As reported today, Oct 28, at autosportmag.com/GT/News;<p>"Mystery over Audi, BMW plans<p> Confusion surrounds the German Super Touring Championship plans of<br> Audi and BMW. <p> Neither make has committed to the series, which will struggle in 1999 if<br> its two biggest stalwarts pull out. <p> Both are expected to decide next month whether they will join Opel and<br> Honda in the series, and if they do, how may cars they will run. Some<br> have speculated there could be a big entry, as many as four Audis and<br> six BMWs. <p> This is because ROC, the French team which won the title with Audi in<br> 1996 could be back as the race team next season. <p> It is believed that Audi, are unhappy with '98 works team Abt Sportsline<br> and the driving tactics of Christian Abt, son of the team owner. If Abt<br> loses the works deal, it could run its own two-car team of privateer A4s. <p> Audi sports chief Wolfgang Ullrich said 'I expected news last week, but<br> so many things have to come together. There are many rumours, but no<br> details are decided.' <p> BMW, meanwhile, could see its '98 title-winning team Schnitzer joined<br> by Rafanelli, its sportscar outfit. A spokeswoman said: 'I'm pretty sure<br> we'll have a decision in November.' <p> 28/10/98"<p>Bob B

I haven't gotten a chance to see any German Super Touring Championship races, but now I'm REALLY curious: what "driving tactics" of "Abt the Younger" are they talking about?<p>-- David F.<br>1.8TqMS<br>E30 325is

nt<br>

David F<br>I haven't a clue. I just copied the text from the AutoSport Magazine's website. Wish I were actually in the know or had inside contacts once again.<p>Sorry to say I haven't even seen a single BTCC or GermanSTC race this year due to not having Speedvision......but I have a friend in another state who's made a tape of the many of the races this year is going to send it to me. A little late, but good viewing for the fall & winter.<p>Bob B

Well, I think that the mystery regarding the DTM is resulting from plans to ressurect the ITC (Iternational Touring-car Champioship), or a "lite" version of it. We all know that the ITC was disbanned in 1995 (or was it 1996) because the costs were getting out of hand and the cars were getting too powerful (500 bhp beasts!). We also know where this led to...the current FIA GT Championship where Mercedes is running their CLK LM...which would have been the natural evolution of the ITC.<p>In the October 15 issue of Autosport, a small article indicates of plans to set up a touring car series in Germany which would allow for "less expensive" versions of ITC cars. Makes such as Audi, BMW, Opel, Mercedes, and even Porsche would contest this is cars running V-8 engines with output around 400-500 bhp. This would have cars such as the Mercedes CLK (not the LM, but a more road going version), the BMW 5 series, Porsche 911, and possibly Audi A8 to contest this series. I also think that Quattro would be allowed, otherwise Audi would not be interested. The final thing is that production minimums would be imposed like ones in the BTCC and DTM. Where you can do whatever you want to the cara, but you have to sell at least 2,000 (I think) examples of this model to the public. Same goes for engines. The engine does not have to be from the production version of the car, but must be produced by the factory in similar quantities.<p>Such a series would be a hit, at least to someone like myself who sees the current FIA GT series as a farce.<p>Marcin R.<br>---<br>'98.5 A4 1.8Tqms

I got to see a few races on Speedvision, and the commentators noted that Abt had a tendency to cause his competitors to leave the track (unwillingly). There were 2 or 3 shunts that he caused in each of the races I saw. I thought that most of the times it was just aggressive driving. I only saw one really reckless move on his part that put a BMW into the gravel pit. HTH.<p>Chris<br>to reply remove anti spam-x