Honda's 2004 plans.

[Super Tourer]

As reported in Motorsport News.

Honda will provide technical support to 4 cars in the 2004 BTCC, but according to Paul Ormond of Honda 'It will not be a full works effort as such.', as Honda no longer has a full BTCC budget.

The support is likely to be split between two Arena entries and the two team Dynamics cars.

All parties are working on sponsorship and hope this will fall into place by the end of February.

By supplying tachnical support the cars would still be eligible for manufacturer points.

[Neil Adams]

this seems a bit of a daft decision by Honda to me, they had the quickest car last year just more reliability needed. With Vauxhall developing a new car the championship would have been theres for the taking.

Will these Honda supported teams be classed as Works or Independents?

[Super Tourer]

Works - as they would be receiving technical support and therefore score manufacturer points.

[ATF]

Is this confirmed or probable or just a rumour?

[BertMk2]

Guessing it's confirmed if it's in MN as fact (they're normally pretty good about making it clear if it's rumour).

(edited for hamfisted monkey typing error)

[Jonny Apex]

Originally posted by ATF
Is this confirmed or probable or just a rumour?

The story clearly quotes Honda UK's PR director Paul Ormond.

btcc thunder: why is this daft? if they don't have the budget then they don't have the budget!

[Craig]

Presumably with Matt Neal in the Team Dynamics squad. I actually like the idea of this setup better than how they ran things this year. Besides we're gaining an extra car here all being well so can't complain at that! Wonder if they'll build new cars or if they'll run the three 03 cars with the remaining 2002 car. I wonder too what level of support there will be for Synchro if they return as expected?

I see that WSR are close to confirming a two car attack also - with Warren Hughes being dropped. They are also talking about running a two car satelite team along the lines of TAK.

2004 looks more and more rosey each day!

[BSchneiderFan]

Not for Warren Hughes, though...

[touringlegend]

I'm sure he'll have plenty of other options to be honest..

It seemed to me, for all a good driver he was, Warren got ticked off very easily and with the MG's this year you can see why.

I'm glad Honda will still be classed as a "works" entry next year though - the last thing we needed was people getting off on the fact that we'd 'lost' a manufacturer..

[Craig]

Yeah but don't forget there is the possibility of a 'satelite' MG squad. Warren Hughes and one other...?

[cos]

...Paul O'Neill?
Craig: Autosport reported a week or two ago that Kaye and Synchro would return for 2004.

[Craig]

Indeed. But what support will they get from Honda?

[jminsh]

About the same as this year they can use space at swindon factory to prep the car and the honda employees can use there holidays to run it. They will still have to get there own budget together like this year however.

[BootsOntheSide]

Any satellite MG squad would rpobably include rookie drivers, so Hughes and O'Neill are both unlikely.

I guess it'd be Morrison and Childlike in the Arena cars and Neal and (hopefully) Howell in the Dynamics cars. Steve Neal will be a happy man.

[kmchow]

So I guess the cars will still be Honda Civics then and not Accords then?

[Super Tourer]

I like the idea of manufacturer supported teams, as I feel they are more sustainable.

One of the big costs of running a BTC is the engines, so if we take the scenario of a manufacturer supplying say, engines and meeting engine re-build costs, along with supplying free parts - this leaves the team to find the money to fund pure running costs, staff, etc,etc.

All of a sudden you have a 'partnership' as opposed to a client/customer relationship. It also increase commercial reality amongst factory teams who have previously placed all their reliance on the car maker to fun the program, and then face the annual 'nail bite' to see if they want to continue the following year.

If it's costing the car maker less to compete, they have less reason to pull out - if they do, the teams would already have a commercial base and a relatively low cost proposal to put to another car maker.

[Neil Adams]

Originally posted by Jonny Apex
btcc thunder: why is this daft? if they don't have the budget then they don't have the budget! [/B]

read my original post,

How can they not have the budget Hondas a huge company and think its a big missed opportunity for the honda team(s) not be full works next year.

However its great news to hear of all these teams in the making, two pairs of mgs and two pairs of hondas.

[Super Tourer]

In my experience, budgets could always be spent many times over, regardless of the company's size.

It's likely that the majority of Honda's budget comes from the marketing dept, who, after two years of funding the BTCC, probably, simply want to spend their money on something else, more TV, Billboards or PR events, etc.

Why is it a missed opportunity? They've got 4 cars out there for less cost (to them) with input on all of them - looks like a result to me.

[Neil Adams]

well if they're not the fastest cars out there next year it'll be a missed oppurtunity, just have to wait and see.

[touringlegend]

Cynic mode here but remember the rumour a few months ago when Arena were allegedly happy to run Honda's in 2004 but wanted to run works Audi's in 2005?

Maybe Honda don't want to put too much effort into next years programme if they have to find a new team in 05.

[kmchow]

Originally posted by Super Tourer
I like the idea of manufacturer supported teams, as I feel they are more sustainable.

One of the big costs of running a BTC is the engines, so if we take the scenario of a manufacturer supplying say, engines and meeting engine re-build costs, along with supplying free parts - this leaves the team to find the money to fund pure running costs, staff, etc,etc.

Toyota/Mazda are doing just that in our WCTC series over here in NA. The provide the engines and a little funding, the rest is up to the teams to manage. To a lesser extent, Nissan is kinda doing that as well. Nismo has a little hand in the engine.

There were rumors that the NA Acura team may race a pair of Euro Accords rebadged as Acura TSXs. I wonder if any of the bodyshells could have been shared with the rumored S2000 or BTCC Accords

[speedy king]

Originally posted by BSchneiderFan
Not for Warren Hughes, though...

I did expect him to be dropped if MG only ran two cars to be honest. he was fast, but just not as consistant as Reid and when Turkingtons car worked he was un-stoppable

[ATF]

If these 4 Hondas were all eligible to score manufacturers points, won't it be a bit unfair that there are only works cars for 2 VXs, MGs, Protons and SEATS? It seems like 2 car teams are the way to go. I would love to see a fair title fight between 5 manufacturers!

[touringlegend]

Surely they'll only be allowed 3 points scoring cars, as was the norm this season.

[rdjones]

Remember Vauxhall ran 4 cars back in 2001/02 and all 4 cars scored points.