[BTCC] BTCC 2023 season discussion, News and Rumours!

[Pickles]

I believe One are due to announce another driver, but no idea who or when. One big surprise on Media Day perhaps?

[BobJones]

Originally Posted by Millvi

Will be interested to see if One Motorsport announce 1 or 2 more drivers. Plato and Proctor perhaps?

Just one, saving the hype until last...

[Millvi]

Originally Posted by BobJones

Just one, saving the hype until last...

That won’t be Proctor or Smelt then will it?

I thought the plan was for One Motorsport to expand to 4 cars? I’ll have to check on TBL allocations…

Edit : BTC Racing 3 TBLs. But I’ve lost tracking where Moffat’s TBLs have gone and what happens to TD’s ones? Still a chance of more than 3 One Motorsport cars running this season?

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by BobJones

Just one, saving the hype until last...

I'm not sure how much hype there is, they've been very quiet since the initial announcement of the name change and Moffat joining. You won't be seeing the big fancy hospitality suite this year either.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Pickles

I'm not sure how much hype there is, they've been very quiet since the initial announcement of the name change and Moffat joining. You won't be seeing the big fancy hospitality suite this year either.

Doesn’t look like they’ll be testing until Media Day either?

[thetool]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Doesn’t look like they’ll be testing until Media Day either?

Who has been testing this year? It's been extremely quiet in that regard.

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by thetool

Who has been testing this year? It's been extremely quiet in that regard.

Everyone but One I think - haven’t seen Speedworks but thought I read they were testing somewhere?

[Pickles]

Originally Posted by Evantra

Everyone but One I think - haven’t seen Speedworks but thought I read they were testing somewhere?

All teams tested at Brands on Tuesday except PMR and One, PMR tested there a couple of weeks ago. So unless they've done it privately, One haven't done any testing yet.

[thetool]

Not a peep about that test at Brands Hatch from btcc.net/TOCA. Very odd, in previous years they've had extensive coverage and live timing.

Contrast to 2014 when there was an article the week before https://www.btcc.net/2014/03/10/btcc...ds-hatch-test/

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by thetool

Not a peep about that test at Brands Hatch from btcc.net/TOCA. Very odd, in previous years they've had extensive coverage and live timing.

because it wasnt an offical btcc test
just some of the teams getting together to share their circuit hire costs

the only official test is next week

[thetool]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

because it wasnt an offical btcc test
just some of the teams getting together to share their circuit hire costs

the only official test is next week

That hasn't stopped them reporting on it in the past.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

because it wasnt an offical btcc test
just some of the teams getting together to share their circuit hire costs

the only official test is next week

It would seem one team rented the track and sold slots to other teams. BTCC, Minis and Porsche. A busy couple of days I hear

[Millvi]

There was an interesting comment from Plato in this recent YouTube film:

https://youtu.be/J-j5yUlqf4c

Could there be a Giulia rolling out of the One Motorsport garage on media day!?!

A long shot but who knows what can happen next?

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Millvi

There was an interesting comment from Plato in this recent YouTube film:

https://youtu.be/J-j5yUlqf4c

Could there be a Giulia rolling out of the One Motorsport garage on media day!?!

A long shot but who knows what can happen next?

3 and a half minutes in, “this would make a pretty good BTCC car platform”.

If the rumours of RWD being prohibited are true, they wouldn’t develop a car for only one year? They also seem pretty committed to the Honda’s with Dynamics’ support.

Believe HMS had a look at it before deciding on the Giulietta. Shame that never came back!

[Millvi]

Originally Posted by Evantra

3 and a half minutes in, “this would make a pretty good BTCC car platform”.

If the rumours of RWD being prohibited are true, they wouldn’t develop a car for only one year? They also seem pretty committed to the Honda’s with Dynamics’ support.

Believe HMS had a look at it before deciding on the Giulietta. Shame that never came back!

Motorbase were looking at the option to switch to an Audi or Jaguar for 2023, so why not a Giulia?

[Pickles]

Possibly again if the rumours of outlawing RWD are true? The Giulia was also considered as a replacement for the Infinitis.

[touringlegend]

Originally Posted by Pickles

I'm not sure how much hype there is, they've been very quiet since the initial announcement of the name change and Moffat joining. You won't be seeing the big fancy hospitality suite this year either.

Won’t they be using the Aiden Moffat hospitality, it went off for a rebrand over the winter

[Sodemo]

Why would they ever outlaw RWD? It’s been allowed in the championship for decades.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Why would they ever outlaw RWD? It’s been allowed in the championship for decades.

It probably won't be outlawed, but you might find it coincidental that nobody is running it in future...

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Why would they ever outlaw RWD? It’s been allowed in the championship for decades.

Gow didn't want RWD in the first place, but the pressure from WSR caused him to relent. At the earliest opportunity, RWD will be gone and we can finally be rid of the debate about certain drivetrains having an advantage...

[Evantra]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Why would they ever outlaw RWD? It’s been allowed in the championship for decades.

Presumably if there’s only one RWD model left it’s not worth the hassle of balancing it with FWD, or dealing with the arguments caused if that one car is dominant - can’t use the excuse that the Infinitis for example are also RWD and down the bottom end of the grid.

I think it’s a shame and the variety has always been nice, and often beneficial to the racing where RWD and FWD have advantages in different places.

[tocatrucky]

Originally Posted by touring fan01

yes dynamics also disappeared off the grid in 2001 and 2002 and most of 2003 and i dont remember the sky falling down then either

To be fair at those times Dynamics weren't a constructor nor multiple overall championship winning professional outfit in 01/02/03. They were a larger fish but not a huge fish unlike this time around.

[V8 Fireworks]

Originally Posted by Trebor902

Interesting considering toyota don't offer a 2.0 turbo in any of its cars so would like to know where they've plucked that from.

There is a 2.0 turbo engine in the Lexus IS200T, the Toyota 8AR-FTS.

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I was led to believe that running a TCR car is more expensive than a BTCC car, but maybe that's a falsehood? Can anyone fact check me?

How is that possible?

Most of the TCRs use a standard road car engine, so about $7500 USD buys a complete motor. I guess it depends on what the service or replacement intervals are for the racing parts on the car like the transmission, control arms, dampers, brakes, fuel pump etc between the two classes.

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I guess the issue of the TCR cars is the build cost, do they cost more to build or require a different toolset build setup than what BTCC teams have?

As stated, they have a fixed cost. Repairing the cars is like repairing a road car. The TCR use either standard or very slightly reinforced road car subframes on the front end which bolt up under the standard road car chassis rails (whereas obviously NGTC used the fabricated front and rear subframes).

[Sodemo]

I don’t know why there is such a problem to balance RWD when history has shown in the past that a 25, 50kg weight penalty has been enough to balance this difference out.

[S griffin]

I don't feel they need to do such drastic measures for RWD. Maybe a bit of a weight penalty is fine, but there's more to a car's strength than it's drivetrain