Throughout the year, and since the inception of the TCR concept back in 2015, there has been a continued search for performance parity between all TCR race cars. While the WSC Technical Department have largely done a good job of it up to now, there have still been some undeniable hiccups along the way – the most recent example being the rise, fall and rise of the Hyundai i30N TCR. Now though, a further development is being made.
Today, WSC launched a tender to find an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) supplier, who will then be tasked with supplying ECUs to all TCR-homologated cars worldwide by 2020 up until 2023.
For the successful tenderer, the job at hand is not a small one. It’s estimated that there are around 700 TCR race cars in the world currently, with more being built and bought each and every year. For each of those hundreds of cars, the tenderer will have to develop, produce and supply a standardised ECU, along with all the data analysis software that is required before the 2020 deadline.
By introducing a common ECU, the WSC Technical Department will be able to clearly monitor the engine parity situation between all cars. In addition, it’ll also become easier to uncover who’s not been complying with boost limit regulations, for example.
Naturally, it is hoped that with this knowledge the WSC Technical Department will be able to create a better set of Balance of Performance (BOP) measures than ever before, and thus create a closer, fairer on-track spectacle than ever before too.
