What is Silhouette Racing?

[FIA]

What is Silhouette Racing?

Can someone tell me or show me pictures, please!

[Iain]

It's where cars use a common (sometimes hi-tech) chassis underneath, but the bodywork on top looks like a car that you and I can easily identify.

[fabricator/61]

It use to be a spaceframe chassis with vastly improved suspension to the road car and a much bigger donkey under the bonnet. But a fibreglass bodyshell that closely resembled the road version covered the chassis. Recently didn't Andy Rouse try to get a champioship going to rival a beloved BTCC?

[BDunnell]

He did.

The DTM is probably the best example in high-profile circuit racing.

[Les]

there was a super silhouette series last year - Steve (Clio) Wood raced in it

[Rover V8]

One of the best examples I can think of apart from the current DTM is 'Procar', Bernie's failed attempt to take over touring car racing in the late 80's and turn it into a silhouette series supporting F1.


The only car ever built to the Procar regs was this fairly innocent-looking Alfa 164-
http://br.geocities.com/capri7003/164procar.jpg

which under the replica Alfa bodyhell was packing a mid-mounted F1-style 3.5-litre V10, good for 200mph....
http://e.autokrata.pl/a1201/8587a5aa00167bd1456f19bd
http://www.autocomponenti.com/164_v10/164_v10_frames.htm

[kmchow]

It's where cars use a common (sometimes hi-tech) chassis underneath, but the bodywork on top looks like a car that you and I can easily identify.
Isn't that's what Nascar is all about racing--Silhouette Racing?

[Mark]

The original notion was that you could do anything you liked with the car as long as it fitted within a shilhouette of an ordinary road car. Of course time moves on and things change so it's a long way from that now.

[Svierge]

There's also the BTCS championship in Belgium, where I run a couple of cars. These are spaceframe chassis, with proper suspension and mid-mounted, 430bhp, 3.2-litre, six-cylinder engines. The cars weigh about 975kg and have a decent amount of aero, so they're quite quick, limited only by the narrow Michelin slicks.

Here's some BTCS action:

http://prcgroup.cybernet.be/photos/galeries/92_Francorchampagne/15.jpg

http://prcgroup.cybernet.be/photos/galeries/92_Francorchampagne/04.jpg

[Mark]

Nice pictures! Do you mind if I use them for forum header pics?

[peewhee]

Do you have a website where we can veiw some more pictures?

[peewhee]

There's also the BTCS championship in Belgium, where I run a couple of cars. These are spaceframe chassis, with proper suspension and mid-mounted, 430bhp, 3.2-litre, six-cylinder engines. The cars weigh about 975kg and have a decent amount of aero, so they're quite quick, limited only by the narrow Michelin slicks.

Here's some BTCS action:

http://prcgroup.cybernet.be/photos/galeries/92_Francorchampagne/15.jpg

http://prcgroup.cybernet.be/photos/galeries/92_Francorchampagne/04.jpg


Look at the height of the wing on the Renault in the first picture!

[Svierge]

Nice pictures! Do you mind if I use them for forum header pics?

Ah, they're not mine, sadly. They're from the official BTCS site. Go to http://www.btcseries.be for more info. It's in French (or Flemish, depending on your preference), but pretty easy to navigate - you can also use Google's translation facility if you need. A bit of Googling can bring up other images from various Belgian press and photographer sites.

Would be good if you did use a couple of the pics though - it's a great series, with some fantastic racing. We're the only British team in it, which puzzles the locals slightly...

For the last two races we've had the pleasure of employing a driver everyone here should be familiar with: Paul O'Neill. Top bloke, did a grand job and loved the cars.

[Allyc85]

Just found this! Lots of good links to the right as well :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKn7eksU1lU&mode=related&search=