BTCC 2024 News & Rumours

[touringlegend]

Gow has already said the new regs won’t be EV, and hybrid may be adjusted either way.

I think it’s quite telling that F1 is making noises about going back to pure thermal engines using synthetic fuel. I actually believe that’s what a lot of motorsport will aim to use.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Gow has already said the new regs won’t be EV, and hybrid may be adjusted either way.

I think it’s quite telling that F1 is making noises about going back to pure thermal engines using synthetic fuel. I actually believe that’s what a lot of motorsport will aim to use.

I think you have a point there. Seems EVs aren’t flavour of the month anymore and rightly so. There are other alternatives out there

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Gow has already said the new regs won’t be EV, and hybrid may be adjusted either way.

I think it’s quite telling that F1 is making noises about going back to pure thermal engines using synthetic fuel. I actually believe that’s what a lot of motorsport will aim to use.

You're right there, however, going down the synthetic fuel + combustion engine path may be 'easy' for F1 or some sportscar series (and even the likes of Supercars) but for BTCC might be a bit more complicated if road models most suitable for touring cars would start becoming more and more often EV only. But who knows, we'll see. There's a bit of hesitation on the market but most still assume EV is the future.

[Andrew Abbott]

Synthetic fuels are going to do little to clean up the air quality in urban areas, because they still need something to burn.

[S griffin]

Synthetic fuels are definitely getting more popular though

[coffinpilot]

In the majority of urban areas - well, the kind where I live and work - there'll be lots of pollution for years to come from fossil fuels. These are the areas that give us the average UK age of a car as 8.4 years old (before the scrappage scheme it was around13/14) - and with the poverty levels in many of those places affected most by pollution, a switch to electric or synthetic fuels is a long way off. I expect that the unwillingness of local councils to go big time for EV infrastructure will delay the changeover even further. A lot of the places I work a 'new car' is an 02 plate Corsa or an 03 plate Passat Diesel estate.....

And before anybody says what's this got to do with BTCC 2024 rumours? I apologise, it's probably more relevant to BTCC 2034, or at the rate our Govt and Councils do things, BTCC 2044 News & Rumours!

[porsche962fan]

Originally Posted by coffinpilot

I expect that the unwillingness of local councils to go big time for EV infrastructure will delay the changeover even further.

why invest in a deadend obsolete technology with no real future ?

if the politicians wouldn't push it nobody would bother with EV

you can see how successful Formula E was, nearly nobody talks about it now

[Greem]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

you can see how successful Formula E was, nearly nobody talks about it now

Maybe nobody talks about it here, sure. That says more about Tenths than it does about Formula E, which seems to me to have a fairly decent following. Good audiences, daft racing though.

As I've mentioned elsewhere a couple of times - this type of forum just isn't the sort of place that the vast majority of the new generation of motorsport fans come to, they're on Reddit & Discord amongst others.

[porsche962fan]

^ I give you a fact

friend from Germany told me Formula E used to air on ProSieben , one of the biggest private free TV channels in Germany

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProSieben

guess what, due too very poor audience it was dropped at end of 2023 and now they air DTM instead and seems no other german channel picked Formula E to air

[Matt K]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

^ I give you a fact

friend from Germany told me Formula E used to air on ProSieben , one of the biggest private free TV channels in Germany

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProSieben

guess what, due too very poor audience it was dropped at end of 2023 and now they air DTM instead and seems no other german channel picked Formula E to air

Wasn't FE doing very poorly as for the viewing figures in the UK as well? Wasn't it dropped by Channel 4? I seem to remember something like that, might be wrong though

[redshoes]

I keeping with the current theme of this thread of things not really BTCC 2024 related, here is some legal news - https://caseboard.io/cases/5e1647c4-...4-f49499c7d074

[MarcusH26]

Originally Posted by Matt K

Wasn't FE doing very poorly as for the viewing figures in the UK as well? Wasn't it dropped by Channel 4? I seem to remember something like that, might be wrong though

It's struggled to find a consistent home , it's now on TNT Sports behind a paywall so I doubt the viewing figures are overly great.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by MarcusH26

It's struggled to find a consistent home , it's now on TNT Sports behind a paywall so I doubt the viewing figures are overly great.

That's because TNT bid more for the rights than anyone else though, not because nobody else was interested.

And in Germany Formula E is now shown on Eurosport (which has the same parent company as TNT).

[MarcusH26]

Originally Posted by sceptic

That's because TNT bid more for the rights than anyone else though, not because nobody else was interested.

And in Germany Formula E is now shown on Eurosport (which has the same parent company as TNT).

Yeah I quite enjoyed the racing but I just don't want to pay another subscription just to watch it , that's where the BTCC deal is so good and I hope it stays that way long term.

[SV8Predator]

Originally Posted by redshoes

I keeping with the current theme of this thread of things not really BTCC 2024 related, here is some legal news - https://caseboard.io/cases/5e1647c4-...4-f49499c7d074

Another winding-up order? There's been plenty in the past. Nothing sticks to Mr Teflon!

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by SV8Predator

Another winding-up order? There's been plenty in the past. Nothing sticks to Mr Teflon!

I believe that the last two were from Companies House because of late filing. However, this time the petition has been made by Close Brothers, and I am assuming that it probably concerns a leasing arrangement on something, possibly a road vehicle because most of the liens in their accounts are based on Hard's racing assets which are being sold to meet the charges on them.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

I believe that the last two were from Companies House because of late filing. However, this time the petition has been made by Close Brothers, and I am assuming that it probably concerns a leasing arrangement on something, possibly a road vehicle because most of the liens in their accounts are based on Hard's racing assets which are being sold to meet the charges on them.

They don't appear to have had any petitions to be struck off due to late filings. Previous winding up petitions were in Sep 2022 (submitted by Premium Credit) and Jul 2023 (again by Close Brothers). Seems like neither progressed beyond the initial filing and I'm not expecting this latest one to go any further.

Some of their assets have been seized sold off to cover the charges, but I suspect the amount those assets sold for may not cover the debt

[Mike Harte]

Companies House's Filing page appears to be different now; the London Gazette is showing 37 entries for the Team Hard name, and I'm pretty certain that at least two of those entries concern late filing of accounts.

In fact, I'm fairly certain that this matter was discussed towards the end of last year as well as again some time before the beginning of this season.

[tee.1s]

quite a random question, but does anyone know if/when power maxed will eventually ditch those astras? They seem far past their best before date

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by tee.1s

quite a random question, but does anyone know if/when power maxed will eventually ditch those astras? They seem far past their best before date

How so? Pretty competitive with average at best drivers?

[Craner Curves]

They're better than the much newer Cupras, running the same engines.

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by Craner Curves

They're better than the much newer Cupras, running the same engines.

Probably the Team making the difference.

[tee.1s]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

How so? Pretty competitive with average at best drivers?

I was just wondering since that astra has been in action since 2017, so I thought they might be looking to incorporate the new astra if possible. Anyways, Doble and ATS have done well

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

Gow has already said the new regs won’t be EV, and hybrid may be adjusted either way.

I think it’s quite telling that F1 is making noises about going back to pure thermal engines using synthetic fuel. I actually believe that’s what a lot of motorsport will aim to use.

Does that mean to say that the BTCC could move back towards NA 4-bangers? I'd love that personally.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Andrew Abbott

Synthetic fuels are going to do little to clean up the air quality in urban areas, because they still need something to burn.

If the energy source for creating the fuel is carbon-free, and the fuel is purely synthetic, then the overall impact will be net-zero in terms of carbon emissions.

It is correct though that the process will likely (if cars are still used the same way as today) concentrate the pollutants in urban areas.

It's all a bit off-topic for BTCC 2024 though.