motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

, BTC Touring (BTC-T) was the set of new regulations for the

British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA TOCA, formally trading as BARC (TOCA) Ltd, is an organiser of motorsport events in ...

(BTCC) introduced in 2001 BTCC, after the demise of the

Supertouring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

category. The cars were based on standard bodyshells, but were allowed significant modifications to turn the car into a racecar and differentiate it from the

Super Production In relation to international motorsport governed by the FIA, Group N refers to regulations providing 'standard' large scale series production vehicles for competition. They are limited in terms of modifications permitted to the standard specifica ...

class that would run alongside BTC Touring in the 2001 BTCC.

Models

In chronological order of their appearances, the cars were: * BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Coupe * BTC-T Peugeot 406 Coupe * BTC-T Alfa Romeo 147 *

BTC-T Lexus IS200 With the new low-cost BTC Touring rules encouraging private teams to build their own cars, Cheshire-based ABG Motorsport decided to construct a Lexus IS200 for 2001. Converted from a roadcar into a racing machine, the car missed the first meet ...

BTC-T MG ZS EX259 The BTC-T MG ZS EX259 is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2001 British Touring Car Championship season by West Surrey Racing, who ran MG's official works program. Works career Partway through the 2001 BTCC season, WSR b ...

BTC-T Honda Civic Type-R The BTC-T Honda Civic Type-R is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2002 British Touring Car Championship season by Arena Motorsport, who ran Honda's official works program. Works career In 2002, Honda announced that it would re ...

BTC-T Proton Impian The BTC-T Proton Impian is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2002 British Touring Car Championship season by Team Petronas Syntium Proton, Team PSP, who ran Proton (automobile), Proton's official works program. BTCC In 2001, t ...

BTC-T Peugeot 307 The BTC-T Peugeot 307 is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2003 British Touring Car Championship season by Vic Lee Racing. Team Halfords After two unsuccessful seasons of running the BTC-T Peugeot 406 Coupe, Team Halfords t ...

* BTC-T Vauxhall Vectra * BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch *

BTC-T Honda Integra Type R In 2005, Team Dynamics took advantage of a loophole in the British Touring Car Championship regulations that allowed cars to enter, whether they were on sale in the United Kingdom or not. They converted a pair of Honda Integra Japanese imports int ...

Gallery

File:2005FOS HondaIntegra MattNeal.jpg,

Matt Neal Matthew Neal (born 20 December 1966) is a British motor racing driver. Neal is a triple BTCC Champion having won the British Touring Car Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2011. Neal is also a record 6 time BTCC Independents Champion having won the ...

demonstrates a

Team Dynamics Team Dynamics Motorsport is a UK-based motor-racing team based in Droitwich, Worcestershire; best known for their successes in the British Touring Car Championship, including winning the Overall Drivers title in 2005, 2006 and 2011 with Matt Nea ...

at the 2005

Goodwood Festival of Speed The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hillclimbing, hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in l ...

. File:Vauxhall astra brands hatch.jpg,

Tom Chilton Thomas James Chilton (born 15 March 1985) is a British racing driver. He has spent most of his career competing in touring car racing; he was a former factory Vauxhall and Honda driver in the British Touring Car Championship, and currently driv ...

driving a

VXRacing VXR is the branding for the high performance trim specification, used since 2004 for models in many of Vauxhall's car range in the United Kingdom. Holden has also used the VXR badge for some of its high-performance cars such as the Astra VXR, ...

prepared BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

. File:Martin Johnson Vauxhall Astra.jpg, Martin Johnson's BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Coupe as seen during 2009 season. File:Matt Neal 2006 BTCC Oulton Park.jpg, Matt Neal's

which won him the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Drivers Championships. File:BTCC Brands06 PaddockHill.jpg, Several BTC-T Spec. Cars (with S2000 cars) at

. (BTC-T Spec. cars are 2x Astra, 2x Integra and 1x MG ZS). File:MGZS BTCC Collard.jpg,

Rob Collard Robert Collard (born 1 October 1968) is a British auto racing driver from Hampshire, best known for racing in the British Touring Car Championship, winning two races in a West Surrey Racing MG, and claiming the Independent's Cup title in 2003. ...

in a Team RAC BTC-T MG ZS.

History

A year after the regulations began, the

European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World T ...

launched its

Super 2000 Super 2000 is an FIA powertrain specification used in the World Rally Championship, the British Touring Car Championship, the World Touring Car Championship, and other touring car championships. The engines were originally 2 L naturally aspirate ...

regulations. As the latter allowed manufacturers to have their cars seen internationally, most major companies opted for this, meaning that the BTCC suffered from small grids. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, TOCA allowed Super 2000 cars to compete, with rules designed to equalise the performance of both classes. BTC-T cars were eventually made ineligible to win the main championship from

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. The 2010 season was meant to be the last year BTC Touring cars would be eligible to enter the championship, however they were allowed to compete for one more season in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, with their base-weight +50 kg on 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Btc Touring Racing car classes British Touring Car Championship