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3 Apr 2017, 10:48 (Ref:3723473) | #176 | ||
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Don't forget as well that BMR lost their best driver over the winter as well - Sutton needs time to get up to speed in the car, Cole didn't really set the world on fire last season and Price has done very little running in the car so you can't really judge where he is pace wise just yet.
Suton blew it in qualifying and got tangled up in incidents during the races, Plato made progress in race 1 then shunted the wall so no result for the other 2 races - it's possible that with a better qualifying session for Sutton he'd have had a cleaner weekend and Plato could well have been top 10 in race 2 and therefore could have been on pole for race 3. Lots of 'ifs' and 'coulds' but with a 32 car grid and the shortest circuit it's these things that make a huge difference. |
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3 Apr 2017, 10:58 (Ref:3723475) | #177 | ||
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Quote:
I don't think I've seen the BMWs looking so strong at a first meeting before, although they looked very quick in a straight line, I can see them being pegged back in the first load of boost calculations. With the Motorbase cars looking like they're at the other end of the spectrum. |
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3 Apr 2017, 11:32 (Ref:3723479) | #178 | |||
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Quote:
'so all that is happening with the Subaru is that a calculation will be made as to any centre of gravity difference between an 'in-line' engine and their unique 'boxer' engine' From the regulations: 'The minimum weight (base weight) of individual cars may be subject to review at any time during the currency of the 2017 Championship by the Administrator who may implement a variation by way of a Bulletin issued by the Co-ordinator giving a minimum of 24 hours notice.' |
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3 Apr 2017, 11:34 (Ref:3723480) | #179 | ||
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Do we know why Plato referred to Wednesday when he said changes were made?
If BMR didn't make the changes till then, then it is bad preparation - or is there another change as well as the COG balancing? |
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3 Apr 2017, 11:36 (Ref:3723482) | #180 | |||
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Quote:
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3 Apr 2017, 11:41 (Ref:3723483) | #181 | ||
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I had a chance to watch the replay of the crash between Neal and Turks. I would put that mostly down to a "racing incident", however if I was to apportion blame, id say it was 70:30 Neal's fault.
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3 Apr 2017, 11:47 (Ref:3723484) | #182 | ||
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Quote:
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3 Apr 2017, 17:00 (Ref:3723547) | #183 | |
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As a Neal fan I hate to agree, but it did look avoidable, I know he was trying to defend the gap but he was a few cm short of being 'in the right' and it just looked like he turned into Turkington at the last minute.
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3 Apr 2017, 18:30 (Ref:3723561) | #184 | |
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The races are no longer posted on http://www.itv.com/btcc/races ?
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3 Apr 2017, 18:57 (Ref:3723566) | #185 | ||
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Still waiting as well...
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3 Apr 2017, 19:21 (Ref:3723570) | #186 | |
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3 Apr 2017, 20:29 (Ref:3723580) | #187 | |||
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Quote:
On Sunday morning, Plato said something to the extent of 'We had a great winter testing, and had good speed in the car - then we had to change the car this week'. Cole said something like 'Testing went well, and then FP2 times seemed poor, I found out yesterday (Saturday) we need to work out how to handle the change to the car'. Whatever it is, it seems Plato only heard about it in the week before the meeting, and Cole wasn't aware until the Saturday!! |
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4 Apr 2017, 05:50 (Ref:3723638) | #188 | ||
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Quote:
Considering that when testing the Passats they (BMR) deliberately tested with full ballast (wasn't it the year when the increased NGTC ballast came into effect?) so they could set the cars up accordingly, this would be an oversight. Either that or they tried to predict what measures would be taken, simulated that for testing and lost the gamble?! It's no different to BoP measures elsewhere in motorsport and I'm sure they'll recover. If not they'll moan after three rounds, threaten that Subaru will pull out and have the measures 'reviewed'. |
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4 Apr 2017, 06:36 (Ref:3723652) | #189 | ||
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Quote:
Last edited by AdrianM; 4 Apr 2017 at 06:42. |
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4 Apr 2017, 07:49 (Ref:3723663) | #190 | ||
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Quote:
Isn't the old Volvo 850 story the same? (before the season) "We chose the estate because it's more aero dynamic" (turns out it wasn't a consistent race winner) "We chose it because we wanted to promote the estate" etc etc?! As for wheelbase, true, but whilst long wheelbase cars have had some race wins and perhaps offer more stability at certain tracks, it's the shorter cars that have won championships and look generally more (to borrow a Mat Jackon word) 'racey' when mixed up in the thick of things. |
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4 Apr 2017, 08:07 (Ref:3723666) | #191 | ||
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These changes pretty much counteract Plato's "grand idea" he had when getting the Subaru involved.
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4 Apr 2017, 09:31 (Ref:3723680) | #192 | |||
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'We were keen to enter our new Levorg Sport Tourer as it offers class leading aerodynamics and handling prowess in standard form. It can be easily developed into rear-wheel drive to comply with the BTCC regulations so we can’t wait to see how it goes against very established competition.' The list of small estate cars doesn't include many 'sporty' models, so its not much competition to compare with. It is more aerodynamic than the Impreza for instance, but that relevance is reduced in BTCC when they slap on spoilers/splitters and other aero features that increase the drag to generate handling. |
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4 Apr 2017, 09:39 (Ref:3723682) | #193 | |||
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Generally, entrants select a car for marketing/availability/brand alignment purposes and then go about turning that into a viable BTCC car. The Levorg project seems to have been approached from the other angle - they have attempted to exploit the regulations to the full extent, and then selected a car with unique characteristics to exploit that. Five different makes of car made podium appearances over the weekend - each one of them from taking a road model and making it into a NGTC-compliant car. Not from taking the NGTC rulebook, and scouring the world for the best starting point. Should BMR be applauded for their approach? - in my opinion no because they have attempted to make all other makes of car uncompetitive, which would be bad for the long term benefit of the BTCC. |
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4 Apr 2017, 10:06 (Ref:3723690) | #194 | |
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I think that for the health of the series this had to be done. If BMR were to waltz off with a title this year due to being the quickest car at every track this season, it would effectively doom this ruleset to failure in the same way it did in 1994 when Alfa Romeo exploited loopholes to dominate a season. I think there may be a slight danger of that with BMW this year if they continue to perform so well at their unfancied circuits the way they did at the weekend. I hope I'm wrong though.
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4 Apr 2017, 10:25 (Ref:3723695) | #195 | ||
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I'm a massive BMW and Turks fan, however even I am surprised that the RWD teams dont have a RWD penalty, as I believe that they are the same weight as the FWD cars. I know they have had their first gear gimped to make sure they cannot get the amazing starts they did a few years ago, however I still think an argument could be made for an increase in weight.
Lets not forget, that the supertouring BMW ran 25kg heavier than the FWD cars of its time, and the same applied to the S2000 BMW though I cannot recall the exact weight difference with that car. |
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4 Apr 2017, 11:03 (Ref:3723697) | #196 | ||
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It's only one weekend, and it's only one of the RWD teams. The other RWD cars were not in the same league (for various reasons already being discussed).
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4 Apr 2017, 11:53 (Ref:3723702) | #197 | |||
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a) Teams will be permitted to modify their cars to RWD (even if the car is not available generally in that configuration). b) RWD cars will have some form of further measure applied to negate their advantage. In all likelihood, the second of the two is more probable. I wonder how seriously Honda are looking at running RWD next season too? |
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4 Apr 2017, 11:59 (Ref:3723704) | #198 | |
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But as has been said before how many times have the FWD cars dominated? You see you can't just punish RWD, without doing the same to FWD
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4 Apr 2017, 13:55 (Ref:3723721) | #199 | ||
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The Halfords Hondas had a great weekend. They could have been 1 and 2 in the championship if it were not for Neals race 1 incident. Ingram had a great weekend too. FWD are in fact 1st and 2nd in the championship. So maybe all FWD cars should be ballasted?
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4 Apr 2017, 14:53 (Ref:3723735) | #200 | ||
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I'd personally like to see the BMW 1st gear put back to something approaching what it was previously, and slap them with a 25kg RWD penalty.
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