The BTCC Is A Competitive Racing Series, Where The Littlest Things Can Make A Difference Between First And Second Place
The British Touring Car Championship or BTCC is one of the most competitive and exhilarating tip top championship in the world. Big manufacturers and privateer teams compete for out and out race victories to be crowned British Touring Car Championship. Unlike other championship, the competition is so close that it is not dominated by the big manufacturers, and the Independent teams frequently win races and are typically in the running for both the drivers Championships and the constructor’s championships.
Almost all of this close competition is duty to the rules, the rules are restrictive and even some of the elements that make up the car, like the gearbox and drive trains are standardised components. This is done to reduce the costs and to reduce development time of new cars. Ford managed to develop its Fiesta in Australia and in as little as 14 weeks due to the standardised components. Teams can choose their engine, which is has to be a turbocharger engine with no more than four cylinder is a marksman displacement of 2 L. This will produce around 300 hp and these engines have to be from a mass produced engine and last the entire championship year without needing to be rebuilt. These engines can be fuelled by petrol, bio ethanol, LPG and diesel and to ensure that each fuel produce a similar amount of power the boost pressure turbo is varied. The teams can also design their own suspension, although majority of theparts like this spring’s and dampers are available off the shelf. Also, to minimise costs, one manufacturer of tyres is picked to make one tyre to use on all the race tracks; this has become known as the control tyre. The automobiles have to be based on a production motorcar and everything but the chassis is stripped out and racing seats installed. The roll cage must be tough enough to survive the most severe of crashes and they also have five point racing harnesses and a racing fuel tanks to minimise the risk of fire. This is all done to make the automobiles as safe as possible, as crashes in this formula are regular. Most of these crashesare small but every now and again there is a really big one.
We have heard that the racing is close in the British Touring Car Championship, and as a result even a small advantage can make a difference between finishing first and finishing at all. This is why if you want to be a champion, it is important not to overlook the smallest detail on the race car, such as the wiper blades. But how can wiper blades make a difference to the performance of a race car? The obvious way is in a wet race where wiper blades are required to clear water and mud from the wind screen. It is important that replacement wiper blades are fitted to the cars routinely, as allowing the replacement wiper blades to degrade when they are not in use is hazardous. Their ability to clean the wind screen of water and mud can also be affected by the design. The peak of replacement wiper blade design is one with no metal frame and this is called a flat wiper blade. These flat wiper blades are sprung to give an even pressure along the blade guaranteeing a streak and jump free wipe. The advantages of flat wiper blades are they have no frames, so they can sit closer to the wind screen, which helps smooth the airflow over the car. This enhance airflow can enhance the top speed of the car, whilst raising the down force generated by the rear wing by allowing the airflow to be less turbulent when it reaches it.
