Autoesque

Following a merger of the FIA World Touring Car Championship and the TCR International Series, 2018 will see the inaugural staging of the FIA World Touring Car Cup. This promising series, which has adopted TCR technical regulations, is intended to attract more manufacturers to top-flight saloon car racing.

With Citroën currently dominating the FIA World Touring Car Championship, the series needs another manufacturer to challenge the French brand. Conveniently, Volvo has just announced plans for a two-car team that will take to the grid next season.

Honda has published the first image of the Civic that’ll be competing in next season’s World Touring Car Championship.

Citroën has previewed the car that Sébastien Loeb will be driving in the 2014 World Touring Car Championship.

The highlight of Seat’s display at the imminent GTI-Treffen at Wörthersee, Austria is likely to be this just-revealed Leon Cup Racer.

Honda has signed up Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro to drive its new European-spec Civic race cars in the 2013 FIA World Touring Car Championship. Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro Of course, Tarquini is a hugely experienced and successful saloon car racer, having won the 1994 British Touring Car Championship, the 2003 European Touring Car Championship and the 2009 WTCC drivers’ titles. The move to Honda reunites the two drivers as team-mates, as both previously drove for Seat Sport in the WTCC. Monteiro joined the Spanish outfit in 2007, just after his Formula One career had drawn to a close. Development of the WTCC Civic has been entrusted to J.A.S. Motorsport, while the 1.6 litre turbocharged engine is being built by Honda with input from Mugen. As part of the programme, a single car is going to compete at this year’s last three rounds with Tiago Monteiro behind the wheel. Although Honda certainly faces a big challenge in 2013, Chevrolet’s withdrawal from the...

Chevrolet has unexpectedly announced that it will be pulling out of the World Touring Car Championship at the end of this season. The works programme, run in conjunction with RML, has competed in the WTCC since the series was revived in 2005. Its most successful years were 2010 and 2011, which saw the Chevrolet team secure consecutive constructors’ championships and drivers’ titles for Yvan Muller. 2011 WTCC Drivers' Champion Yvan Muller in his Chevrolet Cruze. That winning streak has yet to show any signs of abating, because Muller currently sits atop the 2012 points table with team-mates Rob Huff and Alain Menu in second and third places. Eric Nève, Chevrolet Motorsport Manager, commented: “Naturally, making this announcement comes with very mixed emotions. This has been an amazing journey from our first season through to the double championship wins with the Cruze. “We are extremely proud of the success we have achieved, including giving GM its first FIA World Champ...

Comic book racing driver Michel Vaillant might not be particularly well known in the UK, but he is enormously popular in France and Belgium. Originally created in 1957 by French artist Jean Graton, Vaillant has appeared in seventy publications as well as both live action and animated television series. Now the character is set to compete in a real-life motor race - the seventh round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship in Portugal, which takes place on the 3rd of June. Swiss driver Alain Menu will be playing the part of Vaillant, and his Chevrolet Cruze, its truck and the team’s uniforms will all bear a special livery. In the role of Jean-Pierre Vaillant, Michel’s elder brother and boss of the fictional Vaillante team, will be Chevrolet Motorsport Manager Eric Nève. Philippe Graton, Jean Graton’s son, commented: “The most amazing thing about Michel Vaillant is that he exists somewhere between fiction and reality. His stories have always been so accurate and realistic...

This year’s FIA World Touring Car Championship will see another manufacturer joining the series. Honda has confirmed that it’s developing a race car based on the brand new European-spec five-door Civic in collaboration with J.A.S. Motorsport and Mugen, which will be powered by a 1.6 litre turbo engine. For the 2012 season, the team is planning a limited race programme that’ll include the final three rounds in Japan, China and Macau. Then, in 2013, two cars will be entered into every event. The move to compete in the WTCC won’t affect Honda Team Dynamics’ participation in the British Touring Car Championship. Related posts: 2012 WTCC calendar 2012 BTCC calendar Honda teases new Civic

Motor racing fans in the UK are going to be disappointed that the Brands Hatch event has been dropped from the World Touring Car Championship for 2012. The season calendar, as agreed by the FIA World Motor Sports Council, also sees the disappearance of the Belgian, Czech and German rounds. But four races replace those that have been lost: for the first time, Austria, Argentina and the United States will get to host WTCC events, while the Moroccan meeting is reinstated. 2011 WTCC Drivers' Champion Yvan Muller. A change to the technical regulations sees a full move to 1.6 litre turbo engines, although older 2.0 litre Super 2000 models and touring cars running in national championships may still be accepted. Their inclusion, which is a sensible tactic to try and boost grid sizes, will be approved on a race-by-race basis. Regarding the events themselves, the distance of each round in 2012 is to be increased to between 50 and 60 kilometres (about 30 to 40 miles), and the syst...

At the same meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council that ratified the 2011 Formula 1 calendar , the dates for the 2011 World Touring Car Championship were also agreed. The big changes are that the Belgian race at Zolder disappears, while the Portuguese and Japanese rounds move to Porto and Suzuka respectively. New venues are Buenos Aires in Argentina and a yet to be confirmed Chinese circuit. A Mexican round has failed to reappear on the schedule, following the enforced cancellation of this year’s event at Puebla due to security fears in the region. The WMSC also confirmed that next season 1.6 litre turbo cars will be eligible to compete alongside the existing Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 cars. 2011 WTCC calendar Date Race 20 March Curitiba, Brazil 03 April Buenos Aires, Argentina 15 May Monza, Italy 05 June Marrakech, Morocco 19 June Brno, Czech Republic 03 July Porto, Portugal 17 July Brands Hatch, Great Britain 31 July Oschersleben, Ger...

The FIA has changed the points system for the World Touring Car Championship . Instead of the top eight finishers scoring (allocated on a 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 basis), the first ten will now be awarded points: 1st: 25 points 2nd: 18 points 3rd: 15 points 4th: 12 points 5th: 10 points 6th: 8 points 7th: 6 points 8th: 4 points 9th: 2 points 10th: 1 point This brings the WTCC in line with the new system already adopted by F1 and the World Rally Championship for the 2010 season. The much larger points disparity - especially for the podium positions - is designed to push drivers to battle on, as just one place difference could have a big impact on their overall standing. Arguably, given the already close racing in touring cars, that’s more applicable to F1 than the WTCC.

The FIA has published the entry list for the 2010 World Touring Car Championship . The grid is down to twenty cars, following the withdrawal of the Seat and Lada works teams and a reduction in the BMW factory effort from five to two cars.  The Spanish manufacturer however remains committed to supporting privateers running the Leon. By contrast organisers are surprised at the absence of Lada, as only last year it committed to a three-year programme.  Perhaps it would have been more surprising if the Russian manufacturer had decided to participate, given its circumstances.  Lada’s parent company Avtovaz was facing bankruptcy, its problems caused by dramatically reduced demand and mounting debts.  Only a bail-out by Renault and the Russian state in November 2009 kept it going. Gabriele Tarquini, who at 47 was the oldest World Champion ever when he won the WTCC title in 2009, will be returning to defend his title, driving a diesel Seat Leon run by SR-Sport.  Thr...