WC TC Vs. ITR

[StephenB]

I was going through the WC Touring Car rules and they seem very close to ITR. Seem welding and attaching the cage to the body look like the big difference in the chasis. I think suspension and engi es are the same but i am not sure... Does anyone have more experience and understand the difference in prep levels. It looks like ITR is actually probably a bit quicker because we dont have a spec tire. If this is all true maybe we should look at these cars as the future of the class...

Stephen

[JoshS]

The lap times for the '10 rules appear to be in the ITR ballpark at various tracks. But under the '09 and earlier rules, these cars were MUCH MUCH faster than ITR cars and STU rules have been designed to accept them.

Interesting thought about the '10 version and ITR, except that there are probably a lot fewer WCT cars than IT cars ... not a big market to pull from.

[Bob Roth]

I think you would be welcome to run WCTC with a ITR car assuming that the car was clean, you had a Hans and met the major rules including marking and tires. (they are going to Pirelli slicks next year). I do think that if you ran more than 1 or 2 races they would make you fully conform.

As for lap times, although its possible that a killer ITR car at their home track might be competive with the TC field, I would expect they would adjust things immediately. This is pro racing and they expect the series cars to win, we are just guests. I rented a ride this year and there were a couple of NASA honda challenge cars in the TC field, its a hoot to run in a pro race.

[dj10]

Even the best built ITR cars would get chrushed by WC cars the were build to WC specs. End of story.

[StephenB]

Yup after posting this in july I have realized they make modifications and allowances specific to a car to make it competitive. For example I'm not sure the rx8 ever came with a 20b in the US.

Stephen

[Andy Bettencourt]

Yup after posting this in july I have realized they make modifications and allowances specific to a car to make it competitive. For example I'm not sure the rx8 ever came with a 20b in the US.

Stephen

Not sure? LOL. The 20B was never a USDM engine.

[StephenB]

Not sure? LOL. The 20B was never a USDM engine.

:) damn... I was going to stick it in and see if anyone noticed! I was 99.9% sure but I am certainly no expert! Funny that the grand-am cars run them and they aren't even available...

Stephen

[lateapex911]

Stephen, how is an RX8 going to even think about running with a Porsche 911 if it isn't allowed MAJOR mods? Now, that's in the big dog GA class. ST class RX-8s run a 2 rotor.

In general, Pro sanctioning bodies equalize performance in any number of ways. Mazda wanted to play in Grand Ams big GT class, but they had no car that could run with 911s, Corvettes and so on, so they petitioned GA to allow them to run their JDM 3 rotor. (highly massaged for racing, and Speedsource campaigns and develops it. Steve Eckeridge, who as you know, posts here, is intimately familiar with the car, and the program.

WC Touring cars from pre '10, as pointed out above, are different beasts than 2010 cars. Heck the Xtrac sequential boxes were $30 to $50K items. Mazdas engines were, lets say, highly modified. Those cars were "shell cars'....they looked stock, but up close, there wasn't much stock left in them. If it wasn't for Mazda and Honda money...to the tune of millions, those cars would not exist.

The current WC ruleset is a huge step towards more "stock". And they have introduced a lower class that has attracted more "normal" level drivers, as opposed to the full on factory programs like Realtime and Mazda.