Honda has announced plans to enter the FIA World Touring Car Championship with this, a hot new racer based on the newly redesigned 2012 Civic (well, the European five-door, anyway). Details are slim about the new touring car racer, but the automaker has released a statement confirming that the Civic will be powered by a bespoke 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four, devel
If you, like us, were wondering how MG managed to snag Jason Plato away from Chevrolet in the British Touring Car Championship, well you had good reason to wonder. The racecar driver and Fifth Gear co-host had, after all, driven the factory-backed team to both titl
Lada? Racing? We've got to be kidding, right? Only we're not. While the Russian automaker may not have the motorsport pedigree of, say, Ferrari or Porsche, there's reason enough to believe it's getting serious.
When Ford rolled out the new Focus, it launched a program to adapt the car to various touring car racing specifications. The car has been performing admirably in the British Touring Car Championship, winning several races last season with Are
Go back a few years and the prospect of political unrest in a host country was seldom a factor in determining where to hold a motor race. But that age of innocence appears to be behind us.
The past year didn't look too bright for the World Touring Car Championship. First BMW cut its program down from three works teams to one, then reports came in indicating that Seat – fresh from back-to-back titles – was scaling down its factor
Safety car crash video: Click above to watch video after the jump
Click above for high-res image gallery of the Chevy Cruze WTCC
Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2009 Chevrolet Cruze WTCC
The opening rounds of the World Touring Car Championshio took place last week in Brazil and Seat won both races with drivers Yvan Muller and Gabrieli Tarquini. Spain-based Seat is a division of Volkswagen, and like other brands in the group they are pushing diesel engines in motorsports as well as on the road. This year's Seat Leons are powered by 2.0L four cylinder TDI engines. The front wheel drive Seats were at a definite disadvantage to the rear drive BMWs in handling but the torque of the t
In only its second WTCC race, the diesel-engined Seat Leon TDI came in first -- in front of its gas-powered Leon sibling. The diesel car only entered the series in July, yet it won three races and the driver was in championship contention up until the final race. BMW didn't need any more impetus than that to start planning its own turbocharged diesel engine program for the race series.
