Touring cars should be a lot more popular with manufacturers - agree?

[Mark]

Manufacturers, just like sponsors, look for a return on their investment. Any involvement in BTCC will have to be seen as a real increase in the sales of cars.

Unfortunately the BTCC just doesn't have good enough exposure in the marketplace to allow this to happen. Pretty much zero terrestrial TV coverage, no mention in the news and very little if any in the newspapers.

ITV4 all day coverage is great for the hard core fans but ask most people what's going on in BTCC, they wouldn't know. But I bet they could tell you all about F1.

[MrJan]

I dont really agree with that analysis, a fact is a car in motorsport is never going to look exactly like its showroom counter part. But I would say when Joe Bloggs walks into a BMW showroom on Monday, after Sunday on which day Priaulx won a race and Kubica won a race, I would say Priaulx is more likely to shift that 3-Series. At the end of the day, that car resembles its motorsport counter more than any F1 car.

And if you're referring to how Scooby have huge intakes and spoiler just like the Rallying counterpart then there are many road car that are still just like that. I would say visually the Honda Civic Type R and Team Dynamics Civic are extremely similar. Seat Leon FRs are also distinctly similar with their bodykits and paint schemes. The WRC cars have recently gone down more of a disimlar looking route, but with the introduction of S2000 rules I believe this will help.

I'm saying that neither the Scooby nore the BTCC cars of today look like the road cars because they are festooned in aerodynamic tweeks. Back in the days of Soper, Cleland et al there was very little in the way of spoilers (well they didn't have them). In '92 (? Harvey won I think) the beemers looked far more like the road car than the 3-series does now with it's wide arches and rear spoiler.

Here's an example, Seat Leon BTCC



Seat Leon FR


versus BMW 318iS Coupe BTCC



BMW 318is COupe


The Seat road car is a lot narrower at the wheel arches whereas the BMW BTC just looks as if it's a lowered version of the road car with a paint job.

Until Alfa came in with their aero package then you could really see the resemblance, and indeed right up to the rule changes in 2001 (??) the cars racing in the BTCC looked a lot more like their road counterparts than they do now.

Same goes for WRC up until the rule change allowed cars that were 2WD on the road to enter with 4WD. I'm not saying that the cars are massively different in all cases, just that when a car has a widebody and rear wing then it doesn't look as close to the car it is based on

[AndySpeed]

Being someone who was born in 1988, and thus was a child during the 'wing-less' days of the BTCC, I in many respects fail to see why it matters. To me, wings and splitters are just a part of motorsport, and indeed these days sporty versions of cars nearly always come with them.

Plus, the effect of growing up with wings and flared arches means that I actually like them on road cars sometimes.

[BDunnell]

ITV4 all day coverage is great for the hard core fans but ask most people what's going on in BTCC, they wouldn't know.

Would they really have known in the mid-1990s when the championship was supposedly at its peak, though? I doubt it.

Personally, I think a move back to the BBC would do the BTCC a massive amount of good, as excellent as ITV's coverage has become.

[VX_Rules]

I totally agree with the exposure, and BBC1 will not have it, it will clash with live F1, ITV won't be having it on ITV1 again anytime soon. Channel 4 wouln't have it for Sundays and Channel 5 would never be a step in the good direction. I don't personally see a solution. :/

[BDunnell]

I totally agree with the exposure, and BBC1 will not have it, it will clash with live F1

Not if the BTCC was scheduled not to clash with F1 races that take place in the afternoon UK time.

[VX_Rules]

I don't see it happening even with rescheduling. The BBC will only want F1 anyway. I can't imagine they'd want the BTCC even if they ran it on BBC3 or BBC4.

[woody2goody]

I'm surprised about this too, because when I first started watching the BTCC, you had Nissan, Renault, Volvo, Honda, Audi, Ford, Vauxhall and Peugeot. and in addition it was a very competitive championship.

I reckon it would promote the cars better than F1, because actually seeing, for example, a BMW 3 Series in BTCC has made me really like the car, and I woud consider getting one as a result.

Get some ex-F1 drivers in there! Mansell certainly provided entertainment when he was there, as did Derek Warwick. No straight panels on his cars...

[AndyRAC]

I don't see it happening even with rescheduling. The BBC will only want F1 anyway. I can't imagine they'd want the BTCC even if they ran it on BBC3 or BBC4.

Which just proves what I've said for a long time - in the eyes if the British media, F1 IS Motorsport!! Nothing else counts...

[MrJan]

Being someone who was born in 1988, and thus was a child during the 'wing-less' days of the BTCC, I in many respects fail to see why it matters. To me, wings and splitters are just a part of motorsport, and indeed these days sporty versions of cars nearly always come with them.

Plus, the effect of growing up with wings and flared arches means that I actually like them on road cars sometimes.

I was only born in '85 so didn't spend many years watching the wingless cars. I agree that they are part of motorsport but they have morphed to something which you wouldn't see on many road cars and certainly not on normal production models. My main point about the spoilers is that back in the day cars looked virtually the same bar some different wheels, decals and being lowered. People could make an easier association between the BTCC car and the road car, now the BTCC cars all look like out and out racers and the association is weakened.

TBH I'd rather see the wings out of the sport, or at least firmer rules. The racing used to be so much better than it is now and I believe that a lot of that is down to the amount of time teams can spend sorting downforce.