BTCC reveals new equalisation approach for 2012

The British Touring Car Championship has announced details of a new approach in order to tackle the issue of engine peformance amongst the turbo competitors in the 2012 season, with the Engine Technical Review Panel (ETRP) overseeing a benchmarking flow-test programme.

The issue of performance parity has troubled the BTCC for much of the 2011 season, most notably with criticisms from teams running the older normally aspirated 2.0 litre engines. However, there was also in-fighting between the turbo equipped teams in 2011, with different measures being applied by TOCA for those running the new Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) teams, those running the low-cost TOCA engine built by Swindon, as well as different measures applied to the Championship winning Honda team in order to equalise the inherent performance discrepancies across the turbocharged competitors.

In order to address this, Lotus Engineering is performing a benchmarking exercise on all of the turbocharged engines for 2012, which is being overseen by the BTCC’s Engine Technical Review Panel (ETRP). This includes members from every engine builder in the Championship, which in 2011 were Neil Brown Engines (Honda), Mountune Racing (Ford), Swindon Racing Engines (Various), Lehmann (SEAT, Audi & VW), X C-Tech R (Toyota), RML (Chevrolet) and BMW – though the latter two were normally aspirated engines originally built for the World Touring Car Championship.

The panel’s independent chairman is Clive Dopson, former Managing Director of Lotus Cars.

“The purpose of this programme is not to make every race engine perform in exactly the same way,” said Series Director Alan Gow. “It’s only right that the best engineering, the best design, the best teams and, of course, the best drivers still see their efforts related to their on-track performances.”

“No, the test programme is simply to reduce any wide performance variances resulting from significant differences in the fundamental port/valve designs of the original production engines. It will identify and quantify those that produce superior airflow through the cylinder head and those that don’t, in order that their baseline turbo boost pressure is set accordingly.”

“Thereafter, during the course of the season, a strict mathematic calculation – based on a rolling average of each model’s qualifying and lap times over a set number of events – will determine if any further changes should be made to their respective boost levels.”

“This will have the virtue of being an entirely clear, definitive procedure which utilises a set calculation and methodology to adjust any significant performance imbalances, based on the qualifying/race lap times achieved by each model. Over the next few weeks we will, of course, be defining the parameters more precisely, once we have validated all the data.”

“The important thing is that our teams have unanimously agreed to both the process of the flow-testing and to the introduction of the boost-adjustment calculation method during the season, as they all very much recognise the huge positive benefits it will have for everyone.”

In 2012, the same regulations as 2011 apply, with performance parity promised between teams which compete to the three separate sets of regulations; those cars which are fully compliant with 2010 FIA Super 2000 regulations (2.0 litre normally aspirated e.g. RML/Chevrolet), those that compete to full NGTC specifications (e.g. Dynojet Racing/Toyota this season) and those running S2000 cars with NGTC engines (e.g. Honda, Ford), the latter two specifications with 2.0 litre turbocharged engines.

However as yet, all of the declared interests for 2012 are for turbo entries only, with the majority of teams planning compete with full NGTC cars. Only Special Tuning Racing and AmD Milltek Racing have indicated they’re likely to compete with NGTC-powered S2000 cars, and no teams at present are planning to compete with a fully S2000-compliant car thus far.