This little tidbit comes from Longroofan (Thanks Man!) from his website. It features a promotional video of the Italian Touring Car Championships called Superstars. Want to see it? You will have to make the jump…..
First of all, European Touring Cars have it all over our North American Cousin, NASCAR, and for two very good reasons. First, they are run on Road Courses exclusively, no high banked ovals. These are the same courses used in Formula 1, with demanding turns, elevation changes, and impossible straights. And second, you can recognize the cars; They don’t all look the same; They have unique powertrains; And get this, there are at least two American Sedans in the running!
I took the liberty of going over to the Superstars site and borrowed some of their images for this post. Take a look at the gallery, and you will see a Mercedes C63 AMG, a BMW M3 E90, a BMW 550i, a BMW M3 E92, a BMW M5, an Audi RS4, a Jaguar XF, a Porsche Panamera (!), a Maserati Quattroporte (!!), a Cadillac CTS-V (!!!), a Chrysler 300 SRT-8 (!!!!), and a Chevrolet Lumina CR8 (Which can only mean that this is a Holden Manaro VXR-8 – Our late and lamented Pontiac G8). Holy Crap, what a lineup.
Want to see what NASCAR could be? Look at this video, and weep.
All Images are from the Superstars Website.
Hooniverse Weekend Edition: Superstars Italian Touring Car Racing; Pay Attention NASCAR!
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10 responses to “Hooniverse Weekend Edition: Superstars Italian Touring Car Racing; Pay Attention NASCAR!”
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weeping.
Also, I'm reminded of the speeders from Star Wars for some odd reason… 🙂 -
Jim, I agree with your sentiments vis a vis Nascar completely. Given a viewing choice, I would take this over Nascar any day of the week, with the possible exception of the Nascar races at the Glen or Sonoma. However, I think we are comparing apples and oranges here. While you and I would love to see Nascar move in this direction, as many of us would, we both know it probably wont happen in our lifetime, if ever. Nascar has its roots and traditions buried deep in the culture that spawned it. Everyone from the France family, the track owners, the car owners , the drivers and down to the poorest fan up high in the cheap seats knows and understands this. They grew up the the little bullrings all over the country, not just the south, and for them it is a way of life. Its not good or bad, it just is what it is. For all its faults, it cant be denied that they have done a wonderful job of marketing their product to the general public, and have managed to keep the racing close through constant tweaking (meddling?) of the rules.
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(continued from above) Even if they only turn left and go in circles, they do manage to keep the actual "racing" exciting, and the access of the fans to the cars and drivers helps to feed that excitement.
Having said all that, you bet I would love to see them do something like Superstars. The COT has been a failure in my estimation, and is just another in a long line of attempts to keep the racing close. The problem as I see it is that the stranglehold placed on advancing technology is beginning to cost Nascar a large segment of possible new fans (as well as a portion of their current fan base) as their cars become more and more alike and have less and less in common with the actual road vehicles they seek to emulate. All that the byzantine rule book does is to encourage very creative interpretation of those rules (cheating? :-). However, thats not necessarily all bad. I would love to see some of the Nascar teams and crews turned loose on the Superstars vehicles. A more clued about how to make a sedan go fast group of people does not exist in this hemisphere, if on the planet.
Ok, enough of that. Whats on Speedvision this morning?
P. S. Great post! Keep 'em coming! -
This is some seriously cool stuff. I was proud of the way that Chrysler was mixing it up, and it sounded fearsome. I'd love to go to one of these events.
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Forget it. Road racing is not popular. America already has road racing on TV. It had sedan road racing. People didn't want it.
NASCAR is really good racing (racin'). It's a spec series, OK? It has to be a spec series. There was a time when the cars had unique profiles, but each season one brand or another would dominate and that sucked it. You would not be happy if manufacturers allowed NASCAR teams to dictate the shape of your Fusion, so be glad that their rules are the way they are.
The COT has been a big success. In addition to excellent racing and more demand on the drivers, the cars look more like the production versions. They're robust and they're slightly better at staying on the ground, backward, at 180.
As an intelligent person who isn't so crazy about NASCAR fans, I've got to say that the elitist haters express just as much ignorance.
What's on Speed? Probably a reality show that's not about racing.-
I disagree with you on all points. Thank you.
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Ah…the whine of the gears, the blaaat of the V8s. That must be fun.
Also gotta love this part:
"As reported, the N.Technology Porsche Panamera S scored a sensational maiden win on its debut race." -
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I've watched the Superstars series several times, it's great fun and very entertaining. It's like DTM if DTM wasn't such a Mercedes/Audi lovefest (i.e. DTM of the 70s-80s-90s)
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Superstars is great! I sponsored a car there this season.
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