Technical Regulations

Roadsports:

Eligibility Restrictions:

Road-going production GT and Saloon Cars.

Date Range: 1960-1979 (See Appendix A)

Maximum engine power is 350bhp

Minimum Weight is 850 Kg (1873lb)

PI Limit is 450.

Modifications:

Engine:

All Types of Engine Upgrades are PERMITTED

Platform and handling:

Race Roll Cage is MANDATORY

All other Upgrades are PERMITTED

Driveline:

Race Gearboxes are PROHIBITED

All Other Driveline Upgrades are PERMITTED

Wheels and Tyres:

Replacement rims (Chosen from the list in Appendix B) are PERMITTED, 

Race and Drag Tyres are PROHIBITED

Stock, Street, and Sport Tyres are PERMITTED.

Wheel Width upgrades are PERMITTED

Wheel Diameter upgrades are PROHIBITED

Bodywork/Aero

Aerodynamic Upgrades that add parts to the car (e.g. Wings, Spoilers, Airdams) are PROHIBITED

Aerodynamic Upgrades that solely remove parts from the car are PERMITTED.

Conversions:

All Conversions (Engine, Driveline, Induction) are PROHIBITED.

Appendix A: Permitted cars

Suitable DLC cars (marked *) will be added during the season if released

Roadsports:

1960-1979
Max Power 350hp
Min Weight 850 kg / 1872lbs
Max PI 450
No "Forza Edition" Cars

Alfa Romeo	Montreal	1970
AMC	Javelin	1971
	Pacer	1977
	Rebel	1970
Aston Martin	DB4 Zagato	1960
	DB5	1965
BMW	2002 Turbo	1973
Chevrolet	Camaro	1979
	Corvette	1960
	Vega GT	1971
Chrysler	Valiant Charger	1972
Datsun	2000 roadster	1969
	510	1970
Ferrari	250GT	1962
	Dino	1969
FIAT	Dino Coupe	1969
	X1/9	1975
Ford	Capri RS3100	1973
	Escort RS1600	1973
	Escort RS1800	1977
	Falcon XR	1967
	Falcon XY	1971
	Lotus Cortina	1966
	Mustang	1978
	Mustang Boss 302	1969
	Mustang GT Coupe	1965
	XB Falcon	1973
Holden	Monaro	1973
	Torana	1977
Jaguar	E-Type	1961
Lancia	Fulvia Coupe	1968
	Stratos	1974
Mazda	Cosmo 110s	1972
	RX-3	1973
Mercedes-Benz	280SL	1967
	300SEL	1972
Mercury	Cougar	1970
Nissan	Fairlady Z	1969
	Silvia	1966
	Skyline GT-R (KGPC10)	1973
	Skyline GT-R (KGPC110)	1971
Opel	GT	1968
	Kadett	1979
Pontiac	Firebird	1977
	Trans-Am	1969
Porsche	911 Carrera	1973
	914/6	1970
Volvo	123GT	1967
	P1800	1972
VW	Desert Dingo Bug	1970
	Karmann Ghia	1967

Loot Box / Specialty Dealer Only Cars - These are included in the above list, if they are built within the tech regs. If a car turns out to be imbalanced, it may be given a PI Penalty.

NB: Not all cars on this list may be able to hit the maximum allowed PI of 450 within the technical regulations.

Touring Cars Hockenheim Race Report

The second meeting of the Classic Touring Car championship was again well-attended (though there are still free spots on the grid!). The departure of one competitor saw a slight change to the line-up of teams, with the Buicks being withdrawn and RichXM655 moving to Vauxhall-Lotus to form a team with Beezerly.



The highlight battle of the evening was once again Blade Runner’s Mitsubishi Starion versus Badger Gravling’s Mercedes 190e. Badger took the win in both races, making it four in a row for the ORD driver, but again both races went close to the wire.

Badger’s ORD-Mercedes team-mate Pjeedai took the third step on the podium in both races, helping cement the ORD team on top of the teams’ standings.



Below them in those rankings, there’s a clear battle brewing between the Bastos BMW M3s of SharkyOB and Balhambadger, and the Covkartsport/Bitparade Mercedes of Wev and Dudley.



Privateers Boozy The Clown (Ford) and Dimahoo (Mercedes) also added action (and a good deal of pre-race banter) to proceedings.

All in all, both races were action-packed, and mostly free of the large pile-ups that shook up the Mugello races.
The Series now moves on to Suzuka, one of the world’s greatest circuits, ands a real test of a cars balance and driver’s skill.

Race 1:
• Badger Gravling 30
• Blade Runner 26
• Pjeedai 24
• Wev 22
• SharkyOB 20
• RichXM655 18
• Dimahoo 16
• BalhamBadger 14
• Dudley 12
• Beezerly 10
• Boozy The Clown 8

Race 2:
• Badger Gravling 30
• Blade Runner 26
• Pjeedai 24
• BalhamBadger 22
• Wev 20
• RichXM655 18
• Beezerly 16
• Dudley 14
• Dimahoo 12
• Boozy The Clown 10
• SharkyOB 8

So, Badger makes it 4 wins in a row, but while the results hint at domination, that's not really been the case on the track. each of those wins has been hard-fought.

The tables:
Drivers:
• Badger Gravling 120
• Blade Runner 104
• Pjeedai 86
• BalhamBadger 84
• Wev 70
• RichXM655 68
• Dudley 58
• SharkyOB 58
• Beezerly 50
• Meatball46 40
• Boozy The Clown 34
• Dimahoo 28
• Kurzheck 6

Teams:
• ORD 206
• Bastos 142
• Covkartsport/Bitparade 128
• TMD-Beezer 62
• TMD-Buick 38

Touring Cars Race Report 1

The long-awaited start of the Classic Touring Cars season was last monday night at Mugello.



There were representatives on the grid from Mercedes-Benz, Buick, Lotus-Vauxhall, Ford, BMW, Alfa Romeo, and Mitsubishi. The racing was fast and action-packed, just as Touring car racing should be.



The key battle of both races was that between Badger Gravling in the Mercedes 190e and Blade Runner in the Mitsubishi Starion.



It's not a proper touring car race if there isn't some two-wheel air over kerb action. Badger came off best in both races, but it was a hard-fought battle.

(Sorry for the delay in writing this, It's been a busy week.)

Season 2 Begins!

Season 2 got underway last week with rounds 1 and 2 of the Roadsports cup for C-class road-legal cars.


11 cars took to the grid, representing a wide variety of car shapes and drive layouts.



Both races were won by newcomer Blade Runner in his Lancia 037.

In fact, the top 4 places in both races were filled by the same drivers in the same order- Bladerunner, BalhamBadger, Pjedai, and Beezerly.


The racing was close, though with a couple of inevitable bumps and scrapes where a new series gets underway and drivers are getting used to each other and their cars.

Monday the 20th sees the start of the Group A Touring Car season at Mugello, which is bound to see more exciting action. So far, we have confirmed entries fielding BMWs, Mercedes, Mitsubishis and Buicks, and some other teams yet to declare a car choice.

Nurburgring Report and Season Wrap-up.

A full field of 16 cars took to the grid on the Nurburgring Nordschleife ‘s long straight for the final round of the RLLMUK Historic Trophy’s first season.


A big grid for the final race.

A single double-length, double-points race formed the meeting format and as you might expect, 4 laps around the Ring gave rise to both some excellent battles, but also some attrition and walking wounded.


Kurzheck’s big roll.


Dudley leads in the midfield battle. Later in the race, damage would drop him back.

The first major casualty was Kurzheck in the Toyota. A roll at the left kink between Fuchsrohe and Adenauer-Forst left the 2000GT in a sorry state and very down on top speed even after a visit to the pits.


Up front, series newcomer Smith77 diced with Meatball in a true David-And-Goliath tussle. Meatball, however, held on to take the win after a gruelling race.



So, those champions.

Winner (Overall):
Meatball46. a surprise to literally no-one, this was on the cards since the first race. mastered a fast, but clearly difficult car, and rarely put a wheel wrong. Domination to such a degree that he scored nearly double the points of his nearest rival, despite missing the Sears point meeting.

Winner (Class O):
Meatball46 again (sealed this before Christmas). he won his class in every race he entered.

Winner (Class U):
Balhambadger. the BMW CSL also picked up second in the Class-specific standings in the hands of Dudley.
So it’s over, and all that’s left is to thank all the competitors for taking part and making for such an entertaining, and mostly incident-free racing championship.
The Next season starts soon, soo watch this blog for more info this week about the ’73-93 roadsports and the Group A touring cars series.

Season 2 - Plans

With Season 1 on a bit of a pause over the Christmas break, it's a good point to reveal the plans in store for season 2.

Many of the existing competitors have offered suggestions, and I've tried to incorporate as many as possible, even though some of these have been in direct conflict with one another.

The original "plan" was to move to an A-Class, 1970s only series. However, FM4's car list gets sparse after the muscle car era dies down so that plan would likely have seen only a few eligible cars. The second issue with such a plan is that the existing technical rules for C-class cars seem to work pretty well, and they seem worth retaining. Moving up to a higher class, with a very free formula, seems likely to require a great deal from the competitors (and organiser) to keep things close.

So - after deliberating all of that, I settled on the following idea for what to do with Season 2.

Two Championships

Next season will consist of two championships, running in parallel on alternate weeks. You can enter one or both.

1973-1993 Classic Roadsports

Putting the Belfast 911 through its paces.

The first championship essentially continues the existing formula, though moving forward in time and with a wider "window" (this is because of the smaller number of elegible cars from either the 70s or the 80s).

The Ruleset is largely unchanged from the season 1 championship - C425, Mandatory Rollcage, No Slicks, No Racing Gearboxes, no Aero Mods (Except optional bumper removal), no Engine or Drivetrain Conversions.
Front-Wheel Drive is now permitted.
Turbocharger conversions are now permitted.
There are 2 4WD cars that currently fall within the ruleset (Integrale, Escort Cosworth). Currently I'm unsure about letting them run or not.

There are around 40 cars that can be entered in this. the lowest starting PI is 108 for the Scirocco, and the Highest is 408 for the Aston Martin (which can definitely be made legal). There's a lot of variety - while most of the big-block muscle cars have gone (though a small number remain, one with a massive 455 cubic inch/7.5 litre engine), every drive layout and possible shape of car (and a pickup truck) is there.




A full list of eligible cars is available here.

Because this is more of a "fun" championship, a change to the car-swapping rule will mean that there will be no limit on swaps, but each swap will incur a 25% point penalty (rounded up)

(example, a driver has scored 12 points and wishes to swap cars - his total is now 8 points. he then goes on to score another 11 points giving a total of 19 and wishes to swap again, so his score goes down to 15).

Group A Classic Touring Cars

I'd planned more visuals, but I haven't had the chance to arrange a proper photo session.
So, here's a Beemer in a shed.

Even though the C425 formula usually gives good racing, there's a clear demand for something meatier and some cars in the game that are just screaming out for a faster series. I'd also like to do something based more on a single theme.

Group A Touring cars was mentioned by more than one competitor, and I've wanted to to a championship based on them since the Ford RS500 was added to FM3 in a DLC pack.

This Championship is only open to the following cars:

1983 Volvo 242
1985 Toyota Trueno
1986 BMW M635i
1987 Buick Regal
1987 Ford Sierra Cosworth
1988 BMW E28 M5
1990 Lotus Carlton
1990 Mercedes-Benz 190e
1991 BMW E30 M3
1993 Nissan Skyline GT-R
1993 Ford Mustang SVT

Cars are to be tuned to A600. Rollcage, Slick Tyres, and Racing Gearbox will be mandatory. No aerodynamic modifications are allowed. No Drivetrain, Engine, or Supercharger conversions (turbocharging is OK).

Test builds on these cars (I haven't done them all yet) show a power range from 290 bhp (Toyota) to just over 400 bhp (635 and probably the M5 as it's largely the same).


The Skyline does stand out as the only 4WD car, but it's carrying a big weight penalty and preliminary testing seems to show that it'll need a really skilled tuner to bring the best out of it.

Team entries are encouraged, with up to two (of the same) cars per team.

Schedule

The monday night slot, and the "on-the-night" format will remain unchanged.

Plan is to start on January 23rd with a Roadsports meeting, then GrpA on Jan 30th, alternating until March 26th.

Tracks, I'd like to open up to a vote, and I'll work out the process for that shortly.