Leave it to NASCAR to totally screw up North American road racing

DTM-type cars here? Hells yeah.

http://www.grand-am.com/News/GA_News/tabid/141/Article/53395/grand-am-imsa-dtm-announce-technical-licensecooperation-agreement.aspx?cid=6383&sid=1

In reply to aussiesmg:

I agree wholeheartedly.

By the way, yes, we're already talking to higher-ups at Grand-Am to get you guys more of the story.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Danke schön!

Send Mr France to discuss V8Supercars next, pleeeeeaaaaassee

aussiesmg wrote: Send Mr France to discuss V8Supercars next, pleeeeeaaaaassee

No doubt, huh?

DTM has a world-wide model that can easily include American manufacturers. This could have some serious legs.

IIRC Chrysler already competes in DTM don't they? I thought there's a DTM 300C.

looking forwards to seeing a CTS-V in DTM trim

That's awesome! I've always wondered why something like this wasn't done.

Excellent thread title as well. You're very, very sneaky sir.

Leave it to North American road racing to totally screw up NASCAR.

z31maniac wrote: Excellent thread title as well. You're very, very sneaky sir.

Thanks.

if Gm can bring something like the CRV, and Chrysler has some midsized v8 cars.. what will ford bring to the table?

Fellow GRM peeps, is it just me or are we the only ones excited by this news?

I've been reading some of the comments on twitter and even on my own social networking page at work and it seems like people don't really give a damn. In some cases people are actually peeved because they feel that IMSA should focus on strengthening the new series vs. expanding.

Can someone else just be excited about this with me? I see no reason not to be excited about more road racing in NA.

(I also want to help make a widebody GT500)

Would it be called ATM?

Do I remember that the technology found in DTM cars is up there close to F1? As in uber-expensive? Not sure, memory going bad.

I'm going to follow these proceedings with great interest.

This is awesome. I absolutely love any of the touring car races across the pond and would be a huge fan of a similar series here.

omgomgomgomg

I just hope "fox sports 1" will actually cover it. It's frustrating to see "nascar classics" on the only gearhead channel when you know there are dozens of road races happening all over the country at that exact moment.

But I highly doubt they will cover any "new" form of racing now. . . . have you guys noticed the transition already happening on the channel?? . . . . fox sports news desk. . . . Commercials for "speed2" . . . . new douchey commentators. . . only thing missing is Some MMA highlights with the fox sports football music playing in the background. It reminds me of the days when they took the m out of mtv and made mtv2. . . . this is bound to suck.

sorry, my rant is a little off topic

I really hope more people get interested in this.

Protege2886 wrote: Fellow GRM peeps, is it just me or are we the only ones excited by this news?

I can say that I'm not.

I've tried to watch what is currently DTM, and only wish that it was closer to what it was 20 years ago.

At this point, NASCAR, Aussie V8, and DTM are the same thing- A chassis of some type, an engine of X power, and a body pretending to be a car. They are all restricted to be basically the same car, they all sound the same, they bear no real resemblence to a real car, etc.

All the great historic racing film we see of cars are intersting because they are real cars- the movies of Trans Am car, the cool movie of the Escort vs. the Camaro at Crystal Palace, the old DTM cars that still had to be 155s, M3s, and 230's, superbird NASCARs.

I like the BTCC, even though it's a common engine. At least they are more real than DTM, ASV8, and Cup cars. And the ETCC is also good.

When is saw the rumors a few years ago in Racecar Engineering, I was interested, since the DTM seemed to understand that the direction they were going, just a few of the OEM's were interested. I hope I'm wrong.

But that's just me. It's easy to choose not to watch.

I am excited about it, though I am bummed that DTM has become effectively a spec class, even if it is a pretty spectacular spec. The cars may be even more identical than F1, but at least they agreed to be that and don't have 24/7 wind tunnels blowing money away to gain a 0.001% advantage in their almost-identical car...

I believe the bulk of the car is a joint design by Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, differentiated by each manufacturer's bodywork and engine. Same carbon tub, suspension, steering, gearbox, driveshafts across all of them.

I'd love to see a freer hand in design, but I've watched a tiny bit of modern DTM, and it looked like pretty good racing, and however same the cars are, I find them dead sexy.

Regarding the BTCC, aren't they on their way to spec subframes to go with the engine? Or am I thinking WTCC?

NA OEM response: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130326/motorsports/130329839

Protege2886 wrote: NA OEM response: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130326/motorsports/130329839