Photo: Mediaempire.se

Honda gains weight for Gothenburg

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The Honda Accord of Tomas Engström is the sole car to get more weight ahead of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship races in Gothenburg next weekend.

After the strong performance of Engström at Mantorp Park, with two podium finishes, 20 kilos has been added compared to the last race, giving a total weight of 1150 kilo for the Honda Accord. This, however, is still 40 kilos from the maximum weight.

Nearly all of the other cars are on maximum weight three races in to the season. The SEAT León is on +30 kilos, making its base weight 1180 kilos.

The BMW 320si E90 was the fastest car at Mantorp Park, closely followed by the Volkswagen Scirocco, just 0.021 seconds behind. The Volvo C30 is right up there as well, a further 0.053 seconds adrift.

The overall time differences are nearly the same as on Mantorp, with the BMW 320si and the Volvo C30 being the two fastest cars after three races, closely followed by the Chevrolet Cruze 0.1 seconds behind, the Volkswagen Scirocco a further tenth behind and the Alfa Romeo 156 of Mattias Andersson 0.3 seconds behind.

The weight system adds maximum weight to the fastest car and the cars that are 0.3 seconds within the average time of the fastest car.

The cars that are over 0.3 seconds from the fastest car gets 10 kilos subtracted, the first car over 0.6 seconds gets another 10 kilos subtracted and so on.

Weight list for Gothenburg

+40 kilo = 1225 kilo – BMW 320si E90 [6 speed SQ-box]
+40 kilo = 1210 kilo – BMW 320si E90 [5 speed H-box]
+40 kilo = 1200 kilo – Volkswagen Scirocco
+40 kilo = 1205 kilo – Chevrolet Cruze
+40 kilo = 1199 kilo – Volvo C30
+30 kilo = 1180 kilo – Alfa Romeo 156
+30 kilo = 1180 kilo – SEAT León TFSi
+30 kilo = 1160 kilo – SEAT León TFSi [Jason Watt]
+-0 kilo = 1150 kilo – Honda Accord
-20 kilo = 1120 kilo – BMW 320i E46

Time differences Mantorp Park

+0.000 sec – BMW 320si E90
+0.021 sec – Volkswagen Scirocco
+0.074 sec – Volvo C30
+0.122 sec – Honda Accord
+0.125 sec – Chevrolet Cruze
+0.379 sec – SEAT León TFSi
+0.658 sec – Alfa Romeo 156
+2.600 sec – BMW 320i E46

Overall time differences

+0.0 sec – BMW 320si E90
+0.0 sec – Volvo C30
+0.1 sec – Chevrolet Cruze
+0.2 sec – Volkswagen Scirocco
+0.4 sec – Alfa Romeo 156
+0.4 sec – SEAT León TFSi
+0.7 sec – Honda Accord
+2.8 sec – BMW 320i E46

Details

A total of ten parameters are used for each car model in the calculation of time differences between the car models:

1 – Fastest laptime in qualifying
2 – Second car’s fastest laptime in qualifying
3 – Fastest laptime in the first race
4 – Second fastest laptime in the first race
5 – Second fastest car’s fastest laptime in the first race
6 – Second fastest car’s second fastest laptime in the first race
7 – Fastest laptime in the second race
8 – Second fastest laptime in the second race
9 – Second fastest car’s fastest laptime in the second race
10 – Second fastest car’s second fastest laptime in the second race

If a car model is only represented with one driver, parameters 2, 5, 6, 9 and 10 are not used.

The difference value given by this calculation then sets the weights for the difference car models. A maximum of 40 kilos can be added and a maximum of 20 kilos can be subtracted from the base weight.