Touring Car Racing - Characteristics of A Touring Car

Characteristics of A Touring Car

While rules vary from country to country, most series require that the competitors start with a standard body shell, but virtually every other component may be allowed to be heavily modified for racing, including engines, suspension, brakes, wheels and tires. Aerodynamic aids are sometimes added to the front and rear of the cars. Regulations are usually designed to limit costs by banning some of the more exotic technologies available (for instance, many series insist on a "control tyre" that all competitors must use) and keep the racing close (sometimes by ballast weight where winning a race requires the winner's car to be heavier for subsequent races).

In this, it shares some similarity with the American stock car racing (governed by NASCAR). However, touring cars are, at least notionally, derived from production cars while today's NASCAR vehicles are based on a shared, custom, design. In the early days of NASCAR, stock cars were in fact built from production cars, whereas some current touring car series are also raced in silhouette racing cars. Touring cars race exclusively on road courses and street circuits, while its American counterpart predominantly utilizes oval tracks, with road courses constituting a small percentage.