What new teams will there be next year

[William E]

Will we see the same teams of 1998 and more or who are thinking of coming.
I would like to se the 1998 teams of
VX
MG
Honda
Nissan
Ford
Renault
Peugot
Audi

[Alan Gow]

I presume you have posted this on the wrong forum...perhaps it should have been placed in the BTCC Discussion Forum.

[Sim_Da_BTCC_Man]

honestly next year IMO will shape more like


MG
Honda
Proton
Peugot
Skoda
Alfa ???
BMW ???

But its WAAAAAAY to early to start talking about this ;) I dont want to wish my life away. enjoy this year first ;)

[Peter]

Now that Nissan and Volvo are owned by Renault and Nissan respectively, I doubt you would see those four manufacturers in the series together. The only manufacturer of the four who are likely to join next year is Volvo- Renault are concentrating purely on their Formula One programme.

My guess for next year is:

Vauxhall
Honda
MG
Proton
BMW
Alfa Romeo
Volvo
Audi
SEAT
Skoda

[redshoes]

Audi, SEAT and Skoda are all part of the VAG Group so little chance you'll see all three

[kevin ritson]

Now that Nissan and Volvo are owned by Renault and Nissan respectively

I'm assuming you mean Volvo are owned by Ford?

With Rickard Rydell having announced an intention to leave Volvo, it's probable that they are staying out of Touring Cars as far as a works presence is concerned. There were rumours a while ago about Ford entering with a Focus Diesel (I can only hope only the former is true!), wonder if this is where Rickard is going?

[John]

hopefully Rik's coming back to England to drive alongside Matt at Honda (there was a rumour about Rik and Honda at the start of the season)......... but then I'm dreaming again to think that a decent driver could get back into the BTCC agains the 'cheap' alternatives we seem to have (but thats another story!)

I cant really think of any teams that would enter (but Mr Gow is the man to get them in).... I'd like to see a Nissan and/or Renault, someting from the FMC - either a Focus, Jag (if they meet the regs) or at an outside bet a Volvo. Presumably Gary Ayles is still persuing an Alfa contract. Maybe Pug can be persuaded to give more backing to VLR.

But to be honest I have a feeling we may be losing vauxhall as a works team (but I'd happily be proved wrong) so think Alan and co will have a lot of work to do.

[Alan]

I think we may see more independant teams running ex ETCC cars next year.

But I do think Sim is right - far too early yet for this, lets enjoy the rest of this year first.:)

[Claw]

Originally posted by Peter


Vauxhall
Honda
MG
Proton
BMW
Alfa Romeo
Volvo
Audi
SEAT
Skoda


10 manufacturers! lmao!! We are lucky if we get 4 nowadays.

[The Stig]

Well said that man. This season is not yet half way through. Suspect there will be a great many new discussions points to bounce around between now and September. Let's for now leave the speculation, because that's all it is, until the off-season. For sure we're all going to miss it, as we do every winter, and talking points then will hopefully alleviate the withdrawl symptons.

[touringlegend]

About Rickard - he did say in Autosport that he had been in a lot of discussions with MG and could of been in one of the ZS's this year. Certainly more competitive than that Volvo! (if not as lucky!)

BTW - just a small point - if Renault are concentrating solely on F1 howcome theres the Clio series and the Formula Renault running - both backed by Renault as far as I know ??

But, yes I agree about enjoying this season first then speculating. Even at the end of the season there is far too much wishful thinking and half the teams we would of expected don't turn up! been at this game far too long to know otherwise..

[Ed- the MG fan]

Aren't Volvo owned by the Ford Group.

I think Seat, never know with Plato


Best not get too optmistic. If anything I think we will see more independant teams. Carly Motorsports who run indepdants BMW's in the ETCC are always moaning about the cost of going around Europe, maybe they could join the BTCC. I would be great to see the like of Ducan Huisman and Tom Cronel in the BTCC

[John]

Originally posted by Ed- the MG fan
Aren't Volvo owned by the Ford Group.


yes...... and thats what it says above! :rolleyes:

[Peter]

Originally posted by Claw
10 manufacturers! lmao!! We are lucky if we get 4 nowadays.

The whole point of the ETCC regulations is to encourage more manufacturers. I think we would be extremely unlucky to have less than five for next year!

Although I agree that my guess was a little optimistic, I was merely stating the maximum number of manufacturers. Although it is possible that we could get all ten.... Afterall, we had nine ten years ago.

[Peter]

Originally posted by kevin ritson
I'm assuming you mean Volvo are owned by Ford?


Thanks for correcting me there- finger trouble:p

[GEDsjt]

Originally posted by redshoes
Audi, SEAT and Skoda are all part of the VAG Group so little chance you'll see all three

I dont' know because skoda is about to join ETCC where SEATs race.

I think plato will bring SEAT to the uk using his links with the cupra cup.

Tarquini used to love britain so maybe he will persuade alfa to come back.

Rydell will be back but maybe not in a volvo as he has ended his contract with them

and i think bmw will return.

[cos]

I think the Skodas planned to join the ETCC are independent ones.

[touringlegend]

That's right, otherwise I doubt they'd be racing. They do recieve some technical assistance (whatever that amounts to) from Skoda I think.

[mark]

I had a read in autosport today about this news etc and they had asked all relevant ETCC manufacturers and none said they were that interested. I reckon, it will probably be a few Privately entered ex ETCC cars. I cant see us getting many manfacturer backed teams next year. :(

[touringlegend]

There were a couple of "at the moment it doesn't fit" comments though. There's a lot of moments in 9/10 months! ;)

At least we know it is possible they can appear easier now. It's not a matter of them (ie BMW) having to go to the lengths of building and devloping a brand new car for the BTCC. They can simply lug their ETCC car in a ship and hey presto! Far more tempting now for manufacturers..

[cos]

Originally posted by mark
I reckon, it will probably be a few Privately entered ex ETCC cars. I cant see us getting many manfacturer backed teams next year. :(

But if privateers can't afford to run ex-works BTCC cars at the moment, they won't be able to afford to run ETCC cars either.

[Alan]

Ah yes - but I have heard that the ex ETCC cars are considerably cheaper than the old BTCC cars. If this is true (and this was from what one would call an "informed source") then the production teams might be able to get in on the act i.e Edenbridge running an ex-ETCC BMW, or GA running an Alfa or two.

[mark]

I'm still not going to get all hyped up about expecting 8 or so, manufacturer teams next year. Just because we will accept them, doesn't mean to say they will all come flooding in.

Sorry to be a pessimist, but at the moment thats the way I see and feel about it!

[spark]

Originally posted by Peter
.
Vauxhall
Honda
MG
Proton
BMW
Alfa Romeo
Volvo
Audi
SEAT
Skoda

Unlikly to see an Alfa Romeo works team as the purse strings have been tightened by Fiat :)

[DAW]

I hope that new teams do come in as it will make the BTCC better & the championship will become more intresting.

I hope that all the teams in this years championship stay for next year but i think & hope that BMW, Volvo, SEAT & Skoda come into the championship.

[Goober007]

I don't think it would be that bad to see to see mostly just new independent teams come into the BTCC next year. For one thing, it's more cars on the grid which everyone has been hoping we'd see. For another thing, if new independent teams running ex-ETCC cars such as the BMW, Alfa Romeo, Seat, Skoda, and Vovo, this could open up doors for the manufacturer to look at the team's performance of running these cars and potentially come in the BTCC and see if running the series is worth running in from the manufacturer's stand point. :D

[MGmad]

I a)know nowt about the ETCC and b) I am worrying over nowt but I have a question:

What will happen to the manufacturers backing of teams that have dual manufacturing backing in both the ETCC and BTCC?

I use Michael Bentwood's Edenbridge Racing 320i as the case in point. I would imagine privateers and independants always underperform with poor equipment even to that of the bigger Production teams like Team Varta. Or am I wrong?
As I recall you need to be a backer of a total of 3 cars to qualify for the manufacturing championship. So what would be the use of having a privateer or independant and an ETCC works team and not get as much points, when you can back one 3 car ETCC
works teams and get lots of points. Vauxhall dominate because of this and so it will be a temting thought to BMW

BMW could discontinue their backing of Edenbridge and enter a 3 car works team. Leaving Mr Bentwood out-on-his-ear and Edenbridge out-of-business.

[cav1995]

As ETCC cars can be entered in the BTCC next year, does this mean an end to the Huge rear wings and wide bodykits or do they have those in Europe to?

[GEDsjt]

They have a bit of a bodykit but its only mildly flared wheel arches and a splitter. The rear wing is like a smaller super tourer wing. Our cars are far better looking, the etcc cars look ok but do look a bit weedy espically as they are slower. they need to speed them up to the same speed as our cars, i hope they don't slow ours!

[Alan]

Hands up those who haven't been paying attention over the last week or so!!!

There are going to be no changes to either the BTCC or the ETCC cars. Looks like ballast will be used to "level the playing field".

I would be a bit suprised if Edenbridge get more than a token amount of support from BMW, likewise VLR with Peugeot and Barwell from Honda - mind you I would like to be proved wrong!:)

Personally I think and hope that this will encourage more independant teams to enter. After all the Oz V8's have to be independant don't they - and I seem to remember one Matt Neal mixing it with, and beating, works teams when with Team Dynamics, or was I just dreaming?

Oh yes - and indie cars used to qualify for manufacturer points, as Matt Neal in his Nissan. Has this changed?