end of the day the colours of the cars doesn't affect the racing. BMW's in Touring Cars/Sportscars etc... have always been predominetly white. If there were ten factory Alfa's, i bet they would all be red.

[kmchow]

Yeah, Alfas would be mostly red. But talking about the DTM years... Wasn't there a year when Martini sponosored a white Alfa? How about the White Bosch sponsored Alfa? Jagermeister sponsored Alfa? How about the Move TV sponsored oe? Were those cars Works or privateers?

Speaking of sponsors/colours? What about ProMarkt? Are they still operating as a business? I didn't see them in the DTM?

[MaxSport]

News ETCC:
BMW Dealerteam en Peter Kox zetten punt achter EK-campagne
Het BMW Dealerteam en autocoureur Peter Kox hebben gezamenlijk besloten een punt te zetten achter de deelname aan het EK Toerwagens. Regerend Europees toerwagenkampioen Peter Kox reed onder de vlag van het Nederlandse BMW Dealerteam in het EK met een door Carly Motors ingezette BMW 320i. Gebrek aan middelen en mogelijkheden zorgden er echter voor dat de auto gedurende de eerste helft van het seizoen niet competitief was ten opzichte van de concurrentie. Nadat Carly Motors had besloten de auto niet aan de start te brengen tijdens de meest recente ronde van het EK, afgelopen weekeinde in het Duitse Oschersleben, was dit voor Kox en het BMW Dealerteam reden om de campagne in het kampioenschap niet voort te zetten. “Het is jammer dat het zo is gelopen, maar dit is de beste oplossing, zowel voor mijzelf als voor het team”, verklaarde Peter Kox. Het BMW Dealerteam blijft Peter Kox steunen in zijn autosportcarrière en probeert voor volgend seizoen weer een goed programma voor de Eindhovense coureur op poten te zetten. Het BMW Dealerteam gaat nu samen met Carly Motors voluit om de titel in het ‘Dutch Touring Car Championship’ binnen te halen. Met de coureurs Duncan Huisman en Donald Molenaar.

Next race ETCC:
Date: 03-08-2002
Race: Belgium
Circuit: Spa-Francorchamps

[touringlegend]

Danke Herr MaxSport!

[kmchow]

Has all been forgiven? Has everyone gotten on with their lives,errr motorsport development? It seems Volvo have had much better results these past 2 race weekends? Does that mean rule changes have helped Volvo/BMW more than they helped Alfa then? Reliability seems to have held? Though I don't know what goes on behind the scenes to ensure that they do?