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I'd bet a pretty penny that the grid next year won't be more than 20 cars. The TTA teams put four cars each on the grid because they had to, and I think a reduction from those 16 is very likely. And you can discount everyone except VW, Chevy and Honda from STCC because they have nowhere near the budget to either invest in or run the cars. Also, Chevy and Honda stayed in STCC for a reason - it fit their brands and they had cars ready. I don't see any of that being true for the TTA regulations.
If there is a merger I imagine KMS would be there in some capacity, with one VAG brand or another. Who knows at what level of support - the Audi brand makes sense when you're competing against Volvo and BMW, but it's still between Volvo and Saab for the driver's championship this year. In spec cars they're all the same and what car manufacturer wants to compare themselves to Saab?
Maybe I'm wrong and Honda & Chevy are on board working on TTA bodies. But if I were them I'd take the safe option and do WTCC while waiting to see how the unified series pans out, rather than plowing money into a rather risky proposition. And that's if I wanted to continue at all. And as always, the drivers are irrelevant in this - they will go where the money is.
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