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BTCC close to finalising flow-test programme

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The British Touring Car Championship’s Engine Technical Review Panel is close to completing its flow-test programme, which will be used to equalise the performance of the various engine configurations in the 2012 season.

The BTCC’s Engine Technical Review Panel, which is made up of all of the teams and engine builders which compete in the BTCC, and headed up by independent consultant Clive Dopson from Lotus Engineering, have been involved in a three month exercise which will set the baseline boost pressure for the engines in the championship, and in so doing avoid the regular adjustments which were seen last season.

“The BTCC prides itself on the great variety it provides in terms of so many different makes and models on the grid,” said BTCC Series Director Alan Gow. “Of course the best car/team/driver combination will always shine through but, with this performance equalisation programme applied to the relevant cars as well as, of course, our normal success ballast system, the BTCC is again shaping up for an even more enthralling season.”

Gow also confirmed that he doesn’t expect to see any normally aspirated cars taking part this season, though in the regulations they’re still eligible to compete. Chevrolet have already announced their withdrawal from the BTCC, and West Surrey Racing are understood to be working on a turbocharged BMW engine for their BMW 320sis, which leaves Tech-Speed, whose best options are to switch cars or to fit the TOCA control engine to their Chevrolet Cruzes.

BTCC Technical Director Peter Riches, speaking on the process added:
“It’s a two-stage programme; firstly, we’ve flow-tested all the engine heads used by all teams in order to establish the baseline engine values and their respective boost levels for the start of the year.”

“Then after two rounds the defined mathematical calculation kicks in and will determine if – and by how much – any adjustments should be made to boost levels of any engines for the next event. It’s an automatic process and is almost exactly the same methodology and system used in the World Touring Car Championship, except they use weight adjustments and we use boost adjustments.”