Touring Car Racing

Touring car racing is car racing, but it involves a different type of car. Competitors build their own cars, starting with a body shell. All the components added can be heavily modified, such as engines, transmissions, brakes, wheels and tires. Wings are also added to the front and rear of the car. There are regulations in place to prohibit exotic technologies in order to reduce the costs. In some ways the cars are similar to those used in stock car racing in the US and are different from those used in NASCAR racing, which are custom built. Touring cars are very similar to sports cars and are based on the look of 4-door family sedans, but they can also be Lamborghinis or Ferraris.

Some of the competitions for touring car races include:

DTM. This is the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, which features cars with purposely built advanced V-8 engines and carbon fibre bodies. Although the transmissions, brakes and tyres are standard, the engine power is limited to 470 hp.
Nurburgring Endurance Series. This series consists of four-hour long races, run on the Nurburgring track in Germany. There could be as many as 150 cars competing ranging from 100 hp to 500 hp Porsches.
V8 Supercars. This was formerly known as the Australian Touring Car Championship with a weight limit of 1350 kg. They are the biggest and heaviest of the touring cars and provide the closest racing of any touring cars, with the cars often finishing within seconds of each other.
British Touring Car Championship. There are nine circuits in Britain for this race and the cars are built to either BTC-Touring or Super 200- specifications. Ballast is added to the cars so that both types are equal. They can be either front-wheel or four-wheel drive, but must be 2.0 liter saloons with about 270 hbp.
World Touring Car Championship. This race began in 2005 as the rebirth of the European Touring Car Championship. It is considered to be the most prestigious touring car race in the world featuring 2-liter cars built according to Super 2000 regulations