The BoP test took place at Adria and Grugliasco

The test to establish the Balance of Performance for the upcoming season of all the TCR series worldwide took place last week in Italy, first at the Adria International Raceway and then in the Pininfarina wind tunnel at Grugliasco.

Nine brands of car manufacturers were represented; each one had appointed its own test driver to set up the cars before the official TCR testers Nicola Larini and Andrea Belicchi took over to go through the BoP programme.

The list of test drivers included: Mario Ferraris in the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Swiss lady Rahel Frey in both the Audi RS3 LMS DSG and SEQ cars, Roberto Colciago in the Honda Civic, Mike Halder and Janis Baumanis in the KIA C’eed, Pierre-Yves Corthals in the Opel Astra, Aurélien Comte in the Peugeot 308, Miguel Molina in the SEAT León DSG, Jordi Gené in the SEAT León SEQ, Luigi Ferrara in the Subaru WRX STi and Dieter Depping in both the Volkswagen Golf GTi DSG and SEQ cars.

The FRD Motorsport-built Ford Focus that was also due to join the test did not show up as it still stuck in Amsterdam because of a problem with custom clearance.

In a sunny Adria Larini and Belicchi worked hard while testing the twelve cars.

The first day was dedicated to the performance test that consisted of a five-lap timed stint on the track, with all the cars running on the minimum weight of 1285 kilos, except for the 1.6-litre Peugeot 308 that benefited from a 100-kg reduction.

On the second day the TCR technical department focused on the coast down tests for evaluating the cars’ aerodynamics and fluency; in this case the cars accelerated and were left rolling in neutral, back and forth on the pit straight.

During both days the cars were placed in turns on the rollers of the dynamometer bench to measure dissipation of power, shaft-power, shaft-torque and boost pressure.

At the end of the second day the racing cars where trucked to Grugliasco, where drag and lift coefficients were measured in the Pininfarina wind tunnel on Friday.

The BoP results will be unveiled by the middle of March and they will dictate the BoP for all the TCR series worldwide.

Promoters of fifteen TCR championships and series gathered for a general meeting in view of the upcoming season, at the Adria International Raceway, on the eve of the BoP test.

The following TCR series were represented: International, Asia, Baltic, Benelux, China, Germany, Ibérico, Italy, Middle East, Portugal, Russia, Scandinavia and Spain; the promoters of 24H Series/24H TCE Series and VLN attended as well. The TCR Thailand promoter was linked by video conference.

Different topics were discussed; it was agreed to freeze car homologations for three years – until the end of 2019 – and to limit the number of engines to one per season. However, one engine change will be allowed with a reduced penalty (a five-place drop on the grid), while further changes will be penalised with a drop to the back of the grid.

It was also agreed that cars running under temporary homologation will not be eligible to score points in any championship.

TCR promoter Marcello Lotti commented: “It has been a very constructive meeting and it proved even further that all the members of the TCR global community share the same views and work together to strengthen the worldwide alliance.”

Technical delegates attended seminar at Adria

The first ever TCR Technical Seminar was also held at the Adria International Raceway in Italy.

Technical delegates from twelve TCR championships and series worldwide attended a meeting that was hosted by Umberto Fasolo, the Technical Delegate of the International Series.

The first part of the meeting was devoted to analysing details of the TCR Technical Regulations and Technical Form. Later, Fasolo briefed his fellow technicians on the procedures for inspecting and scrutineering the cars.

Finally, electronics engineer Florian Eich explained the use of the Smart Data Logger that has been developed by Ingenieurbüro Krug and has been adopted in order to control the boost pressure limits that will be fixed for each model after the Balance of Performance test.

After the meeting the delegates had the opportunity to visit the garages and have a close look at the cars.

The Balance of Performance test inaugurated a collaboration between TCR and BAPRO, an Italian company specialising in the development and production of chassis dynamometers for cars and motorbikes.

BAPRO Export Manager Mauro Sgarbi said: “Our company has developed a long standing experience with customers like Magneti Marelli, Maserati and Ducati, but the cooperation with TCR marks our very first step into motor sports. This will help us to develop a series of products dedicated to racing cars that will combine affordable costs with accuracy in measurements.”

Chief engineer Mattia Serafin explained: “The bench that we are using in Adria is based on rollers inertia and performs power tests. We place the car on the rollers and, after a brief warm up, we launch it in a controlled acceleration. This enables us to measure dissipation of power, shaft-power, shaft-torque and the boost pressure.”

TCR promoter Marcello Lotti commented: “We are very pleased with this cooperation. BAPRO offers high technology products at an affordable cost. We are confident that their dynamometer will prove to be an efficient scrutineering tool on site, during some events of all the TCR series worldwide.”

Press release TCR