TTA Swedish Racing Elite League

Today we have reported on a Team that is going to compete on a Swedish touring car series with a Saab car. Many were impressed by the pictures of a slightly wider 9-3 with racing livery and a big rear wing.

Some have already explained, that the TTA Swedish Racing Elite League a bit of a farce is because in reality it is only a common chassis with common aerodynamics and a common power train but with a different silhouette emulating different cars that race against each other, and not different cars from different manufacturers with their own power train and a chassis.

Currently Saab is in a very weak position, and the fact that one of the main teams in that competition have decided to use the Saab 9-3 silhouette instead of an AUDI/Honda/Alfa/Chevrolet, you name it, is a big honour for Saab. Further the teams competing with the Saab livery will have much more chances to make it on the podium or win races than any “true” Saab could have now. And at last but not least, on May 12 the competition will start and the last race will be on September 29. If the acquisition of Saab is prosperous, this will help polish the image of Saab, if it is not Swedish Saab fans will at least have some moments of joy.

So if you are interested in this race competition, I’ve prepared some facts after the jump.

The Touring Car Team Association was formed by the four biggest racing teams in Sweden – Flash Engineering, Volvo PolestarRacing, BMW Dealer Team WestCoast Racing and Brovallen Design.

The main purpose of the TTA – Racing Elite League is for everyone to race on the same conditions. It is not about the team with the biggest development budget for new parts, it is about the best driver and the best team.

And because it is a race series about the driver some serious names from other Scandinavian race series will start this year at the TTA – Racing Elite League.

Richard Göransson – Quadruple STCC champion and 37 victories
Fredrik Ekblom – Triple STCC champion and 27 victories
Jan “Flash” Nilsson – Double STCC champion and 35 victories
Thed Björk – STCC champion and 11 victories
Robert Dahlgren – 16 victories
Martin Öhlin – 3rd in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia 2010
Linus Ohlsson – 3rd in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia 2011
Stefan Söderberg – 2nd in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia 2008
Tommy Rustad – Double STCC champion and 23 victories
Mattias Andersson – 2nd in Renault Sport Clio Trophy 2000
Fredrik Larsson – 2nd in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia 2009/2010
Andreas Ebbesson – privateer STCC champion 2010 and privateer 2nd in 2011

It is expected that at least 4 more drivers will be at the starting grid at the time the championship begins.

Those drivers will be competing in 6 different teams, and if 16 drivers are on the grid those are the cars that we will see.

Brovallen Design will compete with four Citroen C5 silhouette cars
Flash Engineering will compete with two Saab 9-3 silhouette cars
Tidö Racing Team will compete with two Saab 9-3 silhouette cars
Volvo Polestar Performance will compete with two Volvo S60 silhouette cars
Volvo Polestar Racing will compete with two Volvo S60 silhouette cars
West Coast Racing will compete with four BMW 3-seies silhouette cars

And they will compete on eight races. The races will be sprint races of only 40 min. This is the schedule

May 12 – Karlskoga
June 2 – Anderstorp
June 16 – Gothenburg
July 7 – Falkenberg
August 18 – Karlskoga
September 1 – Anderstorp
September 15 – Tierp Arena
September 29 – Gothenburg

And if you think that only one race per weekend is not much to attract people, let me tell you that 5 other series will also join the TTA on every weekend, offering a Saturday full of racing from nine in the morning till six in the evening. The real petrol heads will also be able to enjoy the training runs on friday from ten in the morning till six in the evening.

The winner of a race will get 25 points and the rest of the points will be distributed as follows:

2nd – 20 points
3rd – 16 points
4th – 13 points
5th – 11 points
6th – 10 points
7th – 9 points
8th – 8 points
9th – 7 points
10th – 6 points
11th – 5 points
12th – 4 points
13th – 3 points
14th – 2 points
15th – 1 points

And no one will get any kind of penalty weight or will be allowed to reduce its weight to ensure that always the best driver can win the race.

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So this was a short review of the racing series, but I don’t know you but I’m also quite interested in the car.

This is the kit every team gets, the engine is missing in this pictures, but it is also common for all the teams.

On this picture we can see the common aerodynamics in the shape of the front splitter plate, the rear diffuser and the rear wing. we can see also the common chassis with a roll cage and a firewall to separate the engine bay from the drivers position. The kit is done by the French company Solution-F and the main dimensions are as follow:

Length: 4700 mm
Width: 1970 mm
Height: 1205 mm
Wheelbase: 2750 mm
Track width: 1660 mm front/1630 mm rear
Suspension: Double wishbone, three-way dampers, etc.
Body: Carbon fibre
Engine: V6 with hybrid system
Drive: RWD
Power: 420 BHP
Gearbox: 6-speed sequential with paddles on steering wheel
Hybrid system: Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS)
Rear wing: 1600 mm width/300 mm depth
Brakes: Front: 4-piston calipers, 370 mm ventilated discs
Rear: 4-piston calipers, 360 mm ventilated discs
Rims: 18″ with centre wheel nut
Tyres: Front: 260/660-18 Rear: 280/660-18

The engines also from Solution-F in collaboration with Nismo, and the KERS used has been developed by Solution-F.

I would say that the cars are more like the German DTM cars than the international WTCC.

So now we know almost everything about this new racing series in Sweden, but how will the cars look like.

There are still no pictures from the BMW, but this is the Volvo S60

this is the Citroen C5

and this is the Saab 9-3.

So after some facts this is the most interesting part, enjoy.

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Thanks to the Touring Car Team Association for the pictures and all the information I could not find on their site.