re:touring sedans (misc content)

["George S Achorn III" <coolidge@nicom.com>]

 Virtual Bob <honge@creighton.edu> wrote:

>Ford may soon drop out of NASCAR and joing NATCC with the Tarus.

Where'd you hear that. I'd love to see touring car racing get the glory
NASCAR gets, but I doubt it for a while. NASCAR is pretty huge currently
and Ford would stand to lose alot of diehard fans. As for the Taurus, why
not the Contour/Mondeo. Ford europe already makes the parts and prepping a
US spec Contour would be MUCH cheaper.AND weight savings over the Taurus
would be substantial since both cars would run the same engine.
	Although, with the cancellation of the T-bird one wonders what they will
enter.

>And what will Audi do in light after the AWD is banned? Well, it's
>still not technically banned in NATCC. So is anyone listening? Here's
>another chance to sweep off the championship!

A friend of mine went to mid-Ohio last year and saw Audi reps who said the
A4 would be here in '97 for Touring Car. I've read a mid season entrant
would be probable in Autoweek.

>Talk about banning AWD. There's also talk about banning RWD (ahem,
>BMW??). So where will it end? My goodness! There are NO FWD BMW, is there?
>(^: It's funny that "touring sedans" are suppose to be based on
>"production cars." Yet, they're banning left and right...

It's a shame they are banning everything. Look at Pennske in CART two
seasons ago. Ther MB cars dominated the whole season, moreso than Audi did
in BTCC last year. All this did was force the other teams to be more
competitive. Quattro should be allowed as should rwd. I could see them
having a problem with say an awd honda or something since it is not in
production, but Quattro is a mainstay of Audi an I would expect awd use if
Subaru ever entered the Legacy also.

>And here's another -- banning of 2-door production cars. The name is
>touring "sedans," right? Not touring coupes -- or so says, uh, someone.
>Ho! Wait! Did BMW just introduce M3 *SEDAN*?? I wonder what was that
>about?? (^;

I see their point here. It's a sedan thing. Volvo no longer uses their
wagon and the Peugot minivan got banned too, although I think they ought to
let company's compete a few times with oddball products. Racing the Volvo
wagon and the Peugot minivan were advertising brilliance. They may have
been a pain in the ass to race with, but they were eventually disqualified
anyway.
	Can't wait for some A4's to be kicking the Neuspeed Honda's butt.
Later-G