BTCC starting this weekend! [Archive]

mr_x

5th April 2006, 18:54

dont know if anyone else is interested, but the British Touring Car Championship is starting this weekend, and it looks like its gonna be the best season since... well.. 2005 :D decent sized grid expected for the first races of the season, quality drivers, and of course, because its the BTCC, the best, closest and most exciting races in the world (in my opinion of course :thumb:)

yes Yvan Muller may have gone, but we have gained Fabrizio Giovanardi who is probably the best touring car driver in the world! also british drivers are once again out in force, Matt Neal (last years champ), Jason Plato, James Thompson, Tom Chilton... its shaping up to be a classic! also got a Bio-Ethonol powered car driven by a female racer, Fiona Leggate, showed alot of promise last year, will be interesting to see how far up the field she gets this year! 2 works teams (Vauxhall and SEAT) doesnt sound like alot, but it doesnt matter, Independant teams (team Dynamics/Halfords, WSR etc) have been coming on strong in the last few years, plenty of variety of cars from Honda Integra's to a BMW, Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch, Honda Civic, Alfa Romeo, SEAT Leon...

if you havent watched it... i suggest strongly to have a watch!:D :D

oh yeah... incase i didnt mention already... i cant wait!!:D

Madman_CZ

5th April 2006, 19:15

should be another good season, lets all hope for some exciting and rainy races :D

danowat

5th April 2006, 20:21

Normally go to the races at Snettie, so should be good.

Reminds me, I must check on the teams competing this year............

Dan,

mr_x

5th April 2006, 20:27

Normally go to the races at Snettie, so should be good.

Reminds me, I must check on the teams competing this year............

Dan,

www.btcc.net new website... all info is there:thumb:

Zero7

5th April 2006, 21:45

And if you fancy some skins....

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/purduespad/LFSSkins.html

Some that I've been putting together. If you're into BTCC then feel free to be Matt Neal if you want. :D

Madman_CZ

5th April 2006, 22:01

good job guys.... the MG looks very sexy!!!! damn!!!!!:D

Fordman

5th April 2006, 22:39

Jakg

5th April 2006, 23:29

BTTC is ok, but i find theres too much contact, they just seem to go banger racing, pushing each other off the track to make a pass, i swear it should be [iDi] Jason Plato!

Went to see the ETTC @ Silverstone, which had (slightly) less contact, then there was the FIA GT as a support race! Sorry, but DBR9 hammering around shooting past MC12's floats my boat more than some 2nd rate drivers playing bumper cars in fwd micras!

danowat

6th April 2006, 05:29

Maybe us Tractor boys should have LFS day out at Snettie, Tristan should be home by then LOL

Sounds like a pretty good plan, last year I managed to blag pit lane passes :thumb:, we did some short notice CNC machining work for a local race outfit, maybe I can blag xome again this time.

Dan,

mr_x

6th April 2006, 07:31

Snetterton is too far away!! Croft is more my cuppa-coffee (don't like tea), maybe doing Knockhill and possibly Donnington now i can drive, just a case of parents letting me take the car :P

mr_x

6th April 2006, 07:35

And if you fancy some skins....

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/purduespad/LFSSkins.html

Some that I've been putting together. If you're into BTCC then feel free to be Matt Neal if you want. :D

nice skins there

I did a team Halfords FZR skin, once the 2006 season kicks off im gonna do some 2006 skins aswell:thumb:

Ryanry64

6th April 2006, 10:46

Think I'll be heading down to Thruxton again this year to catch this. Just hope it isn't as hot as last year, got some major sunburn :Looking_a

bo-kristiansen

6th April 2006, 10:51

TV !!! sat channel? :shy:

_Rob_

6th April 2006, 10:53

Saw it at Thruxton in '99, must go again sometime, is nearest BTCC race to me :)

danowat

6th April 2006, 11:04

TV !!! sat channel? :shy:

MotorsTV had 2005 coverage, I assume they have the 2006 season too.....

Edit, yep, they have live coverage Sunday morning

Dan,

Fordman

6th April 2006, 12:19

MotorsTV had 2005 coverage, I assume they have the 2006 season too.....

Edit, yep, they have live coverage Sunday morning

Dan,

Yep they are covering everything from the BTCC events, including all the support races :D

danowat

6th April 2006, 12:21

Yep they are covering everything from the BTCC events, including all the support races :D

What time you coming round again....:scratchch LOL

Dan,

Fordman

6th April 2006, 12:28

What time you coming round again....:scratchch LOL

Dan,

12pm ROFL. Thats OK, I will be happy with the Frex, you go watch BTCC, oh but wait, I love the BTCC, oh my, choices choices:

BTCC
LFS With Frex
GTL with Frex
NkPro with Frex

What is a man to do

danowat

6th April 2006, 12:31

Hehehehe, its not a problem, my LFS PC is in the bedroom, and we have Sky in there too ;)

Hmmmm......think the missus might want to go out for the day LOL

Dan,

Fordman

6th April 2006, 12:38

Hehehehe, its not a problem, my LFS PC is in the bedroom, and we have Sky in there too ;)

Hmmmm......think the missus might want to go out for the day LOL

Dan,

Oh no, she agreed, dinner on the table ready for 12pm :ices_rofl

mr_x

6th April 2006, 13:12

i don't have sky this year, and i dont know anyone else who has sky and likes BTCC... so i have to stick with the crappy ITV coverage, they got alot of complaints about it last year, so lets hope that its better this year!!:Looking_a

Citywidemicke

6th April 2006, 13:17

Yes that is fun but here in Sweden is not BTCC on TV more :(
So i follow STCC and WTCC and that race i realy like :)

The new seat team this year is realy hot :thumb:

Becky Rose

6th April 2006, 14:15

Ryanry64

6th April 2006, 14:46

mr_x

6th April 2006, 15:30

It's just not the same now that the works teams are here and the likes of Andy Rouse tunned Sierra's aren't filling the grid. It's a great series though, except when the grids shrunk.

When you say Motors is that a satellite channel or itv's Men & Motors? I only have freeview :/

Motors TV is on Sky, it's not the same as Men and Motors, i used to get the two confused! i got freeview thinking "great motors TV" just to find it wasnt!

looks like you are stuck with ITV1 like myself Becky. lets just hope their coverage is MASSIVELY improved over last year!:Looking_a

Unclefloug

6th April 2006, 17:40

been going to knockhill for 10 years now to see the btcc, best motorsport action ive ever seen round that wee track, the new look series (i say new look but its been around since 2001) is good but is nothing compared to the supertouring days, they were awsome.

if anyone lives close enough to knockhill to travel, i'd advise heading up its not to be missed!

Madman_CZ

6th April 2006, 19:52

i really miss the Nissan Primera days.... was the best car in the series. Use to remember in grand tourismo 2 when you bought all of the models from the old touring cars series and upgraded them and bought the paint update it gave you all of the touring cars. Always drove the nissan primera... ahh how fun

toca 2 springs to mind too.. those were the days. Still actually have it laying around somewhere.

mad

v4forlife

6th April 2006, 20:20

was it toca 2 with the secret tank and caddie??

Ryanry64

6th April 2006, 21:53

was it toca 2 with the secret tank and caddie??

I think it was..And the secret lava land track.

Man them were the days, the days when TOCA games were good :scratchch

Madman_CZ

6th April 2006, 23:05

I believe that was Toca 1... toca 2 had those strange test track combos as secrets and that track around the loch (lake) as i right remember :scratchch

either way.. both games were good.

zeugnimod

7th April 2006, 05:37

toca 2 had those strange test track combos as secrets and that track around the loch (lake)

And the hill climb in the alps. :p :D

danowat

7th April 2006, 06:04

bobvanvliet

7th April 2006, 07:43

was it toca 2 with the secret tank and caddie??

The Tank and Lava track were actually in the first TOCA. Man, I played that puppy to death on my old PS1. :thumb:

Edit: Oops sorry, bit of a redundant post. Didn't notice the second page there... ;)

Ryanry64

7th April 2006, 07:55

Me and my friend used to have tank wars at Donington, good times :tilt:

mr_x

7th April 2006, 09:04

i used to love the effect of the flies on the windscreen, genious that was! shame toca games have plummeted to the lowest of lows since then!

Madman_CZ

7th April 2006, 09:32

Yeah, the toca games were good for there time, the only thing the sticks in my head was the HORRENDOUS snap oversteer that the cars had, driving round a fast course like Thruxton in Toca was a scary experiance LOL.

Dan,

Yeah LOL.. i remember Toca one had that sudden snap oversteer. At Donington the Old Hairpin corner was a evil little b******d :D never knew how the car was going to behave. Thruxton was also a problem as you say Danowat, you were going flat out and the suddenly OHH SNAP!!! (sorry been watching too much od the VW adverts :D:D ) and u were gone. Remember the first time i played the Toca1 championship i won it by 2 points from Plato. Such a rewarding last race at Silverstone. Toca2 tho was much improved, handling was much better and it was way more fun. Use to love the split screen mode tho now when u look back the cars are rediculously low polygon... makes me laugh!!!

ahh the days...

now codecrapsters have really messedup the toca series.. ahh what a shame

mad

robt

7th April 2006, 23:38

Gotta see the new season tho, looks good. Only time i went to BTCC was back in 1998 at brands hatch, that was an awesome day.Still get addicted to TOCA 2 at time, team championship was fun. although you could only hear player ones car never player two's. Still hate donnington park on toca 2. car has random jumping moments

mr_x

7th April 2006, 23:52

looking on the btcc.net website Tom Chilton and Jason Plato (my title favourite) have been at it recently, i think there are at least 10 possible race winners this weekend it will definately be interesting!! cant wait :D

paddy_racer

8th April 2006, 00:07

Wooo James Thompson Returns:thumb: to Btcc and race in Wtcc still:shrug:

I believe that was Toca 1... toca 2 had those strange test track combos as secrets and that track around the loch (lake) as i right remember :scratchch

either way.. both games were good.

LOL Mad remember the good Link-up & 2player championship Days on Toca2:thumb:

GT:guitarist
:lfs:

skiingman

8th April 2006, 05:10

Snetterton is too far away!!

:)

You Brits need to realize how lucky you are.

Do you have any idea how far I have to drive to see club racing, let alone professional touring car racing?

Nothing in Britain is "too far away" from anything else..:)

Madman_CZ

8th April 2006, 08:30

Wooo James Thompson Returns:thumb: to Btcc and race in Wtcc still:shrug:

LOL Mad remember the good Link-up & 2player championship Days on Toca2:thumb:

GT:guitarist
:lfs:

lol who are u? do i know u? :p

as i rightly remember the link up for toca2 was crap, the cars kept jumping about all over the place and as soon as you got close to within few meters of a car infront you crashed into each other and things went flying everywhere..........link up wasnt very stable. We did do the two player championship in Toca2 in which i whooped arse though :D muhahahaah

mad

mr_x

8th April 2006, 11:17

:)

You Brits need to realize how lucky you are.

Do you have any idea how far I have to drive to see club racing, let alone professional touring car racing?

Nothing in Britain is "too far away" from anything else..:)

i suppose you have a point.... but are things like petrol, car insurance etc etc just as expensive over there as it is over here??

lets just say the way of life in the good ol' UK is different to life in the US:thumb:

Becky Rose

8th April 2006, 13:51

I have very fond memories of TOCA's linkup, but I did used to play it over LAN. 4 of us all with force feedback wheels when they where new - and the wheel turn onscreen matched exactly the turn of the Microsoft FF wheel. Many a happy championship was won and lost over 'race weekends'... :)

Do you have any idea how far I have to drive to see club racing
We're lucky to get a spectator at club events let alone a commentator. It's all a matter of scale, an American race weekend versus a Scalextric track in someones back garden... I know which i'd rather be racing in.

skiingman

8th April 2006, 20:08

i suppose you have a point.... but are things like petrol, car insurance etc etc just as expensive over there as it is over here??

lets just say the way of life in the good ol' UK is different to life in the US:thumb:

Good point there as well. I just filled up for 2.50 a gallon, which is outrageously expensive by US standards. My insurance is about 1000 dollars a year.

I'm actually flying to the USGP this year, it would be about a 1200 mile roundtrip drive for me and the airline ticket is about 200 dollars roundtrip. I'll drive to the Canadian GP as that is only about 150 miles away. :)

Theafro

9th April 2006, 11:24

I know ( fordie rubbing hands together ) cannot wait. I love the BTCC ( miss the night races though, they was awesome )

Maybe us Tractor boys should have LFS day out at Snettie, Tristan should be home by then LOL

Damn good plan! I'm definatly gonna go this year to the snetterton round.

Lets see how many LFSers we can get together (i'm pretty sure there's a good few of us eastern types in LFS)

Don't forget - traditional pint in the Angel Inn after! (well it's kinda traditional for me anyhow!)

Fordman

9th April 2006, 16:35

Damn good plan! I'm definatly gonna go this year to the snetterton round.

Lets see how many LFSers we can get together (i'm pretty sure there's a good few of us eastern types in LFS)

Don't forget - traditional pint in the Angel Inn after! (well it's kinda traditional for me anyhow!)

Sounds like a date to me :)

Saw the racing today, OMG those SEAT's are flying and also the new MG. Vauxhall's Astra was quick, but tyres crapped out to quickly. Very exciting racing, and ITV put on a good show.

James Thompson, what about him? Leaves for a year, comes back, jumps in the new Seat and wins 2 races. Thats impressive.

All in all, good racing, loads of the traditional BTCC knocks and bumps, and very exciting.

mr_x

9th April 2006, 17:58

Sounds like a date to me :)

Saw the racing today, OMG those SEAT's are flying and also the new MG. Vauxhall's Astra was quick, but tyres crapped out to quickly. Very exciting racing, and ITV put on a good show.

James Thompson, what about him? Leaves for a year, comes back, jumps in the new Seat and wins 2 races. Thats impressive.

All in all, good racing, loads of the traditional BTCC knocks and bumps, and very exciting.

i thought the races today were simply awsome!!

Thommo isnt doing all the rounds this year, and remember he has experience of the Leon from the WTCC, be interesting to see how Darren Turner will do in his place for the 4 rounds Thommo can't make it

i was impressed at the MG's finally some money in the team and they are competitive, the title this year is down to Plato, Neal and Turkington, teams will go between WSR, Halfords and Seat, and the Manufactueres.. unless VXR dont pick up the pace its gonna be Seat there aswell!

nasty accident for Matt Neal, Collard collecting him, racing incident, Collard didnt do it on purpose, Matt just hit the brakes early and caught Collard out, good to hear he's fine though!

tristancliffe

9th April 2006, 18:07

You see this is the difference - some people like F1, others like BTCC. I watched the last two races today at Brands (brilliant circuit in long form), and I wasn't exciting or impressed. I was concerned about Matt Neal (who I remember winning privateer series back in the days when BTCC used race cars). But the standard of driving (or 'push the person in front out of the way') was pretty low. I thought Touring Cars were meant to have passing in them, but it was mostly follow the leader. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's 'wrong' to like BTCC, I just can't see the enjoyment in it...

I didn't watch BTCC last year, as front wheel drive shopping cars don't interest me much, and I'll try to watch more this year to see if this round was just a bad example. Perhaps I'm missing something. As far as I can see the highlight of the show was VBH, who can come round my house anytime...

On the plus side I flew over Snetty today and the 'Bombhole' looks are scary from the air as it does from a car. Wimped out of landing though, like the big girl I am.

mr_x

9th April 2006, 18:21

but it was mostly follow the leader.

you should be used to it, you watch F1 don't you :thumb: and no im not flaming you :D

the first race everything was happening, no one knew where to look next!

yes you raise a point about contact, but its a contact sport! but its all fair, nudging is allowed aslong as the car thats pushing doesnt gain an advantage, people say these cars are worse than the old Super Tourers, i think they arent, the ST cars were faster, but not by much, the current spec cars arent slow at all! nothing wrong with side to side contact, its a characteristic of touring car racing! if theres a gap thats a touring car wide, most of the drivers will go for it!

personally i dont know any other race series in the world that can beat the BTCC for pure excitement!

but thats just my opinion

kidzer

9th April 2006, 18:28

GP2 always give good races :)

ajp71

9th April 2006, 18:34

Videoed the last race and spent most of the time fast forwarding. Far too dull and contact ridden they need more standard cars to keep costs down, grids high and speeds low enough to safely have dicing without contact.

tristancliffe

9th April 2006, 20:16

But if it's non-contact (as I believe all MSA competitions are), and you're not allowed to gain an advantage, how come Plato was allowed (and, I believe, always does it too) to push someone wide and pass him...

Yes, I like F1. It doesn't need much passing for me to find it edge-of-the-seat exciting. But I don't find pushing and barging exciting either. I was hoping for some real wheel-to-wheel racing, constant changes of position etc, but it wasn't like that. I can understand that people find it exciting, but I can't find it exciting myself... Even with grid reversals it was a bit dull, but I gather Matt Neals drive through the pack in race 1, which I missed, was quite thrilling, so maybe I just happened to watch the duller two races? As I said I'm likely to watch other rounds and even go to Snetty if there's an LFS presence, but Brands didn't 'do it for me' :(

ajp71

9th April 2006, 20:33

Quite frankly any racing series which decides its grid by pulling numbers out a hat on live TV doesn't deserve to survive.

Fordman

9th April 2006, 20:50

I can only dream of LFS having the collition detection like the BTCC today. It was plane and simple, legal tristan. He nudged him enough to unnerve him, but not enough to leave some paint work. :D

Matt was fine, which was good to hear, he radio'd back to team early on. Not sure whether the red flag was needed though, they could of done 3-4 laps under safety car while they got matt out of the car, then it would of been a race to the finish, but I guess that they are just looking at driver safety so fair play to them.

Tris, I also remember Matt in the Nissan Primera, and the lovely girls he had on his arms also :)

Remember this was the 1st event of the year, everybody out to prove a point. Thinking back, I remember the first ESL UK race, not alot of difference :D

ajp71 I have to agree with you on that comment. I mean, if I was 11th, and 10th was in sight, I would push as hard as poss to get there. Its all about knowing where you are and what advantage you gain. Bad move on this part

mr_x

9th April 2006, 22:24

they brought in the system cos there was often people like Plato racing for 10th place, slowing down to get 10th, other people caught on and wouldnt pass him, eventually it was getting a little dangerous, so the race winner pulling the number out for the amount of positions (between 6 and 10) to be reversed is a good thing IMO, means we get more pure speed and racing!