Suprised no one has mentioned, even if its just to bemoan the appearance of diesel in touring cars, or the validitiy of touring car racing in this day and age.

Yesterday was the first round at Curitiba, and I didn't think 2009 could be any worse than 2008, but it was.

Qualifying and the race was a SEAT diesel road train, nothing else could touch them, in the dry they were a bit faster, in the wet, it was a complete whitewash, they were going past the BMW's and Chevy's like they were standing still.

I am going to change tack now, and say diesel has no place in touring car racing, not because of the fact that its diesel, but the fact that its proving almost impossible to balance them with petrol cars.

the FIA need to outlaw diesel, and they need to do it soon.

On a positive note, the new Chevy Cruze looks like it could be a competitive car (against the BMW's, not the SEAT's obviously) and it was a bit of a laugh to see the Lada's!!!

I haven't seen the races, downloading them atm. I heard Seats were dominating, and BMWs were nowhere. That's sad. Even with 20hp handicap, Seats are faster... I'll edit this post as I watched them, I'll have more things to say.

why not they all be deisel, its much more efficient and the cars have way more torque.

Quote from Mustafur :

why not they all be deisel, its much more efficient and the cars have way more torque.

I really wouldn't like to see that, and I like diesel engines, but for them to REPLACE petrol's?, that'd be a bad move IMO.

Diesel engines are great, but personally I prefer the petrol ones. Diesels are quiet, no sound, no rev, not really enjoyable.

Quote from Mustafur :

why not they all be deisel, its much more efficient and the cars have way more torque.

I think it was John Cleland on Eurosport yesterday discussing it with the other commentator who summed it up perfectly...Diesels just don't stir the soul like a high revving NA engine. It is this effect on people that draws them to motorsport in the first place - the noise, the smell. With the diesel cars it's all a bit 'Meh'.

Apparently they will check the balancing by comparing the lap times of the faster cars of each manufacturer over 3 races, if there is greater than 0.3 sec/lap difference then measures will be taken. In the dry race the gap was not as large as this, if you didn't count the Ladas.

Quote from Bean0 :

I think it was John Cleland on Eurosport yesterday discussing it with the other commentator who summed it up perfectly...Diesels just don't stir the soul like a high revving NA engine. It is this effect on people that draws them to motorsport in the first place - the noise, the smell. With the diesel cars it's all a bit 'Meh'.

A very true, if not entirely PC point.

I didn't think much of the opening meet as a spectacle. The Seat trains and watching them destroy the rest in wet and dry was pretty dull

The rain really shoud have made things more interesting, but theres a big something missing.

Quote from Mustafur :

why not they all be deisel, its much more efficient and the cars have way more torque.

Haven't seen a diesel producing the same amount of torque (or power) as a petrol engine when the odds are evened out... If you compare a turboed engine to a naturally aspirated one, of course the turbo will produce more torque...

Curtiba was just so unfair in qually with all the Seat's towing or drafting. They will of course win the condtructors championship. Does nobody think that they should have two teams in contructors championship, Seat Sport #1 + Seat Sport #2 . To give every team a fair shot for constructors title ?

Quote from Töki (HUN) :

Diesel engines are great, but personally I prefer the petrol ones. Diesels are quiet, no sound, no rev, not really enjoyable.

Yeah...

I think if this series was still petrol only it could bring much more to it than now. I was on WTCC at Brno last year, and I had a problem to hear Seat coming in qual, tbh. Still besides of this, wtcc's one of most watchable series there, but those Seats just.... hm.

We will see how Seats will be with balast next races, personally I enjoyed much more a period somewhere in 2007, I've actually posted the vid somewhere already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keg6sCKbwHE

Now compare that racing with Curitiba 09 race. Such a difference, yeah? I just hope Seats will not go like this for whole season. I am already used to a very high standard of wtcc races and I think they should do something about it to keep that up!

Still this was only first race. Maybe the other one will be totally different. Chevy ftw! Cruze is fantastic car.

Seat will destroy the wtcc just like alfa romeo did in 1994 with the aero package in the BTCC.

i hope they will kick the TDI out soon.. or make the petrol engines with a turbo to.. i'll bet the diesel wouldn't stand!

but personal i preffer just NA petrol engines. Diesel is for lease cars.. not racing!!

Quote from aobrien :

Curtiba was just so unfair in qually with all the Seat's towing or drafting. They will of course win the condtructors championship. Does nobody think that they should have two teams in contructors championship, Seat Sport #1 + Seat Sport #2 . To give every team a fair shot for constructors title ?

Well at the end of the day, theres only one constructor, that's Seat, for example, BMW have plenty too, but they're all BMW's built by the same constructor. Team work I suppose, nothing wrong with drafting

get rid of the bloody diesels, no place for that shite in motorsport

What about n/a deisel(would be extremly hard to get decen't power though) or give them less power as they have a huge torque advantage.

I think FIA just need to bite the bullet and realise that no matter what they do, they will never balance the TD's with the petrols.

Quote from Mustafur :

why not they all be deisel, its much more efficient and the cars have way more torque.

Retard.
The race wasn't really exciting, would like Eurosport to show the other Lada's as well, I didn't really see them in any of the races.

Racing was okay but I'm not happy they don't have weight ballasting anymore. That's what made the WTCC, the WTCC.

yeah, I don't really get why they got rid of the ballast. I think it was Cleland who kept on going on about seeing who "truly is the fastest driver now", but that just means boredom for the spectators.

The races where quite disappointing, I thought the second race would be good with the rain, but I couldn't believe it when the BMWs just got eaten up like XRT's vs FXO's circa 2006 . It could be even worse next meeting (if thats posssilbe) as the TD's have the most advantage around Mexico track.

I like the new chevy, looks way better than last year. And it was a shame they didnt show more of the Ladas, even if they do look a bit like a confused hatch back/saloon , they look better than the Seats.

Quote from Mischief007 :

Racing was okay but I'm not happy they don't have weight ballasting anymore. That's what made the WTCC, the WTCC.

They haven't. Only in the first two races to see how to level the cars out.

Say what you want, the race was fun to watch
Really nice fights!

Quote from Sir moi 407 :

Say what you want, the race was fun to watch
Really nice fights!

you must have been watching a different race then......

I only saw race 2 and honestly it was cool

Race 2 was even more boring than race 1. Except for when people when off the track now and then.

Quote from Mikkel Petersen :

They haven't. Only in the first two races to see how to level the cars out.

From my understanding was that they completely got rid of the ballasting and after the 3 races they will see how they stack up against each other and then ballast the cars. But I don't think we will see the 70 KG max weight anymore.

Some cars currently have ballast, I know that a certain BMW is ballasted due to them using a sequential gearbox.