Debated rule change for 2008 season
An updated version of the Swedish Touring Car Championship rules has been released for the 2008 season. A lot of small details have been changed, but there are a couple of more interesting changes. The weight reduction for running with bio-ethanol has been doubled, from six kilos to twelve. This is something that already has caused debate due to the new Volvo C30 that is going to be very light compared to its opponents.
The C30 is being build according to the STCC national S2000 rules which means a base weight of 1100 kilo. With the bio-ethanol engine the car will weigh in at 1088 kilo. That will make the car more than 50 kilos lighter compared to the FWD cars with sequential gearbox (Honda, Chevrolet, etc) and the BMW 320si E90 with H-patternd gearbox. The car will also be more than 80 kilos lighter compared to the BMW 320si E90 with sequential gearbox, something that has caused many team owners and drivers to raise their eyebrows.
FIA S2000 cars
FWD with H-gearbox 1110 kg
FWD with SQ-gearbox 1140 kg
RWD with H-gearbox 1140 kg
RWD with SQ-gearbox 1170 kg
STCC-national S2000 cars
FWD with H-gearbox 1070 kg
FWD with SQ-gearbox 1100 kg
RWD with H-gearbox 1100 kg
RWD with SQ-gearbox 1130 kg
In the rules, however, the STCC states that they will change the weights individually after inspection and testing. As the diesel cars start to make their entrance in S2000 the STCC-organisation have lowered the weights for them.
FIA diesel S2000 cars
FWD with H-gearbox 1150 kg (-30 kg)
FWD with SQ-gearbox 1170 kg (-25 kg)
RWD with H-gearbox 1180 kg (-20 kg)
RWD with SQ-gearbox 1200 kg (-15 kg)
Other changes to the rules are that the pitstop window is reduced by ten minutes compared to 2007. The pit speed limit has been decreased from 60 km/h to 50 km/h. A “new” penalty has been introduced – “10 second stop and go” which is to be converted to +30 seconds in the final results of the race if given during the 5 last laps of the race.
Many of these changes are made due to events during the 2007 season. The 30 second penalty only being allowed before the 5 last laps is due to the chaos at Knutstorp in August of 2007.
The incident where Frank Stippler was penalized at Mantorp for not holding his line at the start has also made the rules change. Now it is clearly specified in the rules that a car is not allowed to pass the midpoint of the track during the start.
A very large part in the rules have been added about the seal of the engines. Volvo got their engines checked after the two first races of the STCC 2007 which indicates that incident being one of the contributing facts to the extensive clarification of those rules.
A small but significant change to the privateer rules is that a FIA S2000 classified car from 2005 now is allowed for privateers. A 2006 spec’ car of the national S2000 rules are also allowed for privateers.
