[BTCC] BTCC 2020 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[Robin Marriott]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

Was the old Audi V8 DTM car from the early 90s not aloominum?

Nope, the first gen A8 which replaced it was though but I don’t think that ever raced.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

cant be too difficult.
Jaguar built a gt4 race car (aluminium body shell) last year

https://www.jaguar.co.uk/news/f-type...t-edition.html

It’s not difficult - most GT3 cars are Ali with bolt in cages it just cannot be as stiff as a welded in cage and I would have thought the cage becomes the deciding factor in chassis stiffness

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

It’s not difficult - most GT3 cars are Ali with bolt in cages it just cannot be as stiff as a welded in cage and I would have thought the cage becomes the deciding factor in chassis stiffness

I'm not an expert in the field, but looking at the technical build specs of an NGTC car, it appears that their would be no difference in chassis stiffness between cars with a bonded or welded ROPS.

The sub frames attach to the ROPS, creating a 3-box construct into which all of the drive train and suspension elements are fitted. The body can be seen as an external attachment to the actual car.

[Johno.UK]

Should really be in the 2022 thread but it's a bit early for that.


Hybrid is here: http://www.btcc.net/2019/07/23/coswo...K8Ncx-Z2GLoeVk

[Robin Marriott]

Good to get some clarification on how it will be physically implemented, I’m not sure about the push to pass thing though, I have a horrible feeling that an extra 40bhp will just make overtakes too easy.

Means the cars will be well over 400bhp then too, which is crazy power for front wheel drive, race car or not!

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Robin Marriott

I’m not sure about the push to pass thing though, I have a horrible feeling that an extra 40bhp will just make overtakes too easy.

Agree with this. No problem with hybridisation, but, IMHO, should absolutely not be used as a push to pash system. Essentially it, means most of the overtakes we see will be down to power, not driving skill, which to me defeats the whole point of motorsport.

We have plenty of overtaking action at the moment, there is no need to artifically create more.

[RS67]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Agree with this. No problem with hybridisation, but, IMHO, should absolutely not be used as a push to pash system. Essentially it, means most of the overtakes we see will be down to power, not driving skill, which to me defeats the whole point of motorsport.

We have plenty of overtaking action at the moment, there is no need to artifically create more.

It says it can be used for push to pass and for defending. It will depend on how wisely drivers use the system and whether they give enough time to regenerate so they can take full advantage of the extra power.

[mark_l]

With the introduction of Hybrid technology I think BTCC are moving away from the type of regulations that other touring car series use and putting off competitors from abroad from taking part on a guest basis.

The days of guest drivers from other overseas series is over.

[VIVA GT]

But the BTCC Cars are already built to a unique specification for the series anyway. It's not been to an International specification since Group A was dropped in the 90's.

[RS67]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

But the BTCC Cars are already built to a unique specification for the series anyway. It's not been to an International specification since Group A was dropped in the 90's.

Group A was superseded by the Class 2 2.0 cars, which became known as Super Tourers in 95. The class was used in just about every touring car championship around the world. It wasn't a unique Btcc specification.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by RS67

Group A was superseded by the Class 2 2.0 cars, which became known as Super Tourers in 95. The class was used in just about every touring car championship around the world. It wasn't a unique Btcc specification.

OK, but as far as I'm aware, the current (pre-hybrid) cars are built to a unique set of regulations that is only used in the BTCC?

[Alfisti]

Exactly. NGTC.

This is NGTC with some hybrid gubbins added.

So no more or less likely to put off Johnny Foreigner.

[S griffin]

Gonna be interesting without Success Ballest. I think it's alright, but it will be nice to see cars qualify on pure pace

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Gonna be interesting without Success Ballest. I think it's alright, but it will be nice to see cars qualify on pure pace

It still won't be pure pace though, instead of ballast the cars will have an incremental restriction on the amount of hybrid power available to the leading drivers so although they will all be the same weight, some will have more power than others...

[Sodemo]

I’d have preferred a passive system, whereby it gave drivers an extra boost out of slow corners say, from 0kph to 140kph, after which the system shut off.

[Matt K]

Push to pass can be quite ok tbh, in DTM and IndyCar it works well, I mean, P2P is better than DRS, for example, as it's used not only for attacking but also defending. So it may prove quite successful.
I'm happy performance weights will be scrapped but still shame the amount of power would be smaller for the quicker ones.

[RS67]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

It still won't be pure pace though, instead of ballast the cars will have an incremental restriction on the amount of hybrid power available to the leading drivers so although they will all be the same weight, some will have more power than others...

It still relies on whether a driver has used up the extra power at any given time.

[Alfisti]

I'd much rather the tyre nonsense was dumped. As much as I dislike ballast it doesn't create the stupid and potentially dangerous - in my opinion - problem of a car being at the sharp end on the wrong tyre acting like a mobile chicane.

[RS67]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I'd much rather the tyre nonsense was dumped. As much as I dislike ballast it doesn't create the stupid and potentially dangerous - in my opinion - problem of a car being at the sharp end on the wrong tyre acting like a mobile chicane.

It hasn't posed a problem so far this season. Performance difference hasn't been as big as in previous seasons and the drop off has been minimal. I'd say this year they have got it right.

[S griffin]

I think the tyre one is the least artificial. So that can stay

[Sodemo]

I thought they might do something more interesting like have the undriven wheels powered like the old LMP1 cars, so effectively it’s a mild AWD system.

[cos]

Originally Posted by mark_l

With the introduction of Hybrid technology I think BTCC are moving away from the type of regulations that other touring car series use and putting off competitors from abroad from taking part on a guest basis.

The days of guest drivers from other overseas series is over.

Guest drivers in the BTCC have never really been a big deal though - last major one I can think of (that wasn't a direct replacement for injury etc.) was Tarquini in 1999.

[Akrapovic]

I'm a big fan of hybrids, but I'm not sure what it brings to BTCC. Success ballast is a good solution because it's cheap and can't go wrong. Changing hybrid power just seems like a more complex expensive solution to achieve the same thing.

[antnee]

You have to look at the bigger picture - for the companies looking to sponsor teams & drivers, going hybrid is the 'green' credentials that they can use to win over the funding. Within a few years, just about every new car will be hybrid of some form so just like moving to turbo engines it needs to be done.

[thetool]

Originally Posted by cos

Guest drivers in the BTCC have never really been a big deal though - last major one I can think of (that wasn't a direct replacement for injury etc.) was Tarquini in 1999.

Menu raced for Vauxhall at Thruxton in 2007 and SEAT also drafted in Coronel from the WTCC for the same event. And then in 2009 WSR added a third car for Reid for the last three rounds but he was largely ineffective.