News on the 2002 ETCC rules!

[JMeissner]

New rules approved
ETCC 28/06/01

The FIA Motor Sport World Council has today approved the new ETCC rules. The meeting was held in Paris and the new rules will be used in the 2002 ETCC season. "The Manufacturers which have originated the new regulations should take part in the Championship with a minimum of 18 cars representing at least three different manufacturers." was said according to the official ETCC site. The rules are believed to be very similar to the current BTCC rules. Though there will be some differences, the ETCC rules will not use common parts as much as the BTCC currently does. The brakes and gearbox will for example be totally free to develop. Another key difference is that only four-door cars will be allowed. Note that this information is unofficial, the official details of the new regulation will shortly be released.

Related news:

BMW will not enter the ETCC 2002

BMW has confirmed that they will not build a car for the new regulations. BMW was involved in the discussions about the new rules together with Alfa Romeo, Honda, Nissan, Volvo and Volkswagen (Seat). But BMW was more in favour for Super Production rules and BMW Motorsport boss Gerhard Berger told Autosport.com: "Touring cars are traditionally part of BMW's programme, but there is no room for works involvement. Our activities are limited to customer racing. That is why we favour rules adhering to production models that establish a direct link."


Alfa Romeo 156 GTA in the ETCC 2002

According to our sources Alfa Romeo will use the coming model 156 GTA in the ETCC next year. The 156 GTA has not been officially revealed yet but is expected to come out in Q3 this year. The road car will have a 3.2-litre V6 engine producing around 270 bhp. The new rules for next year has not been revealed yet, so we cannot be sure of which engine they will use.

Johan Meissner
johan@touringcartimes.com

[MaxSport]

I thought that BMW was a "lock" to be in the 2002 ETCC. It turns out that Herr Berger was never going to have a factory team in the series.

He wanted SP rules so he could have the Ravaglia Super Production team, at little cost to BMW, out there winning and helping them to sell cars to privateers. He was never planning on building a car for the new "ST" rules.

This is not good news for the ETCC or BTCC. BMW has always been involved in touring car racing. Hell, Berger even co drove the winning BMW 635 at the Spa 24 Hours, when it was a touring car race.

Oh well, Alfa should still be there. Volvo too. Maybe VAG will now get their car out sooner rather than later.

Kurt Maxwell

PS-Thanks, Johan. You are the best.

[hunttheshunt]

Excellent news about the rules being approved.

However, i do see one problem With BMW not entering it may be a tad of a struggle to get 18 cars, with the likelyhood of only three manufacturers (Alfa, Honda, Volvo)in 2002, these manufacturers will have to get out at least 6 cars each. This seems unlikely to me if there are just works teams. I can only really see works teams getting out 3 cars. Therefore i think the new ETCC needs to be up and running early so privateers can buy these new chassis at a minimal cost, and i also think the ETCC will need manufacturers not entered officially (e.g. Lexus/ABG, Alfa/JSM) to again boost numbers.

However, the groundwork has been done so heres hoping!

[racer69]

just some thoughts:

good to see they are simmiliar to BTCC, but i think it is stupid if manufacturers like BMW and Nissan are involved in the decision making but won't enter a team. Will Super Production still be around next year

Also, what if a team like Ravaglia Motorsports, CiBiEmme or Schnitzer want to build a car to the new rules, would BMW still support them then

Are the ETC rules going to be as easy for a private team to build cars as in the BTCC. In the BTCC, The Lexus and Alfa's are as good as the Peugeot. I think a mistake is allowing fornt and rear spoilers. Far enough flaring the wheelarches and guards to allow bigger tyres, but to cut down on costs for wings and mouldings for spoilers, they should just be made to look like the road car, except for the guards and wheelarches.

What is the ETC website?

[redshoes]

So many questions...

BMW and Nissan were part of the committee that prepared the new proposal. They apparantly wanted SuperProduction to remain as is but were outvoted. Think it's safe to day that SP will still be around in some form next year, at least in BTCC terms. I suspect there will still be a European SP series as well.

Assuming the Euro series runs on similar lines to the BTCC then Ravaglia or whoever would need approval from BMW before they could enter a car to the new rules - in the same way that Lexus had to submit a formal request for the IS200 to be accepted before ABG could enter. Would BMW give their approval... who knows.

We still haven't seen a final version of the new regs so it's impossible to speculate how easy it will be for privateers to build cars.

Try www.eurostc.com

[MaxSport]

It will be unfortunate if there is no BMW presence in the 2002 ETCC. However, if Volvo, Alfa and Honda come in, along with VW in 2003, there should be enough entries to make a good field next year and beyond.

Let us not forget that in addition to factory, or factory backed teams, there is no reason that manufacturers can't build cars for other private teams.

I don't understand the F-1 involvement that BMW is spending so much on. This type of racing does not cause me to want to buy a car from them.

Fords BTCC Mondeo did influence my purchase of an SVT Contour (ST-200). The Ford F-1 team had NO part in my choice in automobiles.

Do these corporate people understand this? F-1 hasn't any connection to real cars. It is a bit like NASCAR in America, corporate types go with what is safe and is known.

BMW has such a history in touring cars. They should know better.

Kurt Maxwell
MaxSport
Motorsports Marketing
Indianapolis,IN.