Bamboo Engineering to run new Cruzes in 2014

Silverstone-based bamboo-engineering will focus on the World Touring Car Championship for 2014, running a pair of brand new RML-designed Chevrolet Cruzes in the Championship and closing down its GP3 programme.

The British squad are set to win their first Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy title this season, and with James Nash in contention for a position as high as second in the overall drivers’ standings, with the team having taken two victories this season with the current specification Chevrolet Cruze.

With new rules coming into force next year, Citroën, Honda and Lada as the three manufacturers committed to the Championship will be introducing all-new cars, whilst RML will develop a new version of the Chevrolet Cruze with a development on the current Global Racing Engine for customers next year, with bamboo, a customer of RML for five years, the first to announce it will be running two of the new cars.

“The WTCC is going through a big change for 2014 with the new regulations and the competition is increasing with the arrival of Citroën,” said bamboo chief executive Richard Coleman. “We have decided not to continue in the GP3 series for next season – we can proud of our record there with fastest laps, podiums and a win bringing the fight to established teams.”

The team also competed in the GP3 Series this season, but will hand over control of its team to Russian Time for 2014, though bamboo hasn’t ruled out also competing in other formulae in 2014.

“We are going all out to finish third in this year’s drivers’ World Touring Car Championship and become independent world champions and finish second in the teams trophy, and this for a team of our size and budget will be a major achievement,” added Coleman.