New Global Touring Cars concept launched for national championships

Australian company Pace Innovations has launched a new touring car formula named Global Touring Cars, featuring 500 hp V8 engined rear-wheel drive touring cars.

“Racing at the top level is often seen as a compromised mix of technology wars and team orders, and an expensive pastime for well-backed hobbyists on the tiers below. What the Global Touring Car (GTC) Series aim to provide is thrilling racing for true motorsport fans, and an opportunity for franchise investors to make money from a proven race series concept,” said executive director Mark Woolley.

Behind the new concept is Mark Woolley, who has worked with events and consulting within motorsport for 15 years, racing driver Gary Formato and race engineer Vic Maharaj, with backing of chairman Michael Formato.

Their ambition is for the concept to spread to national championships around the globe, as well as offering a complete package to run a championship in a franchise setup.

“We want to bring the focus back on serious affordable racing. We can offer a readymade national series with rules, regulations, commercial rights assistance, prize funds, structure and homologated cars with everything but the bodyshell complete – it just requires buy-in from teams and franchise owners who have identified this is a viable way of making money from motorsport. Global Touring Cars does not aim to compete with any existing Touring Car series, but to create a new niche in the market. This is through the combination of the design of the GTC car and our desire to create a network of GTC franchises,” said Woolley.

Pace Innovations are behind the design of the new COTF V8 Supercars regulations, as well as the New Zealand V8 SuperTourer chassis.

The GTC cars are built on a spaceframe chassis with a 500 hp V8 engine, rear-wheel drive, 6-speed sequential gearbox, 18” wheels, brakes from Brembo and dampers from Öhlins. All cars will be identical mechanically, with the chassis designed to fit cars in the size of the Ford Focus, Audi A3, Mercedes CLA and more. Cost estimation of the car is reported to be around 85 000 €.

Pace Innovations claim to have signed its first franchise in South Africa for 2014 where the first GTC car has been delivered, a Ford Focus, as shown in the pictures. The championship is set to start in the third quarter of 2014.