Originally posted by Andrew Kitson
IMO the BTCC rules should be like DTM. Big much faster powerful cars.
The BTCC might be ( wrongly in my view) perceived as the most important racing series in the country yet they lap slower than a little Formula Ford, that can't be right can it?
Has so much money ever been spent on a contemporary racing car to go so slowly? What is needed is less of the vested interest culture that dominates the UK scene, hence far too many Championships.
Get a proper big single seater championship (GP2 spec?) supported by F3 and the BTCC (back where it belongs) and British GT as a complete package with guest series from the historic scene to fill the programme. Bigger crowds for sure.
Andrew,
Every time someone tries to create something "more spectacular" than the BTCC it dies on its behind -- Andy Rouse's SCV8 package, and that turbo idea that was knocking around last year... For that matter, Eurocar never really prospered in the way it was intended to, either?
I agree that rather than the repmobiles I'd like to see bigger cars (Jags, 5-series BMWs, Mercs, big Audis and Volvos) in touring car racing - 500bhp rather than 300 and ideally rwd or 4wd. The current breed are both too advanced and yet too restricted...
But right now it's a struggle getting a full grid in the BTCC even with year-old cars and a two-class system. A switch to 'big iron' would cost an absolute bomb and would get no manufacturer support whatsoever; I doubt the manufacturers would see it as being something worth supporting.
The Britsports boys have a V8 series now, which might fill that remit...
And I wouldn't want a series like Australian supercars - that's a bit too NASCAR for me, with near-spec cars and too much bumping and grinding....
"supported by F3"....
urgh! -- F3 performs to three men and their dogs, and I suspect those three men are related to the drivers most of the time.
I'm afraid that I often treat an F3 race as an opportunity for the four Ps - "Paddock, Pie, Pint and.... get rid of pint". Most of the racing's utterly lacklustre and the formula has no public image at all, absurd for what's arguably the premiere single seater formula in the country and the most important F3 championship around. If the cars had 300bhp and half the downforce I might get interested again; as it is it's ideal training for F1 (underpowered, too close to the ground, and over-tyred).
Many years ago I suggested that what British motorsport needed was to harmonise engine regs between Super Touring, an F3-like single-seater category, and a descendent of Clubmans/National Supersports -- so you'd have a sports car, touring car and single seater series all with the same engine regs (thereby driving costs down), and the single-seater series would actually be
quick...
These days I'd say ditch F3 entirely at national level and let the Euroseries continue for anyone who wants to go up the ladder that way -- no spectators care about F3, from what I can see (FRenault does a good enough job as a junior single-seater series), run a national-level series for previous-generation F3000s or World Series Renault chassis instead, and (controversially) fold the dying British GT series into the much better-run Britcar setup.
And for the top national class? Well, I know this is going to be deeply,
deeply unpopular in some circles, but Daytona Prototypes. Seriously. They're relatively cheap to buy and run, they're not too fast for most of our circuits, they can stand a bit of paint-trading, they sound fantastic and I reckon are well within the scope of a lot of teams to run properly. (I reckon any of the top Britsports and Britcar teams and most of the GT teams could understand and run a DP).
Great pictures, Twinny. The Swedish BMW was probably on some sort of Europe trip, at the Nurburgring it looked like 
