BTCC cleans up its act on carbon

The organisers of the British Touring Car Championship will impose carbon dioxide emissions quotas on competitors in 2009, allowing the racing Honda Civics, Seat Leons and Vauxhall Vectras that star in the series to emit no more CO2 than the showroom models on which they are based.Emissions testing will come into force only after a programme of research and development next season, which will be carried out in consultation with the BTCC’s major teams and engine builders.The new regulations are expected to mandate separate CO2 limits for every competing car decided by the maximum CO2 output of its showroom model. In the future it’s hoped that technological development will push emissions lower still.BTCC Series Director Alan Gow said: “our new emissions regulation provides an ideal showcase for effective motorsport technology that can effectively reduce emissions without any discernable loss in performance.”“We could have simply mandated the use of biofuels,” he went on, “but reducing emissions to a figure at, or below, their road car equivalent with the type of fuel that we normally use is, I believe, a far more relevant and meaningful commitment – particularly as biofuels are not readily available to the public, nor widely used in everyday life.”