Your Ultimate Touring Car Championship

[UltimateDanGTR]

Leading on from the BTCC vs WTCC vs DTM vs V8SC thread, lets get some ideas going for our ultimate touring car championships. here are my thoughts:

First off, for me the ultimate TCC would be a much improved WTCC. There is nothing in motorsport outsdie of F1 like the idea of a global championship for touring cars that can capture the imagination. If done right.

so that also means no diesels and no hatchbacks.

First off: The Cars. S2000 is perfect for BTCC, don't get me wrong. NGTC will be great for it as well. But for a World Championship? Not good enough. WTCC cars should be some of the most powerful and fastest TCs around. Ie, V8 engines. as for bodywork, I love looking at a DTM car. but not too close, otherwise I see all the annoying flappy bits. for me the ultimate touring car has V8 engine, the epic low and wide profile of a DTM car, but without such aero bits and instead something simpler, but just as aggresive. I think TC2000 is the perfect inspiration for this. so, fans of V8SC, DTM, TC2000 and as later explained NASCAR could all fall in love with such cars. plus ofcourse, us brits ad the scandinavians arent going to say no are we.

For the record I think a global V8 TC engine would be excellent because of cost effectiveness for manufacturers. obviously used by V8SC and why not TC2000 and DTM as well? maybe even NASCAR could make an adaption.

Where to race: Zolder. Valencia. Curitiba. These places are boring. For me, Interlagos, Potrero de los Funes, Macau, Brands Hatch, Pau, Oschersleben or another german track, Monza, Portimao, Mexico City, Suzuka, Motorland Aragon are the type of places I think touring cars work (or hopefully would work). These sorts of places all in the same championship would be spectacular. For me there are two other countries to go to and markets to explore: the USA and Australia. S2000 cars would never appeal in these countries. Not when you look at NASCAR and V8SC cars respecitvely. but a DTMprofiled-TC2000bodyworked-V8powered-AwesomeSounding-Fast-Spectacular-UltimateTouringCar would appeal to such people I think. They'd see this kind of car as like that of NASCAR and V8SC, that just go round corners quicker. And as such, drivers in both series would more likely be interested in having a go in such a car. and having a few nascar and V8SC drivers in an Ultimate-WTCC race in such countries would certainly draw the fans in IMO. Laguna Seca and Phillip Island then, anyone?

Appeal:This is the most important aspect. an ultimate-TCC should appeal to fans, manufacturers, teams, sponsors, and drivers alike. so it needs:

*MAJOR MEDIA EXPOSURE
*quality tv coverage worldwide
*good branding and promoting
*epic cars and tracks to race at (as mentioned above) that bring appeal to fans AND drivers
*good fan relations
*good rules (no reverse grids and success ballast)
*good stewards (a rareity nowadays it seems)
*good organisation
*fun image
*star drivers, teams and variety of manufacturers
*good racing-and if there is variety and spectacular cars at great tracks, this should follow. which in turn attracts more people and the spiral continues......

oh, and just an idea:
say if you had 16 race meetings per year. 2 races per weekend. (longer than WTCC races shorter than DTM) 32 cars per race. what if in race one of every meeting, there is a random grid. it would work like this:

*the grid has 16 rows
*in 16 races (the first of the 2 at each meeting), each driver gets to start on each row over the course of the season.
*a draw is held on the thrusday/friday before the race weekend for each row of the grid with a drawing system involving some balls and some pretty women. this system keeps track of where evryone has started over the season.
*a secondary draw is held to establish on which side of each row everyone starts
*this race has a rolling start to keep things as fair as possible between which side of the grid a driver starts on, with no official pole sitter, rather 2 front row men

the second race features a normal qualifying format for its grid.




So there's my ideas, lets here yours:

[MrMetro]

for the wtcc, the cars should be in their orginal design, but they should be powerfull, and exciting to watch.

ditch 'success ballast', this is a world championship, with the best drivers.

instead of having two sprint races, there should just be one feature race, with pit-stops.

the media coverage should not be produced by KSO/Eurosport, as I find it un professional.

[UltimateDanGTR]

the media coverage should not be produced by KSO/Eurosport, as I find it un professional.

totally 100% agree.

[veeten]

try the Superstars Series. V8 engines (3001 to 7000 cc), main production sedans from all manufacturers, rules and regs that are not 'bank-breaking'.

A good deal altogether.

http://www.superstars.it/eng/

[BDunnell]

The only way I can see touring car racing in domestic championships, with the exception of Australia and Germany, thriving is for their technical regulations to mirror those of the WTCC. Sad, but true.

As for my preference, I don't like overtly 'silhouette'-style series. This is why the current BTCC and WTCC cars don't bother me too much. V8 Supercars machines are absolutely right for an Australian series, but somehow wouldn't be in Britain or many other countries. Less powerful family saloons seem to fit better.

[wedge]

I wish DTM would adopt a similar car V8SC and get Toyota to join in with their Lexus IS-F.

Bring the Aussies over for Spa 1000 and vice versa for Bathurst.

[Eurotech]

DTM cars are NOT Touring Cars.

They are GT cars in drag. My definition of a touring car is a car you can watch racing on sunday then drive to work on monday. This is where S2000 fits in, the wings etc. make them look like proper racing cars but not like stupid fiddly F1/GT rubbish like the DTM.

Also, I think there should be on sprint race an one feature race, with pitstops and then maybe a flagship race over 500km once a year or something for double points.

My championship would also adopt the old FIA GT3 system of limiting how many of each car are allowed to just 6 per model. These may be run in 2 teams of 3 cars or 3 teams of 2 cars, but no more.

TV coveage will have BTCC style "whole day" coverage inc. support races on like ITV4 but also have a highlight show on Sunday afternoon showing just the touring car races (in full) on a mainstream channel like ITV1 (the channels will change depending on what country it is shown it). It will also be streamed live on the internet FIA GT1 World Championship style to boost coverage all over the world.

Tracks will consist of places like Imola, Brands Hatch, Monaco (F1 support race?), Spa, Algarve, Donington, Oscherschleben etc to add some glamour.

The grid for both races will be decided in two qualifying sessions (one for the first race, one for the second).

This is the gospel according to Eurotech

[MrMetro]

DTM cars are NOT Touring Cars.

They are GT cars in drag. My definition of a touring car is a car you can watch racing on sunday then drive to work on monday. This is where S2000 fits in, the wings etc. make them look like proper racing cars but not like stupid fiddly F1/GT rubbish like the DTM.

you could say that rich bankers may watch DTM on sunday, then drive to work in their nice new Audi or Merc, the next day, with all the money they got from their bonus.

[Allyc85]

My ultimate Touring Car championship would be the current V8 Supercar championship with a few more manufacturers!

The cars look great, sound great, move around alot and create some great close racing. Also the coverage is spot on with very informative commentary and pit lane reporting.

Must get to Oz one day and see it for myself

[Eurotech]

Yeah but V8's aren't very relevant to the kind of manufacturers that you want in your series.