Wouldn't a standard Mclaren F1 (or one on slicks) be as quick as a touring car around a fast circuit like Silverstone? The power advantage is HUGE and it ain't too sloppy round corners and on braking.

 

Yes this banter is all well and good but who would win in a fight a Shark or a Tiger?

Anyone?

 

Having been round a track in the passenger seat of both the old regs (Mondeo/Paul Radisich) and new regs (Astra/James Thompson at Jerez a few weeks ago) touring cars; the TC would leave an Impreza for dead.....

 

Biggest advantage they will have is weight (or lack of it ) IIRC the new Touring Cars only weight around 750-800kg? Not far off half the weight of an impreza thus approaching double the PWR....plus slicks, race honed suspension, gearshift, brakes....

Obviously a stage 2 cossie would beat the touring car though

 

Rough guide - around Knockhill (1.3 miles), touring cars are lapping at around 52-53 seconds. Standard UK Impreza with a decent driver is around 65-66 seconds (so would get lapped every four times around or so )

 

There has really ever been one car close to a Touring Car.

The RS500.

Gary, a stage 2 scoob just Blows UP

 

Dingy
The RS500 would be close to a touring car then because it WAS a touring car???

 

I remember Car magazine drove the Mondeo, BMW and Honda BTCC cars from '95, and they weren't so much impressed by the power (in fact even Car's tester said after a couple of laps he could have done with an extra 50bhp), more the ability to stop on a 5p piece and the cornering grip.

 

Its not a very fair comparison (turbo/non turbo, stripped down/road car, racing suspension and braking/road suitable suspension and braking, no emissions to worry about/MOTs!, but a lot would be down to driver! The scoob would need to be much more perfect on the corners due to the power to weight ratio.

I think an ideal lap would be reasonably close, on a circuit that suited the scoob, if it suited the touring car more then it would be a significant gap I believe. If you shed some serious weight from the scoob, much closer.

Dotn forget the 4WD Audi's suffered big weight penalties when they were too competitive for the FWD cars. The 4WD does help.

Also, the touring cars are tuned to each circuit with gear ratios etc, if you did this to the scoob it would help.

Sod touring cars tho, have you seen how fast those racing trucks are, faster than a touring car upto 100! Now that would be scarey!!

robski

 

Back at Donington last December there was a race prepared Vectra - it was considerably faster through the corners due to all the above points (mainly weight and suspension I suspect thoough), yet we all caught him on the straights (he nothing like our power). Not quite a modern touring car but showed a small insight into how different actual race cars are.

 

There was some race car like Astra thing at the Castle Coombe rally day organised by the Mitsu Lancer Register.

I remember thinking, we'll it won't be much faster will it ? and seeing it power up the big straight absolutely blitzing about 3 or 4 Evo / Scoobs that were spaced out by about 50 metres each.

The car was just a comnpletely different class of fast than the road cars. Much like I would imagine a Scoob out on track with a load of 800cc Fiat Panda's.

 

a BTCC engine also has a mental power band from 5500rpm to 8500rpm - torque is held right through that range at over 200lb/ft - describing as 300bhp doesn't do them justice really.

I've got a detuned (vaux) version in my semi-track car mk2 - punts it along at a fair old pace - even with 210bhp it'll just about match an Evo/Sti, straightline.

 

A silly question I know, but it just popped into my head...
Anybody got any lap time comparisons (any track) for a very quick road going Impreza (like Scoobysport's) compared to a modern touring car like the Astras that always win these days.
IIRC they have similar power (around 300bhp) so if the Impreza was fitted with similar sized slicks to eliminate the tyre advantage, then how much extra does the touring car gain from aerodynamics, lightening gear changes, massive brakes and stupidly low and stiff suspension etc? Just curious?

 

Ermmmm...quite a lot!

Stef.

 

"EVO" mag had a feature last year(ish) with a Lotus Esprit V8 vs Laguna BTCCcar...(Mr Plato from memory)

They tested both cars with Journo and racer - HUGE difference between them (BTCC car well ahead - 'specially in faster corners where the aero kit was working).

Can't remember any of the times, but Esprit was a country mile behind. (Despite lesser power to weight, the BTCC car was able to carry so much speed out of the corners that peak speed was still higher than the Esprit - even after a decent straight).

 

many of us have been round donington, which is where the btcc are next.....