WTCC 2014

Just stumbled across THIS album with the new WTCC cars testing in Valencia

(except from the Lada, which looks like this): Note that the fender wideners must make the car some 50-ish centimeters wider 

Anyways here are for y'all who can't access the album from facebook.

The WTCC will at least look and sound great this year and 16 of these new bad boys will be ready for the start of the season.

A star-studded lineup includes

Sebastien Loeb

Yvan Müller 

Gabriele Tarquini

Rob Huff

James Thompson

Tom Coronel

Tiago Monteiro

Jose Maria Lopez

And the rest of the field includes this guy:

Who looks 16 but are actually a whole decade older at 26! And represents the Citroën-rear-of-the-grid department 

Roll on Marrakech and more of this

Personally with the wider flared arches and the boxed off skirts they resemble the cars from the crappest period of the BTCC, about 15 years ago.  Still I'd be interested to see how Loeb gets on.  Other than that based on what I've watched before some of the other well known names in WTCC haven't made for much excitement.

Personally with the wider flared arches and the boxed off skirts they resemble the cars from the crappest period of the BTCC, about 15 years ago.  Still I'd be interested to see how Loeb gets on.  Other than that based on what I've watched before some of the other well known names in WTCC haven't made for much excitement.

Can argue that these regulations was just what the series needed. The old S2000 cars looked weak and not very powerful.
Im looking forward to it, hopefully the racing wil not be that bad.

Does anyone know about transmission of the races? Any global cable, satellite networks like ESPN or FOX to cover them?

Whatever happened to  ex F1 team Onyx who was supposed to run one or two Cruzes this year? I know Bamboo left the series due to budgetary reasons and Münnich seems to have taken its place, but what about Onyx? Was it just a 'bluff'?

I saw Tom Chilton in that gallery, wasn't he driving for them?

I saw Tom Chilton in that gallery, wasn't he driving for them?

 He drives for ROAL

Does anyone know about transmission of the races? Any global cable, satellite networks like ESPN or FOX to cover them?

Eurosport has the rights globally. 

I saw Tom Chilton in that gallery, wasn't he driving for them?

He did in 2012. Then with RML in '13 and now ROAL with Coronel

Yeah but Eurosport isn't available everywhere 

They're just the commercial rights holder/primary broadcaster. So if you want to watch it in America, or Japan, etc...

Whatever happened to  ex F1 team Onyx who was supposed to run one or two Cruzes this year? I know Bamboo left the series due to budgetary reasons and Münnich seems to have taken its place, but what about Onyx? Was it just a 'bluff'?

I will spread some light for you, here is what Touringcartimes.com said

 

 

Onyx Race Engineering, a new team run by former Arena Motorsport team principal Mike Earle, announced a five-year programme at the beginning of January which has been in development since mid-2013, but it’s understood the team’s cars will not be ready to take part until the latter half of the season at best.

Rumours are that they are running ex-Arena Fords

Yeah but Eurosport isn't available everywhere 

 

They're just the commercial rights holder/primary broadcaster. So if you want to watch it in America, or Japan, etc...

Oh, alright.. Didn't know

Haven't been able to find a broadcaster of complete races in the Americas. Hopefully Eurosport has some kind of Internet coverage or, at least, good reviews as I'm not so sure they'll have it on streaming...

Looking forward to the first rounds then, this coming Sunday... Marrakech is usually entertaining....

I think it kicks off 4pm ish local time. Not sure what that is GMT.

Eurosport coverage, can't find any scheduling details as yet.

Looking forward to the first rounds then, this coming Sunday... Marrakech is usually entertaining....

I think it kicks off 4pm ish local time. Not sure what that is GMT.

Eurosport coverage, can't find any scheduling details as yet.

Here in NED I see that the Eurosport broadcast is Saturdays at 15:00 (followed by WSR at 16:00) and Sundays at 18:00. 

 Marrakech is usually entertaining....

...if you enjoy Demolition Derbys.  For me, if I never see another race from Marrakech, it will be too soon.  

Still, it will be good to see if Loeb can make an impact - preferably not on the barriers.

The drivers (note: Oriola and Ma won't be present at Marrakech)

http://www.fiawtcc.com/drivers

So Citröen dominated the first practice at Marrakech (Müller-López-Loeb, the order) by a considerable margin (around 2 secs to Hugo Valente). Franz Engstler dominating the TC2 class also by a considerable margin.

Good qualifying session. I sooo thought we were going to see Loeb get a debut pole. I like the single lap shoot out. Not sure how the whole format works though, I had it on in the backround whilst working, I believe it's all a bit new. Wasn't sure how race 2 pole was decided.

Good qualifying session. I sooo thought we were going to see Loeb get a debut pole. I like the single lap shoot out. Not sure how the whole format works though, I had it on in the backround whilst working, I believe it's all a bit new. Wasn't sure how race 2 pole was decided.

I think race 2 grid is set in the reverse order they finished in the top 10 in Qualifying 2 - so 10th position will be pole, and the quickest in that session will be 10th. 11th down will stay in the same order as race 1. The top 5 went through for the shoot-out for pole in race 1 and those positions won't affect race 2. (so in theory position 5 in Q2 is better as it gets you into the top 5 shoot-out and position 6th for race 2 (I think I've just confused myself  )

Did Muller lose his position 2 for cutting the chicane on his flying lap?

Edited by BullHead, 12 April 2014 - 16:18.

Looking forward to the first rounds then, this coming Sunday... Marrakech is usually entertaining....

Judging by the AutoGP race it'll be hysterical, even without Kevin Giovesi. Bumps the size of small elephants and about as much grip off line as an ice rink

Judging by the AutoGP race it'll be hysterical, even without Kevin Giovesi. Bumps the size of small elephants and about as much grip off line as an ice rink

And suspension-breaker kerbs.

Huge Loeb fan here so I am fairly nervous for the race, to be honest. Bring on the World Troubling Car Championship '14 Season.

Yeah this will be interesting! Hopefully Loeb can be on the podium   Heck, he might even win it!

Standing start in both races

World Touring Citroen Cup

And there's the difference between months of development (Citröen) and only a couple of weeks (everyone else).

Well for a touring car race that was pretty uneventful.

Citroen need to take some lessons from Mercedes about letting their drivers fight - they have such an advantage over the others they can afford some risk.

That Citroen train looked exceptionally well-managed. Unless the intra-team battle sours/heats up, I'm not sure I'd be tempted to watch another race...

Race 2 should be artificially much more fun with the Citroens strating from 8th, 9th and 10th, if I'm not mistaking. The battle could be open among them.

EDIT: watching the podium ceremony, where did they get that Argentinean flag, the sun looked so funnily wrong (and angry), LOL.

Edited by ezequiel, 13 April 2014 - 15:55.

Yeah race 2 better be more exciting with the Citroens coming through

That Citroen train looked exceptionally well-managed. Unless the intra-team battle sours/heats up, I'm not sure I'd be tempted to watch another race...

how about next race, where they don't start on the first rows, and we're (hopefully) in for a show? 

though I can understand your feelings, this first race was a poor show.

What do you get whan you get a French tv company, sponsored by a French oil giant manipulating the series to allow a French manufacturer to test a car for a year while everyone else is racing.

What you get is utter garbage.

800 tyres tested?  Joke

10 million spent on electronics alone.  Joke

Team orders after first corner, beyond joke

people banned form the pit box!

Jesus Christ you have so much time on the field does it really matter

What a shambles of a series

James Thompson not starting race 2 after feeling ill due to gasses coming into the car in race 1... Does not sound very good

we need FIA to sort this little mess out, start has been delayed for some sort of reason

What was Coronel thinking squeezing Bennani like that?

What was Coronel thinking squeezing Bennani like that?

Total no brains move! Why beeing so agressive to keep your lead on the first lap when you know this is your best chance pulling away from the Citroens... 

Edit: Seeing the replay, that was a seriously hard hit from Muller

Edited by Richard T, 13 April 2014 - 16:41.

What was Coronel thinking squeezing Bennani like that?

Replay shows that Coronel was already slightly more than a car length ahead and that Bennani deliberately kept on pushing him.

Another dumb & dumber moment.

Replay shows that Coronel was already slightly more than a car length ahead and that Bennani deliberately kept on pushing him.

They wouldn't have touched if Coronel had been a car length ahead.

Edited by dau, 13 April 2014 - 16:48.

Replay shows that Coronel was already slightly more than a car length ahead and that Bennani deliberately kept on pushing him.

Benanni has to move away from the accident, he knew Tom wasn't going to open up the inside and had to go right.

as per the rules a rolling restart from a red flag

They wouldn't have touched if Coronel had been a car length ahead.

Well, he was - as you could easily see in the replay. But Bennani just ran into him.

Edited by scheivlak, 13 April 2014 - 16:55.

A lot of harsh comments, but the contact itself was fairly minimal. I'm not sure that accident would have happened with the bodywork of yesteryear. I think Coronel might have been using an outdated frame of reference whilst judging how much he could squeeze.

Edited by Disgrace, 13 April 2014 - 16:56.

Well, he was - as you could easily see in the replay. But Bennani just ran into him.

He's already slightly beside him when they touch. Hence Coronel turning into the wall. That was just a squeeze taken a bit too far by Coronel.

Edited by dau, 13 April 2014 - 17:00.

They wouldn't have touched if Coronel had been a car length ahead.

to me it seemed like Coronel had 100% of his car in front of Bennani, who then reduced the gap, front right part of the car contacted the rear left of Coronel's, Bennani sustained the contact for multiple seconds, then started moving to the right while they were still touching - which obviously caused Coronel's rear unsettling and moving to the right, and thus going in the wall. Bennanis mistake in my book, he should've only started turning to the right after a small lift.