The TCR International Series was an international touring car championship. The championship was promoted by World Sporting Consulting (WSC), founded by former World Touring Car Championship manager Marcello Lotti. It was marketed as a cost-effective spin-off of the WTCC, targeted at C-segment hatchbacks production-based touring cars. The title TCR follows the naming convention now used by the FIA to classify the cars that compete in touring car racing, with TC1 referring to the top tier as used by the FIA WTCC and TC2 referring to the legacy cars which principally compete in the FIA ETCC .
28-472: On 6th December 2017, FIA's World Motorsport Council announced that the series will merge with World Touring Car Championship and European Touring Car Cup starting in 2018 . On 15 July 2014, Lotti revealed further details on the TCR series. On the same day it was announced that the TCR series will award a Drivers' Championship title and a Teams' Championship title. The number of teams will be limited to eight and
56-685: A combined circuit of the road course and the then newly constructed NASCAR speedway), Wellington in New Zealand and Mount Fuji in Japan . The Championship was well-supported by the factory European teams of Ford , BMW , Maserati and Alfa Romeo (until Alfa withdrew following the European races), but was embroiled in controversy. Unfortunately, the leading BMW Motorsport teams and the Ford Europe backed Eggenberger Motorsport had developed
84-495: A fourth SEAT for Alex Yang , however he was about to become a father, so he was replaced by Jiang Tengyi . Nykjær however left the team after the Russian round, due to budget issues. He was replaced by Michela Cerruti . For the second Austrian round at Red Bull Ring they again fielded a fourth SEAT, this time for Gabriele Marotta . Comini won the championship with 30 points clear of his nearest challenger Pepe Oriola while
112-789: A later date their planned car and driver line-up. On 31 October 2014, a provisional calendar for its inaugural season was released. It will consist of twelve weekends, four in Asia , five in Europe , two in South America and one to be announced. On 7 November 2014, the fourth team was announced: the Swedish STCC team WestCoast Racing will join the series with three Honda Civics build by JAS Motorsport . On 20 November Liqui Moly Team Engstler announced they will participate with Volkswagen Golfs and Franz Engstler will be driving one of
140-459: A motor manufacturer. This can sometimes be a motor racing team running cars of behalf of the manufacturer or cars being run directly by the factory. Below is a timeline of manufacturer entries from the beginning of the championship in 2005. Target Competition Target Competition is an Italian auto racing team based in Eppan an der Weinstraße , Italy . The team is currently competing in
168-868: A provisional calendar for the 2015 season was released on 31 October, it became clear that the first event will take place at the Sepang International Circuit on 29 March. Lotti confirmed the technical principles of the SEAT León Cup Racer , which is also set to be adopted in the Single-Make Trophy category of the European Touring Car Cup in 2015 , will be used by the TCR Series. On 29 July 2014, former WTCC driver Pepe Oriola said in an interview with TouringCarTimes that he hopes to compete in
196-794: A situation of "you don't protest us, we won't protest you" . While this worked well in the European races, when the championship landed in Australia the local teams took exception to the Europeans somewhat liberal interpretation of the Group A rules. Subsequently, the Eggenberger cars were protested against and eventually disqualified from the Bathurst 1000 results. The championship was provisionally awarded to West German Eggenberger Ford Sierra RS500 drivers Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz . It
224-645: A world championship (WTCC) that has run between 2005 and 2017. Following the 2017 season, an agreement was reached for the FIA WTCC to become FIA WTCR and use the TCR technical regulations. The first World Touring Car Championship, which was open to Group A Touring Cars, was held in 1987 concurrent to the long-running European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Additional rounds were held outside Europe at Bathurst and Calder Park Raceway in Australia (Calder used
252-468: The 2005 , 2006 and 2007 Drivers and Manufacturers Championships. In 2008, Frenchman Yvan Muller won the title after Race 1 in Macau in his SEAT León TDI . This marked the first time an FIA sanctioned world championship, in any category, being won by a diesel powered racing car. SEAT León TDI won both championships for a second time in 2009, this time in the hands of Gabriele Tarquini . 2010 marked
280-509: The TCR Thailand Series , starting from 2016. On 15 September 2014, technical regulations for the category were announced. On 22 January 2016, minor changes were applied. Eligible cars: 4/5-door vehicles Body shell: Reinforced production body shell; wheel arch modifications allowed to accommodate tyres Minimum weight: 1250 kg for cars with production gearbox, 1285 kg for cars with racing gearbox (both including
308-465: The United States . Technical rules were modified in 2011 to allow 1.6L turbo gasoline engines, and the 2.0L gasoline and turbodiesel engines were outlawed in 2012. In 2014, new car regulations were introduced with the name TC1, with larger wings and more engine power. The old 1.6L turbo cars were renamed TC2 for a year and were dropped for 2015. The series adopted TCR regulations for 2018 and
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#1732775547593336-546: The VWs . On 5 December 2014, the series was approved by the FIA and renamed TCR International Series instead of using the original TC3 International Series name. On 27 January 2015, Marcello Lotti announced three new teams for the inaugural season: Zengő Motorsport , Proteam Racing and Campos Racing . On 13 February Jordi Oriola announced he will be driving a Target Competition SEAT at Valencia and Monza and Mikhail Grachev
364-703: The World Touring Car Cup and others TCR series. The team has previously raced in the TCR Europe Touring Car Series , SEAT León Eurocup and TCR International Series . After having raced in the SEAT León Eurocup in 2014, the team entered the 2015 TCR International Series season with Michel Nykjær , Stefano Comini and Andrea Belicchi driving an SEAT León Cup Racer each. In the Chinese round they entered
392-516: The Championship. A silhouette formula championship (proposed by Ecclestone) was announced by the FIA for 1988 which would have seen specialist racing chassis carrying bodywork resembling production roadcars powered by the about to be outlawed Formula One 1.5 litre turbo regulations, but manufacturers did not support the concept. Only one car, based on an Alfa Romeo 164 with a 3.5 litre V10 engine
420-661: The FIA's points system used in the FIA Formula One Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship. Between 2005 and 2009, the championship adopted the following points scoring system: For the inaugural 1987 season, the championship used the following points scoring system: As per FIA WTCC all-time statistics on the official site of the WTCC. The WTCC features entries with the backing, funding and technical support of
448-595: The FIA's points system used in the FIA Formula One Championship. World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a single season in 1987 as the World Touring Car Championship and most recently
476-660: The driver) Minimum overall length: 4.20 metres Maximum overall width: 1.95 metres Engine: Turbo-charged petrol or diesel up to 2.0-litre Torque: 420 Nm Power: 350 PS Lubrication: Wet sump Exhaust: Homologated catalytic converter using production parts Traction: On two wheels Gearbox: Production or TCR International Series sequential; production paddle shift accepted Front Suspension: Production lay-out; parts free design Rear Suspension: Original design of production car with reinforced components Brakes: Wheels: Maximum dimensions of rim: 10″ x 18″ Aerodynamics: These points have been based on
504-704: The drivers standings. This gave Chevrolet a clean sweep of both titles. The 2012 championship saw Chevrolet pick up where they left off in 2011, leading to a second year of championship clean sweeps, this time with Rob Huff taking the drivers title. The modern series has held events based all around the world including races in Argentina , Morocco , Hungary , Germany , Russia , France , Portugal , Slovakia , Czech Republic , Japan , China , Thailand and Qatar with former races in Brazil , Great Britain , Italy , Macau , Netherlands , Spain , Sweden , Turkey and
532-582: The first team to confirm entry in the series and will run SEAT León Eurocup cars in 2015. Onyx Race Engineering has also confirmed they are developing the Ford Focus for the championship. A week later Paolo Coloni Racing announced plans to enter the championship in 2015. Team principal Paolo Coloni , son of F1-team founder Enzo Coloni , is known for its accomplishments in the GP2 Series in 2005 and in 2009 to 2012 . The team will confirm at
560-491: The new series, because he was set to drive for the Onyx Race Engineering team in the 2014 WTCC season with their new Ford Fiesta TC1 car for the last part of the season, before the project was abandoned with no support for homologation from Ford . On 15 September 2014, the TCR organisation announced the first cars, teams, regulations and events of its inaugural season in 2015 . Target Competition became
588-523: The number of competitors to twenty-four. It was also announced that the series will run alongside Formula One at selected events. On 21 July 2014, more details about the series became available: the race weekend format will be structured like the WTCC, with two free practice sessions and a two part qualifying session, followed by two races on Sunday. The first event would take place in Italy in March, but when
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#1732775547593616-464: The public due to the intense competition and Eurosport live broadcasts. At the request of interested manufacturers, the ETCC was changed to the current WTCC beginning with the 2005 season, continuing to use Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 regulations. 2004 ETCC Champion Andy Priaulx and his BMW 320i were the dominant driver-car pairing during the first three years of the revived championship, winning
644-449: The start of Chevrolet 's dominance of the championship with its Cruze model. Frenchman Yvan Muller became World Champion, fending off tough competition from Gabriele Tarquini and Andy Priaulx to win the first world championship for Chevrolet . Muller continued his success into 2011, winning both drivers championship and helping Chevrolet to its second manufacturers championship after Muller's two teammates finished second and third in
672-545: The team won the Teams' championship 19 points clear of Craft-Bamboo Racing . Comini left the team to join Leopard Racing for the following season. The team also switched to the new Opel Astra TCR . Initially fielding two Astras for Andrea Belicchi and Jordi Oriola the team would take sabbatical as the car needed more development before returning at Imola with single Honda Civic TCR for Oriola. Oriola raced with
700-849: Was built before it was abandoned. In 2001, the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) was resumed with support from the FIA, the precursor to the current WTCC. In 2001, the Italian Superturismo Championship became the FIA European Super Touring Championship, with an extra class for Super Production cars alongside the main Super Touring class. In 2002, this evolved into the brand new FIA European Touring Car Championship, using Super 2000 rules, dominated by Alfa Romeo and BMW , but popular with
728-605: Was confirmed on 17 February at Engstler Motorsport . In the end of February and in March almost half of all the drivers were confirmed, but just one week from the first round in Sepang Onyx Race Engineering , Paolo Coloni Racing and Proteam Racing have not confirmed a single driver. On 20 March the TCR International Series organisation announced the first TV deals for the inaugural season. On 29 May 2015, David Sonenscher announces
756-542: Was not until March 1988 when their Bathurst disqualification was finalised that results were confirmed and Italian Schnitzer Motorsport driver Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW M3 was declared the champion. The Entrants Championship was won by the Eggenberger Texaco Ford No 7 entry. The WTCC lasted only one year and was a victim of its own success — the FIA (and Bernie Ecclestone ) feared it would take money away from Formula One and stopped sanctioning
784-729: Was renamed World Touring Car Cup (WTCR). Official factory teams are not allowed, though many drivers and teams receive backing from manufacturers. The WTCC uses Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 cars, as cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. Super 2000 engines are 1.6 L turbo-charged 4-cylinder engines producing approximately 380 bhp. Wheels are 18" in diameter, and large front and rear aerodynamic devices are permitted. Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, including variable valve timing , variable intake geometry , ABS brakes and traction control system . Currently, all WTCC races are awarded equal points. From 2010, these points have been based on
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