BTCC 2014 Mid-Season Report Card: Must Do Better
In a recent article, David Addison described the ‘Modern era of the BTCC‘ as the best that it has ever been. He argues that the modern championship boasts packed grids, close racing and a comprehensive television package that blows away any competition from the past. The 2014 season has indeed seen a total reinvention of the championship with the new NGTC regulations coming into force, which has evolved the very nature of the BTCC. This year in particular has seen 7 past champions get behind the wheel and battle against some rising stars in the motorsport universe. Mr Addison really does make a strong case when he talks about the media coverage of the BTCC; with the exception of F1 there are very few sports that dedicate entire days of television scheduling to one event. Not only are all three races shown live on race day, but the entire BTC support package is shown to the public.
It is at this juncture that my agreement with David Addison comes to a very abrupt end. I have been a fan of the BTCC my entire life; growing up in the 1990s in the backdrop of the Super Touring era was one of the most most exciting childhoods I could ever have asked for. No other motorsport could come close to the British Touring Cars in my eyes. I have been watching the BTCC every year across the various rule changes and I am offended to hear that someone honestly believes that the modern championship is the best the BTCC has ever been. We have approached near enough the midway part of the 2014 season and I find myself rapidly losing interest in the BTCC. Considering the sport is meant to be the best its ever been, how can this be possible? Let’s break this down.
How To Turn Your Car Into An Oven
Car engines produce a lot of waste heat. It’s one of the basic laws of thermodynamics that energy will change from one form to another, and as not all the chemical potential energy in the petrol or diesel that you put into your tank gets turned into kinetic (motion) energy. Some becomes sound energy and some becomes heat energy. In the normal course of things, a lot of this heat energy gets wasted.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can do something useful with that heat. The most common thing that people do with this head is using it to heat the inside of the car. But you can also use that heat produced by your engine to cook a meal. They say that this is as old as the internal combustion engine, and it’s probably older than that, as I guess the drivers of steam trains probably boiled a kettle or baked spuds on the fire that boiled the water to power the train. Heck, the hordes of Genghis Khan used to shove a steak under the saddle while galloping across the steppes, meaning that it was nice and tender and ready to eat come the end of the day (but they ate raw meat).
The Big Desert: Toyota Land Cruiser Sahara.
Australian tv broadcast, in the mid 1970s, a program called Aunty Jack. The spoken theme song featured the lyrical lines: “Though you’re ten feet tall” and “You’re big, bold and tough”, lines appropriate for Toyota’s evergreen behemoth Land Cruiser. The Sahara sits at the top of the 
Land Cruiser family tree, complete with brawny 4.6L petrol V8 (or 4.5L V8 diesel), DVD player and the legendary off road capability, backed up with some hidden modern tech. Is the legend still legendary? A Wheel Thing took the beast bush to find out.
The Donk.
The numbers look good with 227kw @5500 rpm while max torque is 439Nm @3400. These numbers don’t: 2665 followed by kilograms. Then there’s 13.6/18.4/10.9L per 100 kilometres of travel for combined/urban/highway. Although a double over head cam and alloy head setup is in situ, sitting underneath is an old school iron block. It’s a mix of good and not so. Transmission is a six speed auto, a fluid and smooth shifter.
Rough and Tumble: Jeep's Cherokee Sport and Trailhawk.
It’s a rare but welcome occasion when A Wheel Thing is able to do a “back to back” of two vehicles of the same class from the same manufacturer. Jeep’s solidly revamped Cherokee is a four model range and A Wheel Thing has backed up the entry level Sport against the top of the tree Trailhawk.
The Donk
Jeep has lobbed a 2.4L four cylinder and 3.2L V6 at the Cherokee; the Sport’s alloy block four (only available in the Sport and somewhat of a misnomer calling it that) pumps 130kW and 229Nm of torque versus the 200kW and 316Nm from the Longitude/Limited/Trailhawk trio. All four get the new nine speed automatic gearbox (no manual options at all) and no paddle shift option either, except only offering a sports shift via the gear lever. Fuel economy is quoted as 8.3L/100km (combined) for the Sport and 10.0L/km (combined) for the Trailhawk. However, as very few would take advantage of the off road capabilities, it’s the urban figure that’s scary: 11.6L and 13.9L. For vehicles that weigh 1600 odd kilos and a curious (as in what adds the extra over the other two off road capable) 1936 kilos, with a nine ratio transmission, these figures are troubling.
Level 2, 9 Help Street