WTCC WTCC - A necessary championship?

johntt · 7 Jul 2012, 18:24 (Ref:3103389)

Not wanting to be inflammatory here but what is the point of a world touring car championship?

I ask this because there is such variety of touring cars across the world.

In Europe we have NGTC, S2000 and DTM. In Australia you have V8 Supercars and in the Americas you have TC2000 and the TC class from the Continental Tire Series.

All of these reflect the road car market in their relevent regions, hatchbacks and small saloons in Europe, big saloons in Australia etc.

With such variety is there any point in holding up an S2000 series as an FIA 'World' Touring Car Championship? Would it not be better to give FIA status to a regional championship thats grows suffciently big enough to warrent it? This is what happened with ITC in the mid-1990s before the costs got silly and V8 Supercars currently has FIA status.

lms · 7 Jul 2012, 18:42 (Ref:3103402)

Quote:

Originally Posted by johntt

Would it not be better to give FIA status to a regional championship thats grows suffciently big enough to warrent it?

they are doing fine without an fia status

**FIRE** · 7 Jul 2012, 18:49 (Ref:3103407)

Is WTCC necessary? No
Is BTCC necessary? No
Is DTM necessary? No
Is V8 Supercars necessary? No
Is TTA necessary? No
.
..
...

helgi · 7 Jul 2012, 19:05 (Ref:3103427)

The World champ in any kind of sports is the place where the best are. So, it really needs the best cars, the best tracks, the best drivers. Are there any in WTCC? Well, I didn't watch many of ETCC races (not ETC cup but old normal European Championship) but it seems to be that it was really one of the best. The whole idea of World TCC is as much necessary as World Football (not soccer) Championship is.

ArnageWRC · 7 Jul 2012, 23:46 (Ref:3103573)

As another poster has said, and I've stated on here, a World Championship is meant to be about the best. So, we should have the best cars, tracks & drivers in the WTCC. I'd argue we don't have any of them.
Maybe Touring cars should be left for National/Regional series.... if the WTCC was disbanded, I wouldn't shed any tears.

Pole2Win · 8 Jul 2012, 01:28 (Ref:3103595)

I don't consider DTM, V8 Supercars, TTA as proper "touring cars".

I'm romantic about S2000 but the rules have run their course, the cars are too slow and expensive. Ideally, touring cars should be like mid-2000s TC2000, but that became too expensive as well.

FordCosworthPanoz · 8 Jul 2012, 01:37 (Ref:3103597)

No, kill it, with fire.

formerf1champ · 8 Jul 2012, 05:43 (Ref:3103632)

Some of you guys are taking the "World" part a little too seriously, from my pov. From the little that I've seen, on it's own, taking away the success ballast, it's a good series.

MagVanisher · 8 Jul 2012, 08:23 (Ref:3103656)

Maybe they should change WTCC into an invitational series where they can invite touring car teams from various series across the world and balance their performance.

MJones94 · 8 Jul 2012, 09:31 (Ref:3103671)

I think WTCC is not an attractive proposition for manufacturers. 1) There is not the interest there to stimulate a huge growth in car sales. 2) In comparison to sportscars there is not much innovation in a touring series, so sportscars becomes a more obvious decision to improve the breed.

formerf1champ · 24 Jul 2012, 13:15 (Ref:3110795)

Thinking about this while posting on the Sportscars section. One way to improve the WTCC, is to not call it a "Championship" anymore. You are not a "World Champion" winning the WTCC. However you have won a world series. So they could start by taking the "Championship" out of the title and call it the "World Touring Car Series", which is different to a Championship. It changes it's context.

I Rosputnik · 24 Jul 2012, 14:58 (Ref:3110835)

Rename it the World Production Car Championship.

A touring car can be anything these days, so changing the name would give it a clearer focus.