Talk:Touring car racing

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For the BTCC section I've excised these paragraphs as they contain factual errors, POV theories to try and explain why the BTCC may not be as popular worldwide as it once was, and a curious Honda/Thompson emphasis. It's now much more concise, and any more info needed ought to be on the BTCC page itself.

At one point the BTCC was considered one of the most important touring car championship in the world. Millions of people worldwide watched Renault clinch the 1996 championship with their Laguna. Support and enthusiasm for the series has dropped dramatically since the 2000 championship which was contested only by Honda, Ford and Vauxhall. The previous season had seen nine manufacturers vying for trophies. Honda was expected to walk the 2000 season yet somehow managed to barely scrape second place ahead of Vauxhall.

It is interesting to note that the decline of this series' popularity coincided with the replacement - by virtually all teams still in the Championship - of saloon cars, for which the BTCC has always been famous, such as the Peugeot 406 and Honda Accord - with smaller "hot hatches" such as the Peugeot 306 and Honda Civic-R.

In its 1990s heyday, the cars were larger and much more powerful, presumably why the series was so much more popular back then.

Teams normally run two cars. In 1999, Honda ran three Accords at certain events, and in 2001 a lone privateer Honda Civic-R competed with the few prestigious teams remaining. In previous years Honda has enjoyed success with its Accords. Yorkshireman James Thompson nearly clinched the title several years in succession, being let down by the most outrageous bad fortune (and several needlessly aggressive manouevres which saw him disqualified from more than one podium finish).

Heycos 15:29, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] United States Touring Cars

We have a touring car league. It's called the Sports Car Club of America Speed World Challenge Touring Car Championship (Speed Touring Cars for short). 67.188.172.165 18:22, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed merger of Production car racing into this article

The Production car racing stub could easily be merged into this article, with a specific section if necessary. They are very closely interrelated. Adrian M. H. 00:45, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

I don't support this merger - what about something like FIA GT4, which is essentially production racing for sports cars? That belongs in Sports Car racing. The Production Car Racing article should link to both touring car and sports car racing articles, as category of 'production car racing' encompasses varieties of both branches of the sport. Pete Fenelon 06:27, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

I think you mean GT3. All GT classes should be covered by an article on GT racing, spun off from the article on sports car racing, and I am in the process of writing this. Adrian M. H. 13:15, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

No, I mean GT4. GT4 supports even fewer modifications than GT3. [1] Pete Fenelon 20:13, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

My assertion still applies. Adrian M. H. 20:17, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

To point out, what about Group N and its US term, showroom stock; would these count as touring car racing. If these are merged, then a section would needed to explain the difference between the two. On the other hand, what would make the merge complicated is that one-make racing can be seen as production car racing. Willirennen 16:07, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

There's an interesting point here. Originally all racing cars were production cars. Over time cars used in competition became increasingly radical compared to road registerable vehicles. This schism, which occured in the 1910's-1920s became emphasised with the terms Racing cars and Sports cars. Racing cars evolved into the open wheel creations of today, while Sports cars became the production based cars.

Over time Sports cars used in competition became increasingly radical compared to road registerable vehicles. This schism, which occured roughly in the 1950's-1960's became emphasised with the terms Sports cars and Touring cars. Sports cars evolved into the specialised closed wheel prototypes of Le Mans that we know today, with GT's splitting off from Sports cars in the 1980's-1990's, while Touring cars became the production based cars.

Over time Touring cars used in competition became increasingly radical compared to road registerable vehicles. This schism, which occured roughly in the 1990's-2000's became emphasised with the terms Touring cars and Production cars. Touring cars evolved into the specialised silouhette racers of NASCAR, DTM, Super2000 and V8 Supercar that we know today, while Production cars became the production based cars.

So no, I reject completely the merger idea. --Falcadore (talk) 07:21, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] NASCAR/Touring Car

The introductory chapter is a little misleading. In this, it shares some similarity with the American stock car racing (governed by NASCAR); however, touring cars are actually derived from production cars while NASCAR vehicles are custom built (although in the early days of NASCAR, stock cars were in fact built from production cars, much like current day touring cars.) The two largest touring car series clash with this definition. DTM utilises custom built rather than production derived vehicles, and V8Supercar share very little with road going versions, the Holden Commodores are actually cut and half and shortened amongst the many modifications. Really it needs to be amended to include NASCAR as a touring car series, the difference between Touring Car and Stock Car is essentially semantics. --Falcadore (talk) 08:38, 15 April 2008 (UTC)