Alfa Fan
13th March 2011, 22:40
I can't be the only one whose seriously excited about the prospect of the year to come? It's shaping up to be one of the all time great BTCC seasons. Short of a couple of top line drivers perhaps, but there's so much going on this year!
Motorbase running Fords for example, far more interesting than the BMWs they replaced and great to see those cars in a team that is Chilton-centric. It will be VERY interesting to see how the Arena v Motorbase battle goes! I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see the Crayola coloured cars ahead for the first half of the season.
Then there's the fact that everyone of the top teams has a solid two car driver line-up in place. Yes they might not all be "great drivers" but how many seasons has it been since we've had 8 leading multi-car teams confirmed at this point!
Add to that the introduction of NGTC, firstly in the engines in almost all the cars. This certainly seems to have made some cars much more viable options than they were previously (SEAT Leon and Vauxhall Vectra spring to mind).
And then on top of that the 4, which will become 5, full NGTC spec cars on the grid, bringing along with them three manufacturers who haven't been represented in the series for a long long time. The Toyotas look mega, go and look at an ordinary road Avensis and its pretty dull, but the NGTC version is brilliant, in a sort of DTM-lite fashion without being over the top. Add to that the stunning renders of those RWD Audis....
Also missing this year seems to be the last minute scramble of years gone by. Yes there's still a lot to be announced and quite a few deals to be sealed, but in terms of front runners there's only possible seats at Arena and WSR and formal confirmation of Techspeed (the icing on the cake IMO) that isn't set.
This is looking like its going to be a year to remember! :)
Motorbase running Fords for example, far more interesting than the BMWs they replaced and great to see those cars in a team that is Chilton-centric. It will be VERY interesting to see how the Arena v Motorbase battle goes! I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see the Crayola coloured cars ahead for the first half of the season.
Then there's the fact that everyone of the top teams has a solid two car driver line-up in place. Yes they might not all be "great drivers" but how many seasons has it been since we've had 8 leading multi-car teams confirmed at this point!
Add to that the introduction of NGTC, firstly in the engines in almost all the cars. This certainly seems to have made some cars much more viable options than they were previously (SEAT Leon and Vauxhall Vectra spring to mind).
And then on top of that the 4, which will become 5, full NGTC spec cars on the grid, bringing along with them three manufacturers who haven't been represented in the series for a long long time. The Toyotas look mega, go and look at an ordinary road Avensis and its pretty dull, but the NGTC version is brilliant, in a sort of DTM-lite fashion without being over the top. Add to that the stunning renders of those RWD Audis....
Also missing this year seems to be the last minute scramble of years gone by. Yes there's still a lot to be announced and quite a few deals to be sealed, but in terms of front runners there's only possible seats at Arena and WSR and formal confirmation of Techspeed (the icing on the cake IMO) that isn't set.
This is looking like its going to be a year to remember! :)