BTC Tourers and the ETCC Donington Round

[Cosworth_RS]

I dont know an awful lot about the ETCC Super 2000 cars but I've heard they are very similar to BTC Tourers.

As there is a round of the ETCC at Donington in October, I wonder if any of the British teams would be allowed to run their Tourers in this round of the ETCC modified to Super 2000 rules as Ive heard this isnt that big a job to do.

I know many of the BTC Tourers arent 4 door and some are less than the minimum length for the ETCC but I notice there is a Honda Civic being run in the ETCC this year.

With the final rounds of the BTCC in September it would be interesting to see the BTC Tourers run to Super 2000 spec just for one race.

[Alfa Fan]

It won't happen. Too much work&money would be needed.

[Cosworth_RS]

Its rumoured that MG are planning to enter the ETCC in 2003 as well as the BTCC. Thought it might give them some idea of how good the car would be in the ETCC and how much development work would be needed. With the rules the way they are at the minute a V6 would be good news.

[racer69]

As far as i know the rules aren't that similiar, mostly due to the BTC T control parts.

Be good if they were same rules though, then we could have wildcard entries at the british rounds, maybe other rounds in other countries adopted it, just like world superbikes.

[KA]

Originally posted by racer69

Be good if they were same rules though, then we could have wildcard entries at the british rounds, maybe other rounds in other countries adopted it, just like world superbikes.

To me that's the biggest reason that the regulations really need to be common to both series- That was the biggest strength of Super Touring, the fact that because you had a car that you could race virtually anywhere in the world- it meant that teams could do occasional outings in other series (Renault took a couple of Lagunas over to Italy once, and there was often a certain amount of cross-over between competitors in the German, French, Belgian & Swiss series)- you also had a much bigger potential market for when you came to sell on your car at the end of the season.

Thinking back to the 'old' ETCC in the Group A years, this is exactly what happened- at the two British rounds, there were usually a few BTCC regulars who would show up for the ETCC race, (as well as the occasional appearance by an ETCC car in a BTCC round- Soper's outings in the Eggenberger RS500 in 1988 for example)

On at least one occasion (Donington 85- first race meeting I ever went to..) both ETCC and BTCC appeared at the same meeting, with a few of the BTCC guys doing both the BTCC race in the morning, and the ETCC 4-hour race in the afternoon...