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Originally Posted by racer69
We've had a lot of threads here lately discussing Group A cars, so i thought how about a thread dedicated to the greatest touring car championship (in terms of everything put together) for these cars, the first World Touring Car Championship from 1987.
Plenty of things to discuss;
- Why did it take until 1987 for a world series for touring cars to first take place?
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With Group A being more or less a European affair until major Touring Car nations like Japan and Australia joined the fray in 1985, a two year gestation period don’t seem overly long to me. With both Japan and Australia having strong national championships and traditions, and not least car manufactures, It should be obvious that Touring Cars both needed and deserved a World title, but not according to the FIA.
In my mind Saloon Car racing has always been regarded as a distant third ranking motorsport discipline, with single seaters and sports cars being the supreme arts. The fact that it was an outside body that got the initial idea of what ended up as the 1987 WTCC says a great deal. The FIA not only adopted the idea, but took over as you say and putting Bernie Ecclestone in charge of the championship, did what it was supposed to do – milk the cow, and then get rid of the “thing”.
The fact that we’ve got a new edition of the WTCC only rest on the fact that car manufactures of today take a more firm grip of things than they did twenty years ago. BMW, Volkswagen and Fiat are all represented in F1, WTCC or some other large body and can suggest the future of saloon car racing a lot more than it used to be.
Jesper
Jesper