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BMW
Faithful to its tradition of exploiting motor sport programmes to promote its road cars, BMW confirmed its presence in WTCC in which it clinched the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles three consecutive years, from 2005 to 2007.
In order to support the customer teams, in 2012 BMW Motorsport developed a kit to update the 320si cars to 320 TC, including the 1.6-litre turbo engine.
ROAL Motorsport, directed by the 1987 WTCC champion Roberto Ravaglia, run two cars for Dutch race winner Tom Coronel and Darryl O’Young. Liqui Moly Team Engstler confirmed their 2012 duo of Franz Engstler and Charles Ng, and so did Proteam Racing with Mehdi Bennani. Swiss racer Fredy Barth drives for Wiechers-Sport, while WTCC race winner Stefano D’Aste has established his own team PB Motorsport. -
Chevrolet
After launching the Cruze cars in 2009, Chevrolet managed to win back-to-back Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Although the factory programme has been halted after eight seasons, the Chevrolet brand is still represented by four Cruze cars. Former Chevrolet works team Ray Mallock’s RML, one of the most experienced and winning outfits in Touring Car racing, run two of them for three-time World Champion Yvan Muller and former BTCC race winner Tom Chilton. The Chevrolet line-up is completed by two cars run by bamboo-engineering, for the English duo of James Nash and Alex MacDowall and one entered by Swedish outfit Nika Racing. -
Honda
In 2012 the Japanese car maker made its first WTCC appearance with the new Civic 5-door car at the events in Japan, China and Macau. This is Honda’s first works car racing programme since the brand pulled out of Formula One.
Now Honda is in for its first full season campaign, fielding three cars , built and developed by the Italian outfit JAS Motorsport and powered by the 1.6-litre turbo engine designed by Honda R&D.
Two works cars are run by the Honda Racing Team J.A.S for Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro, while a third machine is entered by Zengö Motorsport for 2012 Yokohama Trophy winner Norbert Michelisz -
LADA
Avtovaz, Russia’s first car manufacturer returned to the WTCC after its campaign in 2009.
After taking part in two events in 2012 with a single Granta Sport car driven by WTCC race winner James Thompson, the LADA Sport team field two cars in the 2013 season, one for Thompson and one for Russian driver Aleksei Dudukalo.
The team have secured the precious collaboration of French outfit ORECA for the technical development of the chassis and the 1.6-litre turbo engine. On top of this the programme is supported by Lukoil Racing, Russia’s major oil company. -
SEAT
Although SEAT Sport had officially left the championship after winning back-to-back Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles in 2008 and 2009, the Spanish brand is well represented with León WTCC cars powered by the new 1.6L turbo engine developed by the factory.
Three cars are raced by the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport that joined WTCC after clinching the 2012 FIA GT1 title. The German outfit signed the reigning world champion Rob Huff in addition to René Münnich and 2012 GT1 world champion Marc Basseng.
Other León cars are run by Special Tuning Racing for Tom Boardman, Tuenti Racing for the 18-year-old Pepe Oriola and Campos Racing.
HONDA ENGINE DESIGNER CONFIDENT AFTER TEST - News
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10 August 2012 11:44 HONDA ENGINE DESIGNER CONFIDENT AFTER TESTDaisuke Horiuchi, Chief Engineer at Honda R&D’s Motor Sports Development Division, is the father of the bespoke 1.6-litre turbo HR412E engine that powers the Civic WTCC.
Are you happy for how things are going after the first track test at Vallelunga?
“This was the first time the engine was running on a proper circuit. We spent the first day to run all the basic system checks, and we also checked the settings. Of course we faced the inevitable teething problems but we could sort them out and the engine worked properly. As a matter of fact the first day was nothing more than a shake down. This enabled us to actually begin the car testing on the second day. So far I am happy and also very confident.”What are the main challenges an engineer must face in building a WTCC engine?
“I have designed many racing engines for different categories, including Indy Car. I was also involved in the Formula One programme, for which I designed the engine head. The main challenge for the WTCC engine was to cope with the minimum weight and the housing. When you build engines for single-seaters you have few restrictions. The approach is to design the lightest possible engine, then the chassis is built around it. The WTCC engine must weigh at least 95 kilos and has to be housed inside the compartment of the production car. Once you have managed to comply with the restrictions of the technical regulations you also have to work on the reliability, as the engine must last for the whole season, roughly for 6000 kilometres.”As you are aware the FIA is working to introduce hybrid technologies in WTCC for the next future. How do you see this possible evolution?
“For sure this is a worldwide trend and all categories of motor sport must follow it. I think that adopting these technologies in touring car racing would be very interesting for all car manufacturers, because all applications may have direct and positive impacts on the normal production cars. Personally speaking I wish this to happen soon.”
Standings
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1.
MULLER Yvan
246 pt.
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2.
TARQUINI Gabriele
133 pt.
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3.
NYKJÆR Michel
127 pt.
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4.
NASH James
113 pt.
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5.
HUFF Rob
107 pt.
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6.
MICHELISZ Norbert
90 pt.
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7.
CORONEL Tom
88 pt.
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8.
CHILTON Tom
87 pt.
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9.
MACDOWALL Alex
73 pt.
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10.
ORIOLA Pepe
67 pt.
- 1. Honda 509 pt.
- 2. LADA 283 pt.
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1.
NYKJÆR Michel
92 pt.
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2.
NASH James
91 pt.
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3.
MACDOWALL Alex
74 pt.
- 1. RML 131 pt.
- 2. bamboo-engineering 84 pt.
- 3. ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport 60 pt.
