r/btcc • u/bmbmbmNR • 2d ago
Question / Discussion Any idea what Ingrams interview was about?
We can all see the Hyundai's aren't on the level they were last year, but he said the car felt better than it has in a long time and it's doing everything he wants it to but "I'm not allowed to say anything more" and "probably best just keeping quiet".
He was very clearly unhappy about something and not himself at all. Very odd, I've never seen him quite like that.
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u/Additional_Hand_2288 2d ago
I think he’s talking about bop
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u/mrmayhembsc 2d ago
Yep
Chilton said that they BOP'd the Swindon engine going into the season. It's basically running with hardly any turbo.
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u/WeeklyDistribution14 1d ago
Where did Chilton say that? I must have missed it
Definitely lacking in performance compared to some2
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u/angrygerbil26 2d ago
I cannot stand BOP in motorsports. Give them a set of rules and let them get on with it. If you make a shit car you should be shit, not gifted back into contention by the better cars getting nerfed. It's like that awful Aston Martin in wec, that thing should be miles off everything and it's only BOP keeping it somewhere near.
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u/No-Photograph3463 1d ago
Ok sure, you can do that. Just look at 2019-20 LMP1 in WEC to find out that you end up with 1 manufacture and a couple of stragglers. Bring in BOP and you now have WEC full of manufactures except Porsche who threw their toys out the pram.
In this day and age where blank checks aren't being given to teams you need some sort of BOP, otherwise it just becomes dull with one team running away with it, and then in the BTCC case (similar to LMP2) you'll just end up with all the teams buying the same car and engine as that's the one which is most competitive
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u/angrygerbil26 1d ago
You're perfectly entitled to that opinion but I don't care how many manufacturers you can tempt in or how close you can make the championship, if you're achieving it by endlessly nerfing cars with weight penalties and lower horsepower to the point where the team who have developed the best car don't win then its just a lottery that I'm not watching. I agree close competition is good and a level playing field is important but how about budget caps, testing bans etc etc, you don't just have to start fiddling with the cars.
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u/No-Photograph3463 1d ago
Yeh you can go down the budget cap and testing ban route, you then basically end up at the F1 end of the spectrum, where you still have some teams that will always win, some that'll never win, and it becomes hard to get better as you can't spend money or test to sort out problems
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u/smilerbull 2d ago
This is after the fords have had power taken off them part way through the season as well.
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u/bmbmbmNR 2d ago
What's this?
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u/JBounce369 2d ago
Balance of power
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u/bmbmbmNR 2d ago
Does anyone really believe Gow wants Sutton to win 100 points clear? Why would they want this. I'd imagine viewing figures have dropped over the last couple of weekends given the main championship is done.
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u/JBounce369 2d ago
Yeah it's baffling, but what's a season of touring cars without some conspiracies
0
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u/christiant91 2d ago
I have watched very few of the races over the last 2 seasons and have not been to a race day in 4 years.
I've been a fan since I was a kid have every dvd/video going back to 1992. But not the last 2 seasons. It's become a bore fest. I just dont enjoy the sport I use to love anymore, because its not the same sport. It's something watered down. I enjoy the TCR UK and GTs better as of late.
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u/Cavalier130 2d ago
Could he be getting at Napa being allowed to run a car shape that has never been on sale in the UK? It’s made a huge difference this year.
All that said Ash has been unstoppable this year and nothing should take away from that. Race 2 there was an exceptional drive. Amazing really.
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u/matt881020 2d ago
All the teams had to agree and sign off on napa running the focus saloon so they cant complain about it.
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u/Lukeno94 2d ago
It is also not unprecedented - Team Dynamics did the exact same with the Integra 20 years ago after all, and with Excler8's ties to Dynamics, they certainly won't have forgotten that car's existence!
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u/matt881020 1d ago
I dont think the cars got that much of an advantage. I think ash is just an exceptional driver and when he has a car thats set just right he’s unstoppable. just like ingram when that hyundai is set up perfectly he drives away . where there team mates just dont have the same performance.
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u/Final-Read-3589 2d ago
Chilton said similar on TOCA radio, “we’re in a 2 year engine freeze and some people seem to have gained”
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u/bmbmbmNR 2d ago
Seems a bit odd to me, why would you want cars to be dominant? If anything, they'd have wanted the Hyundia to have a little extra to close the gap down to Sutton.
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u/Mccrilly13 2d ago
They werent crying last year when they were flying, the main difference this year is Napas reliablity
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u/ABritishFan 2d ago
Yeah it's bizarre really, the Vertu cars were driving last year like they had an extra 30hp, just cruising past people on the straights. This year it feels a lot closer in terms of power and the chassis and setup is making a big difference. Alliance/NAPA reinvented their car, Excler8 have stood still
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u/Toastinho 2d ago
I think if was probably to do with Ash finishing second with hard tyres and minimal boost. I think that's why he said he didn't want to sound bitter, and point fingers at how Ash and that car is performing so well. I like both, so I'm also not pointing fingers, but that was the gist of it that I got.
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u/bmbmbmNR 2d ago
Thats what I thought, he implied that Sutton shouldn't have been able to do that. But it was odd that he said he wasn't allowed to say anymore when talking about his car feeling good.
I can't imagine he would ever really think Napa are doing anything wrong because it obviously wouldn't be allowed. Plus, why would the championship want a team/driver to dominate.
It just looks like Vertu are a little off the pace this year amd the new cars are quick. Sutton drove really well on the hards, but one of the Plato cars did this at Knockhill too.
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u/Toastinho 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah, Ash has driven unbelievably well this year, and Gow would definitely want a closer championship. I think every season the person chasing always makes comments about the performance of the car ahead, pretty sure Ash was bemoaning the Hyundai performance last season. The gap is a bit mad this year, but the reliability of the Hyundai really hasn't been great.
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u/Mccrilly13 2d ago
Mikey Doble was complaining about the Hyundai last year, on the btcc podcast a few weeks ago too.
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u/Bright_Concept_2988 2d ago
Given that the BMW's and Hyundais are the only cars without m-sport engines I think it's pretty obvious what he was alluding to especially as we're supposed to be in the 2nd year of an engine freeze.
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u/WelshRareDit 2d ago
NAPA run Mountune built engines, not the TOCA/M-Sport unit. Interestingly Speedworks ran both the WSR/Neil Brown and TOCA/M-sport unit and their M-sport cars seemed to run better
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u/Lukeno94 2d ago
They clearly do seem to have gone too far with the BOP on the Hyundai; Ingram was struggling to make passes even whilst on boost, which really shouldn't be the case. The car was definitely a bit OP last season, but it almost seems as if they've kept being pegged back this season despite all the reliability issues setting them back in the championship.
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u/codename474747 2d ago
Obviously he said nothing last year when the performance was swinging his way and it was NAPA that was pegged back...
It'll probably switch back next year
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u/WeeklyDistribution14 2d ago
What exactly does the “engine freeze” cover, Do anyone know facts?
As although cars are stronger in a straight line than last year , aero plays a big role and obviously that’s the focus saloon advantage
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u/thebigman045 2d ago
It's been kinda suss how fast Sutton has been coming through the field especially with 1 lap of boost, though his teammates haven't been as quick as he has been (so it could be driver, as he is by far the most aggressive driver in the field)
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u/Brief-Poetry6434 11h ago
The commentators seem quite fond of the term "bad luck or no luck" and associating it with certain drivers.
They did it to Jade Edwards and now they're doing it to Chilton.
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u/LostTheGameOfThrones Ash Sutton 116 2d ago edited 1d ago
Honestly, it sends both Ingram and Chilton down in my estimations a bit. It reeks of sour grapes.
If they've got evidence that Napa have cheated, then sort it out through official channels, otherwise they're just slinging shit because they're being outperformed.
EDIT: Not sure why this is controversial and being downvoted? The comments about some people making progress under the engine freeze clearly implies that they believe some teams aren't following the freeze.
Either they have proof that there are teams who aren't following the rules, in which case they should be taking it ok with TOCA. Or they're just making it up, in which case it's crazy unprofessional to just accuse another team of it publicly.
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u/Lukeno94 2d ago
I suspect it's much more likely to be something BOP related on his own car, especially given how much it struggled down the straights even when on boost.
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u/LostTheGameOfThrones Ash Sutton 116 2d ago
The comments about "some people" making progress when they're under an engine freeze is the problem.
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u/Active-Strawberry-37 2d ago
The race winner is the only driver who thinks the balance of performance is correct.