Volkswagen Motorsport India announced that it has started development of TC4-A regulation race cars, which is part of its customer sport programme.
Commenting on the new race cars, Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India said, “We have started development on our race-spec Volkswagen Vento cars with the new set TC4-A regulations by FMSCI. As part of the testing phase, our two test cars will be driven in this year’s National Championship season.”
The Volkswagen Vento race cars will be driven by former Volkswagen one-make series champions Karthik Tharani and Ishaan Dodhiwala. Both the racers will play a pivotal role in the development of the new racing line. In his racing career, Karthik is known to have contributed in the development of the Ameo Cup race car.
The TC4-A regulations are based on existing Indian Touring Car (ITC) regulations and are applicable to turbocharged race cars with engine displacement up to 2,000cc. The new regulations also dictate that the minimum weight of the race car has to be 1,150 kg with a 30mm restriction placed on the turbo inlet.
The TC4-A Volkswagen Vento race car will be powered by a 1.8-litre TSI engine, mated to a 3MO sequential gearbox with a manual gearshift lever. According to Vissa, the limitation on the size of the turbo inlet is a major hurdle in harnessing maximum power from the engine; VW engineers are working hard to overcome that particular hurdle.