European Touring Car Championship
The European Touring Car Championship ( European Touring Car Championship shortly FIA ETCC ) was from 2001 to 2004 by the FIA held. The European Touring Car Cup has been running under the abbreviation ETCC since 2005 .
history
1963-1988
It had a forerunner of the same name, a championship that took place from 1963 to 1988 and peaked in the 1970s. In the beginning it was even held with large sedans such as the Mercedes-Benz 300SE , later with z. B. BMW Coupé . In Germany, the German racing championship became a counterpart.
2001
In 2001 the FIA announced another European championship for touring cars. The year before, there was the Euro-STC-Cup, which was organized from Italy and emerged from the Italian Superturismo Championship . In 2001 the cup status became an official FIA championship. The first year of the new EM should act as a transition year. As part of the Super Racing Weekend , races were held separately in two different classes. Well-known regulations were used for the first year. On the one hand, the class 2 regulations for the super touring cars ( STC ), which were continued from the Italian championship and which had meanwhile expired in most national racing series. On the other hand, the very near-series Super Production regulations ( SPC ) were used, which were very similar to the German DTC regulations. The STC pilots drove two races over 50 km each, in which the starting grid for the second run is in the reverse order of the result of run one. In contrast, the SPC pilots drove a race over 70 km.
Development of the Super 2000 regulations
During the 2001 season, the manufacturers involved worked on uniform regulations for the following year. The result was the new Super 2000 regulations. These regulations were BMW first a rejection, because unlike the SPC Regulations, which largely dictates the use of standard parts, the Super 2000 regulations allowed more constructive freedoms. The development and vehicle costs were too high for BMW. It was therefore planned to first fill the field of Super 2000 vehicles with Super Production Cars ( SPC ). But then the FIA made a few concessions to BMW: was a conventional H gear prescribed in contrast to the sequential gearbox. However, these transmissions were allowed again for 2003. For Volvo and Prodrive , who at this point were already very far with the development of the new Volvo S60 , this sometimes meant starting all over again. For example, they only had to develop an H gearbox especially for the 2002 season.
The sporting process at the European Championship was aligned with that of the STC . They drove two runs of 50 km each, but now only the first eight eligible points of the first run were reversed on the starting grid for run 2.
2002
The first season with the new regulations was dominated by Alfa Romeo at the beginning . Therefore, in the middle of the season, the regulations were slightly changed to ensure more balance. So the 30-kilogram weight advantage of the front-wheel drive (including Alfa Romeo and Volvo ) over the rear-wheel drive BMW was abolished. The new basic weight for everyone was 1155 kg. It was believed that front-wheel drive cars with modern differentials are actually no worse on the racetrack than rear-wheel drive cars. While the upper speed limit for four-cylinder cars like Alfa remained at 8500 rpm, five- and BMW six-cylinders were allowed to turn significantly higher with 8750 and 9000 rpm, respectively. In addition, the new set of rules provided for additional weights for the top three points on a race weekend, which then had to be "dragged along" for the next two races. This could not change anything about the title of Alfa Romeo driver Fabrizio Giovanardi , but Jörg Müller was able to secure the runner-up in the BMW.
2003
After just one season, Volvo’s European Championship project, which was carried out jointly with the British racing company Prodrive , is history: the continuation, like participation in the STCC , was canceled for financial reasons, although in 2002 it was quite possible to keep up with Alfa and BMW on the track. But with the Italian ART team, the use of the Volvo S60 was continued privately . With Rickard Rydell , the driver from the previous year was also retained.
For the 2003 season, a new works team was announced, so that 3 works teams were still represented in the European Championship. The Spanish VW subsidiary Seat returned to international sport in 2003 with two Toledo cars. They were driven by the German Frank Diefenbacher and the Spanish Jordi Gené , who switched from BMW to Seat Sport.
Another spectacular change was made by the 2002 master Fabrizio Giovanardi , who switched from Alfa Romeo to BMW , and thus also from a front-wheel drive to a rear-wheel drive. However, he experienced a very difficult 2003 with Roberto Ravaglia's team there, with little success, especially compared to his fellow brands. Gabriele Tarquini , who won the championship in an Alfa Romeo again in 2003, followed in the footsteps of Fabrizio Giovanardi . Seat was able to set a high point in its first season. Frank Diefenbacher took the first podium for the Spaniards at the German run in the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben .
Another highlight of the season was Alessandro Zanardi's guest appearance at the finale in Monza . It was the return to active motorsport for the two-time champ car champion who lost both legs in a serious accident in September 2001 at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz . In a 320i specially converted for him by Ravaglia Motorsport, he had already tested during the season.
An FIA working group for diesel vehicles already met in the European Touring Car Championship during the 2003 season, including eight manufacturers: Alfa Romeo , BMW , Ford , Honda , Opel , Seat , Volkswagen and Volvo . It was not until 2007 that the first diesel-powered touring car started racing.
2004
Fabrizio Giovanardi returned to Alfa Romeo after a disappointing year at BMW . His place in the BMW team of Roberto Ravaglia took Alessandro Zanardi one that is now denied the full season in touring car. After Volvo withdrew from the European Championship and the modest year 2003 at ART, Rickard Rydell moved to Seat Sport after ten years at Volvo to drive another Toledo.
There were several in-house developments, some of which were private, to be seen this season: As the German DPM also switched to the Super 2000 regulations this year , the Ford Focus ST was adapted to the new regulations. The RS-Line team also used such a focus in the EM. Since it was not a pure Super 2000 touring car and therefore only started with a special permit, Sebastian Grunert , Roland Asch and Thomas Klenke were mostly only found in the back of the field. Things didn't go much better for the Peugeot 307 used by the Danish Peugeot Sport team , while Alessandro Balzan in the JAS- Honda Accord was able to ride up front in the Independent Trophy.
The championship went to BMW for the first time this season. At the final in Dubai Andy Priaulx was able to equalize the deficit on Dirk Müller . Since there was a tie, the title went to Andy Priaulx, because with five wins he had more than Dirk Müller who only won three times. This should remain the last European Touring Car Championship for the time being.
On June 30, 2004, the World Automobile Federation (FIA) decided in Paris to convert the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) into a World Championship (WTCC) from 2005 onwards . In 2005, there were events for the FIA touring cars in Asia and America.
The following car brands were represented in 2004: Alfa Romeo , BMW , Ford , Honda , Peugeot , Seat
Timeline and transition to WTCC
| Brands of the ETCC / WTCC participants | European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) | World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2000s | 2010s | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | |||||
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Overall winner
1963-1988
2000-2004
See also
Web links
- Official website of the FIA European Touring Car Cup (English)
- Official website of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (English)
- History of the ETCC ( Memento of November 2, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- SuperTouringRegister.com (English)
- SuperTouringCars.net (English)
- FIA STC Article 262 (English)