Technical director clarifies rule changes

TouringCarTimes was contacted by the STCC-organization after the article we published yesterday about the updated STCC rules for the 2008 season. Technical director Johnny Haraldsson commented some of the changes, as the weight for the new Volvo C30.
“We want to clarify that we have not set the final weight for the Volvo C30. We will carefully examine the car during the inspection and during the pre season tests. I would be surprised if we will not set the weight at 1140, just as the S60 from last year had,” said Haraldsson.

On paper the C30, which has bio-ethanol engine, FWD, sequential gearbox and is nationally homologated, is allowed to weigh 1088 kilo. That would make it 50-80 kilos lighter than its opponents. But Haraldsson points out that both the old S60 and the Audi A4 was nationally homologated but still ran at 1140 kilos, just as the other front wheel driven FIA S2000 homologated cars.

During the pre season testing STCC AB with Johnny Haraldsson will keep an close eye on the progress of the Volvo to be able to set the weight. The fact that the team could be “sandbagging” during the tests is not something Haraldsson is worried about.

“I do not think that will be a problem. We have the possibility to check them during the test, logging and weigh the car. They have to go full speed at some point before the season premiere,” said Haraldsson.

As for the changed parts in the rules regarding the seal of the engines Haraldsson points out that it has got nothing to do with the teams that got their engines checked during the 2007 season.

“We checked three different engines last year, one Volvo, one Audi and one BMW and found nothing illegal. The extensive addition in the rules regarding the engine seal is taken straight from the WTCC rules that we follow closely,” said Haraldsson.