Touring car racing
Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with modified road-going cars. It is popular in Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Norway, it has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, popular in the United States. While not as fast as Formula One, the similarity of the cars both to each other and to fans' own vehicles makes for entertaining, well-supported racing; the lesser use of aerodynamics means following cars have a much easier time passing than in F1, the more substantial bodies of the cars makes the subtle bumping and nudging for overtaking much more acceptable as part of racing. As well as short "sprint" races, many touring car series include one or more endurance races, which last anything from 3 to 24 hours and are a test of reliability and pit crews as much as car, driver speed, consistency. While rules vary from country to country, most series require that the competitors start with a standard car body, but every other component may be allowed to be modified for racing, including engines, brakes and tyres.
Aerodynamic aids are sometimes added to the rear of the cars. Regulations are designed to limit costs by banning some of the more exotic technologies available and keep the racing close. Touring cars share some similarity with American stock car racing governed by NASCAR. However, touring cars are, at least notionally, derived from production cars while today's NASCAR vehicles are based on a common design. For the casual observer, there can be a great deal of confusion when it comes to classifying closed-wheel racing cars as'touring cars' or'sports cars'. In truth, there is very little technical difference between the two classifications, nomenclature is a matter of tradition. Touring cars are based upon family cars, while GT racing cars are based upon powerful sports cars, such as Ferraris or Lamborghinis. Underneath the bodywork, a touring car is more related to its road-going origins, using many original components and mountings, while some top-flight GT cars are purpose-built tube-frame racing chassis underneath a cosmetic body shell.
More there has been an increasing push to make GT cars closer to the road cars with the GT3 set of regulations. Many touring car series, such as the BTCC and the now-defunct JTCC distinguish themselves from sports car racing by featuring front-wheel drive, four-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive cars with smaller engines. Most sports car championships only allow rear-wheel drive cars. While touring cars have a lower technical level than sports cars, there are some exceptions; the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is considered to be one of the most technologically advanced racing series in the world, with cars that, underneath their body shells, are more purebred racing machines than most FIA-GT vehicles. When Sports car racing was created in the inter-war period of the 20th century however, sports cars fulfilled the role Touring Cars do today, as the production car variant of racing compared to the specialised vehicles competing in Grand Prix racing. Over time Touring Cars has drifted from its role as racing cars based on modern road cars with categories like NASCAR and DTM having little to no connection to road cars.
This in turn has led to the rise of Production car racing to fulfil the role once performed by Touring Cars and Sports Cars before that. Worldwide Modern World Touring Car Championship started in 2005, evolving from the reborn European Touring Car Championship. Running at major international racing facilities, this series is supported by BMW, SEAT and Chevrolet; the latter fields a works team, whereas the other two only sell racing kits to be installed on their cars, providing technical support to their customers. In 2011 Volvo entered the championship, fielding a one-car team as an evaluation for a possible heavier commitment to the series; the World Touring Car Championship features 1.6-litre cars built to Super 2000 regulations based on FIA Group N. Following the trend of recent FIA rules, cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. In 2011 the rules concerning the engine capacity have changed, switching from 2000 cc to 1600 cc turbo engines. Cars equipped with the old 2000 cc engines are still eligible in the championship.
Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, for example: variable valve timing, variable intake geometry, ABS brakes and traction control. United Kingdom The British Touring Car Championship competes at nine circuits in the UK with cars built to Next Generation Touring Car specification, with ballast being used to equalise performance. From 2011, cars that ran to the BTCC's own Next Generation Touring Car specification were eligible to compete in a phased move away from Super 2000 regulations. Cars are 2.0-litre saloons, station wagons and hatchbacks with over 350 bhp and can be front or rear-wheel drive. During the 2016 season manufacturer team entries came from Subaru, MG and Honda. Since BTCC budgets have been kept low, there is a strong independent and privateer presence in the championship. Manufacturers represented by privateers include Vauxhall, Toyota, Volkswagen and Audi. Prior to 2001 the BTCC was contested by cars built to 2.0-litre supertouring regulations and had in its heyday up to nine different manufacturers.
Joachim Winkelhock stated on several occasions that it was the best touri
FIA GT Championship
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The championship was concentrated in Europe, but throughout the years has visited other continents including Asia and South America. At the end of 2009, the championship was replaced by the FIA GT1 World Championship, which morphed into the FIA GT Series for 2013. FIA defines several categories of GT cars with the top two specifications being GT1, or Grand Touring Cars, GT2, or Series Grand Touring Cars; each category has an annual driver champion, team champion, manufacturer champion. Both categories are based on production road car designs, which must be produced in a minimum quantity of 25 examples to qualify. Both types may undergo significant modifications from the road car they are based on, but GT1 allows the use of exotic materials, better aerodynamics, larger brakes, wider tires and larger engine admission restrictors. For the 2006 season, the FIA created a new class called GT3.
GT3 cars are closer to their production counterparts and are simply racetrack prepared with the essentials. All cars are performance balanced together via different weights, tyre pressures etc. Prestigious motorsports makes such as Aston Martin, Dodge, Lamborghini and Maserati take part in FIA GT3 European Championship, a support series in some rounds of the main championship; the FIA defines a GT car as "an open or closed automobile which has no more than one door on each side and a minimum of two seats situated one on each side of the longitudinal centre line of the car. This car must be able to be used legally on the open road, adapted for racing on circuits or closed courses." All races in the FIA GT Championship were of endurance type, a full race distance lasting a minimum of 500 km or a maximum of three hours, with the exception of the Spa 24 Hours, Istanbul 2 hours and the exhibition Mil Milhas Brasileiras, run over a thousand miles and was planned to be a round of the championship in 2007.
However, with the release of the 2007 FIA GT Championship schedule and rules, the FIA GT series becomes more of a sprint race event, with all races being a maximum of 2 hours with the exception of the Spa 24 Hours. In 1997, due to increasing interest from manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz and Panoz, the FIA took over control of the expanding BPR Global GT Series, standardizing the race-length at 500 km instead of the usual four hours, liberalizing the technical regulations and leaving commercial exploitation in the hands of one of BPR's founders, Stéphane Ratel, who managed to get TV support from the pan-European TV station Eurosport; the new manufacturers built "homologation specials", racing-bred cars that took full advantage of the new rules, to build quasi-prototypes with limited production runs of 25 cars. Chrysler and Marcos, not wanting to accompany the cost escalation, moved down to the GT2 class; this proved to be the wisest move, as Mercedes dominated the new category and the other manufacturers pulled out after the end of the 1998 season.
This left Chrysler's Viper to become the dominating car in the series, with the aging Porsche 993 GT2 and the Lister Storm providing a certain degree of competition. However, there was no lower inexpensive category for amateur drivers, this led to the creation of the N-GT class in 2000. While the manufacturer field in the main class blossomed, the new category became swamped with Porsches and Ferraris, but lower running costs meant both classes enjoyed a balanced number of entries. In order to boost the championship's status, the SRO added the 24 Hours of Spa a touring car race, to the calendar, where it became the series' most important race; the FIA banned official manufacturer involvement, although certain teams had preferential treatment, with Porsche establishing a "round robin" system. After the end of the 2004 season, the FIA renamed the classes GT1 and GT2, somewhat liberalized the GT1 regulations, allowing "supercars". While this was made to accommodate the Saleen S7, the biggest beneficiary was the purpose-built Maserati MC12, which lead the FIA to impose aerodynamic limitations on the Italian car.
However, thanks to a weight penalty system, the fight for the championship is protected from more domineering cars. The level of competition remains tight, with gentlemen drivers managing to fight for the wins with professional drivers, some of them with Formula One experience. Following the 2009 season, the SRO announced that the FIA GT Championship's two categories, GT1 and GT2, would break off into separate series; the GT1 category became a world championship with rounds across the world. Cars which fit the GT1 class were eligible to race only in the FIA GT1 World Championship, as the ACO banned the cars from the event and all of its associated series; this meant that the category that once was eligible to race not only in the FIA GT, Le Mans Series and numerous national championships, was now only able to run in the new World Championship. A few GT1 were entered in the LMGT1 class at the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans; the GT1 cars continued to race in the World Championship in 2010 and 2011, but in 2012 the series switched to GT3 machinery due to shrinking car counts and the fact that most of the cars were ageing and no one was willing to build new models.
This meant that the San Luis round of the 2011 season was the last time GT1 cars contested in international motorsport. The 2012 FIA GT1 season was contested with GT3 cars (yet retaining GT1 in se
Ferrari F2004
The Ferrari F2004 was a successful Formula One racing car designed by Rory Byrne, Ross Brawn and Aldo Costa for the 2004 Formula One season. Based on the previous season's F2003-GA, the F2004 continued the run of success the team had enjoyed since 1999, winning the team's 6th straight Constructors' Championship and 5th straight Drivers' Championship for Michael Schumacher, his 7th, final, world drivers' title in 2004, it is one of the most dominant cars in the history of Formula One. The car brought a close to Ferrari's and Michael Schumacher's five-year domination of the sport, leaving the door open for Renault and Fernando Alonso; the car was taken a step further. The periscope exhausts were smaller and mounted closer to the car's centre line, the rear wing was enlarged and the rear suspension redesigned to reduce tyre wear, a major problem in the F2003-GA; the engine was designed to last a full weekend in accordance with the FIA's technical regulations for the season. As a result, the gearbox had to be redesigned to be more resilient.
The car was as successful as the dominant F2002, winning 15 out of 18 races, scoring 12 pole positions including many lap records. Michael Schumacher won a single-season record of 13 races and gained a record breaking seventh World Championship, while Ferrari was a clear winner in the Constructors' Championship. After the 2004 season the car was developed further as a testbed for 2005 and used in the first two races. Despite a podium finish in the 2005 Australian Grand Prix, the car was retired to make way for its successor, the F2005, at the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix. In all, the car scored 272 championship points in its career, but its championship in 2004 marked the end of Ferrari's Constructors' Championship winning streak, beginning with the 1999 Formula One season; the F2004 was used as the basis for the 2008 "Powered by Ferrari" A1 Grand Prix car. The fastest laps at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Nürburgring GP-Strecke, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Autodromo Nazionale Monza and Shanghai International Circuit all remain the current lap records though five out of these eight tracks are still used in F1 as of 2018.
* 10 points scored with the F2004M Ferrari F2002 Ferrari F2003-GA Ferrari F2005
Magny-Cours
Magny-Cours is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France. It is best known for being the home of the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, a famous motor racing circuit, it hosted the Formula One French Grand Prix. Communes of the Nièvre department INSEE commune file Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
The Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari is a motorsport race circuit near the Italian town of Imola, 40 kilometres east of Bologna and 80 kilometres east of the Ferrari factory in Maranello. The circuit is named after his son Dino who had died in the 1950s. Before Enzo Ferrari's death in 1988 it was called'Autodromo Dino Ferrari'; the circuit has FIA Grade 1 license. It was the venue for the Formula One San Marino Grand Prix and it hosted the 1980 edition of the Italian Grand Prix, which takes place in Monza; when Formula One visits Imola, it is seen as the'home circuit' of Ferrari and masses of tifosi come out to support the local team. Imola, as it is colloquially known, is one of the few major international circuits to run in an anti-clockwise direction; the track was inaugurated as a semi-permanent venue in 1953, it had no chicanes, so the run from Rivazza all the way to Tosa, through the pits and the Tamburello was flat out, as was the run from Acque Minerali all the way to Rivazza was just a long straight with a few small bends.
In April 1953, the first motorcycle races took place, while the first car race took place in June 1954. In April 1963, the circuit hosted its first Formula One race, as a non-championship event, won by Jim Clark for Lotus. A further non-championship event took place at Imola in 1979, won by Niki Lauda for Brabham-Alfa Romeo. In 1980 Imola debuted in the Formula One calendar by hosting the 50th Italian Grand Prix, it was the first time since the 1948 Edition held at Parco del Valentino that the Autodromo Nazionale Monza did not host the Italian Grand Prix. The race was won by Nelson Piquet and it was such a success that a new race, the San Marino Grand Prix, was established for Imola in 1981; the race was held over 60 laps of the 5 kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 300 kilometres. Imola has hosted a round of the Superbike World Championship from 2001 to 2006 and since 2009, it hosts the final round of the FIM Motocross World Championship since 2018. The World Touring Car Championship visited Imola in 2008, 2008, 2009.
The venue hosted a round of the International GT Open from 2009 to 2011. The TCR International Series raced at Imola in 2016; the 6 Hours of Imola was revived in 2011 and added to the Le Mans Series and Intercontinental Le Mans Cup as a season event until 2016. Since 2017 it hosts the 12 Hours of a round of the 24H Series; the track was used as part of the finishing circuit for the 1968 UCI Road World Championships, which saw Italian cyclist Vittorio Adorni winning with a lead of 10 minutes and 10 seconds over runner up Herman Van Springel, the second largest winning margin in the history of the championships, after Georges Ronsse's victory in 1928. In addition Adorni's countryman Michele Dancelli took the bronze and five of the top six finishers were Italian; the circuit was used for stage 11 of the 2015 Giro d'Italia, won by Ilnur Zakarin, stage 12 of the 2018 Giro d'Italia, won by Sam Bennett. Despite the addition of the chicanes, the circuit was subject to constant safety concerns regarding the flat-out Tamburello corner, bumpy and had dangerously little room between the track and a concrete wall which protects the Santerno river that runs behind it.
In 1987, Nelson Piquet missed the race due to injury. In the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix, Gerhard Berger crashed his Ferrari at Tamburello after a front wing failure; the car caught fire after the heavy impact but thanks to the quick work of the firefighters and medical personnel Berger survived and missed only one race due to burns to his hands. Michele Alboreto had a fiery accident at the Tamburello corner testing his Footwork Arrows at the circuit in 1991 but escaped injury. Riccardo Patrese had an accident at the Tamburello corner in 1992 while testing for the Williams team; the death of Ayrton Senna on 1 May 1994 sealed the fate of the corner being run flat out again. In the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, during Friday practice Rubens Barrichello was launched over a curb and into the top of a tyre barrier at the Variante Bassa, knocking the Brazilian unconscious, though quick medical intervention saved his life. During Saturday qualifying Austrian Roland Ratzenberger crashed head-on into a wall at over 310 km/h at the Villeneuve corner after his Simtek lost the front wing, dying from a basilar skull fracture.
The tragedy continued the next day, when the three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna lost control of his car and crashed into the concrete wall at the Tamburello corner on Lap 7. He succumbed shortly after impact as a piece of the car had pierced his skull. In two unrelated incidents, several spectators and mechanics were injured during the event. In the aftermath, the circuit continued to host Grands Prix, but revisions were made in an attempt to make it safer; the flat-out Tamburello corner was reduced to a 4th gear left-right sweeper, a gravel trap was added to the limited space on the outside of the corner. Villeneuve corner an innocuous 6th gear right-hander into Tosa, was made a complementary 4th gear sweeper with a gravel trap on the outside of the corner. In an attempt to
Motorsport
Motorsport or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which involve the use of motorised vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition. The terminology can be used to describe forms of competition of two-wheeled motorised vehicles under the banner of motorcycle racing, includes off-road racing such as motocross. Four- wheeled motorsport competition is globally governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile; the Union Internationale Motonautique governs powerboat racing while the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale governs air sports. In 1894, a French newspaper organised a race from Paris to Rouen and back, starting city to city racing. In 1900, the Gordon Bennett Cup was established. Closed circuit racing arose. Brooklands was the first dedicated motor racing track in the United Kingdom. Following World War I, European countries organised Grand Prix races over closed courses. In the United States, dirt track racing became popular.
After World War II, the Grand Prix circuit became more formally organised. In the United States, stock car racing and drag racing became established. Motorsports became divided by types of motor vehicles into racing events, their appropriate organisations. Motor racing is the subset of motorsport activities which involve competitors racing against each other; the Red Bull RB8, the 2012 Formula One World Championship winning car Formula racing is a set of classes of motor vehicles, with their wheels outside, not contained by, any bodywork of their vehicle. These have been globally classified as specific'Formula' series - the most common being Formula One, many others include the likes of Formula 3, Formula Ford, Formula Renault and Formula Palmer Audi. However, in North America, the IndyCar series is their pinnacle open-wheeled racing series. More new open-wheeled series have been created, originating in Europe, which omit the'Formula' moniker, such as GP2 and GP3. Former ` Formula' series include Formula Two.
Formula One is a class of single-seat and open-wheel grand prix closed course racing, governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, organized by the owned company Formula One Group. The formula regulations contain a strict set of rules which govern vehicle power and size. Formula E is a class of open-wheel auto racing; the series was conceived in 2012, the inaugural championship started in Beijing on 13 September 2014. The series is sanctioned by the FIA and races a spec chassis/battery combination with manufacturers allowed to develop their own electric power-trains; the series has gained significant traction in recent years. A series originated on June 1909 in Portland, Oregon at its first race. Shortly after, Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1909 and held races that ranged from 50-200 miles, its premier race is the Indianapolis 500 which began on May 11th, 1911 and a tradition was born. Today, Indycar operates a full schedule with over 40 different drivers; the current schedule includes 14 tracks over the course of 17 races per season.
Josef Newgarden was crowned current champion of the Indycar Series at Sonoma Raceway on September 17th, 2017 in Sonoma, California. Enclosed wheel racing is a set of classes of vehicles, where the wheels are enclosed inside the bodywork of the vehicle, similar to a North American'stock car'. Sports car racing is a set of classes of vehicles, over a closed course track, including sports cars, specialised racing types; the premiere race is the 24 Hours of Le Mans which takes place annually in France during the month of June. Sports car racing rules and specifications differentiate in North America from established international sanctioning bodies. Stock car racing is a set of vehicles that race over a speedway track, organized by NASCAR. While once stock cars, the vehicles are now purpose built, but resemble the body design and shape of production cars. Bootleggers throughout the Carolinas are credited for the origins of NASCAR due to the resistance during the prohibition. Many of the vehicles were modified to increase top speed and handling, to provide the bootleggers with an advantage toward the vehicles local law enforcement would use in the area.
An important part to the modifications of stock cars, was to increase the performance of the vehicle while maintaining the same exterior look giving it the name Stock car racing. Many legends in NASCAR originated as bootleggers in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina like Junior Johnson. Organized oval racing began on Daytona Beach in Florida as a hobby but gained interest from all over the country; as oval racing became larger and larger, a group gathered in hopes to form a sanctioning body for the sport. NASCAR was organized in 1947. Daytona Beach and Road Course was founded where land speed records were set on the beach, including part of A1A; the highlight of the stock car calendar is the season-opening Daytona 500 nicknamed'The Great American Race', held at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. NASCAR has now held over 2,500 sanctioned events over the course of 70 seasons. Richard Petty is known as the king of NASCAR with over 200 recorded wins in the series and has competed in 1,184 races in his career.
Touring car racing is a set of vehicles, modified street cars, that race over closed purpose built race tracks and street courses. Off-Road Racing is a group
World Sportscar Championship
The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar and road racing events in Europe and North America with dozens of gentleman drivers at the grid, to a professional racing series where the world's largest automakers spent millions of dollars per year; the official name of the series changed throughout the years, however it has been known as the World Sportscar Championship from its inception in 1953. The World Sportscar Championship was, with the Formula One World Championship, one of the two major world championships in circuit motor racing. In 2012 the World Sportscar Championship was revived and renamed as the World Endurance Championship. Among others, the following races counted towards the championships in certain years: 24 Hours of Le Mans 1953– Mille Miglia 1953–1957 1000 km Nürburgring 1953– RAC Tourist Trophy 1953–1964 12 Hours of Sebring 1953– Carrera Panamericana 1953–1954 Targa Florio 1955–1973 1000 km Monza 1963– 1000 km Spa 1963– 12 Hours of Reims 1964–1965 24 Hours of Daytona 1966–1981 1000 km Buenos Aires 1954–1972 1000 km Zeltweg 1966–1976 1000 km Fuji 1983–1988 Norisring 200 Miles 1984–1988 Watkins Glen 6 Hours 1968-1971,1973-1980 In the early years, now legendary races such as the Mille Miglia, Carrera Panamericana and Targa Florio were part of the calendar, alongside the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Tourist Trophy and Nurburgring 1000 km.
Manufacturers such as Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin fielded entries featuring professional racing drivers with experience in Formula One, but the majority of the fields were made up of gentleman drivers in the likes of Nardis and Bandinis. Cars were split into Sports Car and GT categories and were further divided into engine displacement classes; the Ferrari and Maserati works teams were fierce competitors throughout much of the decade, but although Maserati cars won many races the make never managed to clinch the World title. The Mercedes-Benz work team pulled out of the championship after 1955 due to their crash at Le Mans, while the small Aston Martin factory team struggled to find success in 1957 and 1958 until it managed to win the championship in 1959. Notably absent from the overall results were the Jaguar works team, who did not enter any events other than Le Mans, despite the potential of the C- and D-Types. In 1962, the calendar was expanded to include smaller races, while the FIA shifted the focus to production based GT cars.
The World Sportscar Championship title was discontinued, being replaced by the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. They group cars into three categories with specific engine sizes. Hillclimbs, sprint races and smaller races expanded the championship, which now had about 15 races per season; the famous races like Le Mans still counted towards the prototype championship, the points valuation wasn't tabular so the FIA returned to the original form of the championship with about 6 to 10 races. For 1963 the three engine capacity classes remained. For 1965 the engine classes became for cars under 1300 cc, under 2000 cc, over 2000 cc. Class III was designed to attract more American manufacturers, with no upper limit on engine displacement; the period between 1966 and 1971 was the most successful era of the World Championship, with S and P classes, cars such as the Ferrari 512S, Ferrari 330 P4, Ford GT40, Lola T70, Alfa Romeo 33, Porsche's 908 and the 917 battled for supremacy on classic circuits such as Sebring, Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, Targa Florio, Le Mans, in what is now considered the Golden Age of sports car racing.
In 1972 the Group 6 Prototype and Group 5 Sports Car classes were both replaced by a new Group 5 Sports Car class. These cars were limited to 3.0 L engines by the FIA, manufacturers lost interest. The new Group 5 Sports Cars, together with Group 4 Grand Touring Cars, would contest the FIA's newly renamed World Championship for Makes from 1972 to 1975. From 1976 to 1981 the World Championship for Makes was open to Group 5 Special Production Cars and other production based categories including Group 4 Grand Touring cars and it was during this period that the nearly-invincible Porsche 935 dominated the championship. Prototypes returned in 1976 as Group 6 cars with their own series, the World Championship for Sports Cars, but this was to last only for two seasons. In 1981, the FIA instituted a drivers championship. In 1982, the FIA attempted to counter a worrying climb in engine output of the Group 5 Special Production Cars by introducing Group C, a new category for closed sports-prototypes that limited fuel consumption.
While this change was unwelcome amongst some of the private teams, manufacturer support for the new regulations was immense. Several of the'old guard' manufacturers returned to the WSC within the next two years, with each marque adding to the diversity of the series. Under the new rules, it was theoretically possible for aspirated engines to compete with the forced induction engines that had dominated the series in the'70s and early'80s. In addition, most races ran for either 500 or 1000 km going over three and six hours so it was possible to emphasize the "endurance" aspect of the competition as well. Group B cars, a GT class, were allowed to race, but entries in thi
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004, 2004)
