Ford announces they are not competing in 2001

[Les]

Taken from Autosport


Ford is pulling out of the British Touring Car Championship - after its most successful season for a decade.

The Blue Oval has been involved in the series to a greater or lesser extent for 40 years and is easily its most successful marque, with 218 outright wins to its name to date. Its decision to withdraw, though not entirely unexpected, is therefore a big blow to the series as its new promoters try to revive it under new rules for 2001.

"With an all-new Mondeo about to go on sale and the championship already won, now is a good time to pause, reflect on our success and make the most appropriate decisions with regard to any future racing plans," said Ford of Britain's director of marketing John Mendel.

The decision to re-position the championship to appeal to a more youthful audience and so encourage manufacturers to field smaller cars - like the Astra Coupe which Vauxhall is already committed to using - seems to have backfired as far as Ford is concerned.

"New BTCC rules for 2001 favour smaller class cars, such as the Ford Focus," continued Mendel. "Ford Focus is currently competing for the World Rally Championship title, so it is not appropriate for the [Focus] brand to enter the BTCC."

[Sparky]

Hah! I posted this on the 2nd of September...

And another thing. Why are Ford intending to use the Focus anyway? They already campaign the Focus (quite successfully) in the WRC. Surely it would make sense (from a marketing point of view) to run the Mondeo in a touring car class? As far as I'm aware, the WRC and BTTC 'Foci' share little in terms of hardware. Why is this so? Is the current Mondeo that close to the end of it's run?

[JMeissner]

Aha!

As I suspected...

Ford, WRC
Jaguar, F1
Aston Martin, Sports Car
Volvo, TouringCars

[Eddie_harasym]

Hah hah mmmmm,

Yes I think Ford world in 2001 is as follows, and read this weeks AutoExpress, don't know where they got it from but seems logical.

Ford:- WRC Focus, McRae etc
Jaguar:- F1, Big headed over paid drivers
Volvo:- DTM C70 Coupe, Rydell expertise
Daweoo:- BTCC Lanos? Nubria? or thier replacements, possible Reid he is a bit of a old man, and the Daweoo will suit him down to the ground.

[kmchow]

Eddie wrote:

>Ford:- WRC Focus, McRae etc
>Jaguar:- F1, Big headed over paid drivers
>Volvo:- DTM C70 Coupe, Rydell expertise
>Daweoo:- BTCC Lanos? Nubria? or thier replacements, >possible Reid he is a bit of a old man, and the Daweoo >will suit him down to the ground.
>
Ford owns Daewoo now? They own 100% of it? When did that happen? That is news to me?

Here I go again, stubborn and narrow minded me!!! ;-)
Maybe it's bad of me to wish the BTCC harm, but I am kinda happy Ford is not racing in the BTCC b/c they are pushing the smaller cars. They should retain existing compact/mid size four door sedans!!

Let the coupes/hatchbacks race in WRC/one make series!

[Eddie_harasym]

I don't know if Ford do own Daweoo Mr Chow, I did'nt think that had any share at all, I'm just goin on what was said in AutoExpress.

I also was a big fan of keepin all touring car racing 4 door saloons, but I am kind of lookin forward to next years BTCC, and I like the association with road cars, I know I'd rather have a hot hatch than a mud pluggin saloon anyday.

And the diffrent sized cars in the WRC certainly makes things more interesting.

[Super Tourer]

I believe Ford own around 20% of Daewoo, which is flat broke and being propped up by the banks.

Yes, Daewoo need a bit of an image lift, but from a marketing point of view, is the new, young, thrusting race fan that BMP wants, likely to be the target buyer of a Daewoo Lanos - I don't think so. There seems little point in ford entering the BTCC with that make. Mazda would be a better choice.

I really hope that BMP don't get carried away with Alan Gow type, bullish, wild over estimate's of the grid for next year.

So far I see a potentially paid for: 2 Vauxhall's, 2 Peugeots and 2 Rovers. The other cars V and Pug are expecting teams to buy and run. I haven't seen an offical word from Alfa and BMP say they will fund 2 cars.

That's 8 CERTAIN cars folk's, and again we have had more car makers say they won't do the BTCC than enter it.....

[Heeltoe6]

Ford was originally buy out the automatove sector of Daewoo, but it looks like that won't happen now http://www.speedvision.com/pub/artic...s/000915a.html

[kmchow]

Heeltoe6 wrote:

>Ford was originally buy out the automatove sector of >Daewoo, but it looks like that won't happen now >http://www.speedvision.com/pub/articles/automotive/02inews/>000915a.html
>
Or perhaps Ford is saving the 7B to perhaps pay off those potential lawsuits that will be launched courtesy of Firestone tires??

Hmmm, I hope GM will buy out Daewoo? Surely, Daewoo can help GM fill out their lack of a competitive small car lineup in NA?

Yeah, I would love to see the Kia or Daewoo racing in the BTCC. Wasn't Prodrive rumored to have been preparing a test car for some unnamed Koren company several years ago?

[Eddie_harasym]

mmmmm Mr Chow

Perhaps the Kia Pride and the Daewoo Matiz, now that would be 'cut cost racing'

[Danielsun]

I don't care what Ford's reasoning is: they're simply chickening out of defending the title that they won, just as Nissan did the year before. When is a team going to have the guts to stay on after taking the title.

Do they not do it because of what happened to Alfa Romeo between 1994 and '95? Audi stayed on after it won, Renault remained in there and Volvo did - until (get this!) Ford took it over.

Prodrive wouldn't be missed, however, if they weren't to return next season with some other manufacturer; they've been an absolute disgrace with cheating this season and the last thing the BTCC and ToCA (or BMP) needed was a farce at the end of every meeting over technical infringements from the leading team...

Anyone wish to add to that?

[Danielsun]

Oh, I do, actually!! They also run Subarus: that's all the more reason not to like Prodrive!!

[DAVID PATERSON]

You leave the scooby doos alone Daniel, there's a fair bit of Nissan in them you know.

MCRAE!!!!!! POSSUM!!!!!!!!!!

[Danielsun]

But Mr Paterson, they're krap!! And McRae drives Fords himself now...

[Crash Test]

Well i had a ride theother day in a WRX...not bad going at all....you hit the rev limiter in first and thats 60km/h, hit the rev limiter in second and thats 100km/h....piece a cake to drive...and i like looking at them Daniel...

[Danielsun]

You sick, deranged looooonatic...

I'd much love Mister Bishi if he'd 'please consider' bringing the Lancer Evo out officially at home. There's plenty doing the rounds in the UK, so I don't see why, with being so close to Japan, the Australian government won't let in low-volume imports. But let's not go there...