65 years of brilliant British touring cars

Landmark cars from 65 years of saloon racing

The British Saloon Car Championship, and the British Touring Car Championship that it morphed into in 1987, marks its 65th birthday in 2023.

We're celebrating this landmark anniversary with a look at some of the most important and more unusual cars that have competed in the series.

The cars are listed in chronological order and cover everything from early Fords and Austins to last year’s title-winning Hyundai.

1. Austin A105

The 1958 British Saloon Car Championship got under way a little bit early with a meeting at Brands Hatch on Boxing Day 1957.

That race was won by Tommy Sopwith in his Jaguar 3.4, which set the template for eight outright wins from 15 races.

Sopwith should have been a guaranteed champion, but the structure of four classes meant he was tied on points with Jack Sears, driving an Austin A105.

To settle the championship, the pair competed in two five-lap shootout races at Brands Hatch in Riley One-Point-Fives, with the winner decided on the lowest aggregate time.

Sears emerged victorious after the two races by 1.6 seconds.

2. Ford Zephyr Six

Jeff Uren won the 1959 British Saloon Car Championship title without winning a single race outright.

He did, however, dominate his class with the Ford Zephyr and started a long association with the series for the Blue Oval.

Competing in Class C, Uren took every class win bar one in the 10-race season.

The Zephyr was not as obvious a contender as the Jaguar 3.4s of Ivor Bueb or Jack Sears, but it was consistent and driven brilliantly by Uren.

3. Austin Se7en/Mini Cooper

The Austin A40 had proved that small cars could win the British Saloon Car Championship in 1960 in the hands of Doc Shepherd, and the Mini proved that front-wheel drive could triumph the following year.

Sir John Whitmore drove the Austin Mini Se7en to overall victory.

Jaguar’s Mk2 won every race in 1961, with victories shared between Baillie, Hill, Parkes, and Salvadori. However, Whitmore took four class wins in the Mini and lifted the title.

John Love followed up with another championship win with a Mini Cooper in 1962, while Alec Poole rounded out the 1960s with a third overall title in his 970cc Cooper 'S'.

4. Ford Galaxie

It might have been the British Saloon Car Championship, but US muscle cars arrived in force when the Ford Galaxie came to dominate the second half of the 1964 season.

Its V8-powered brute force proved too much for the Jaguars and the Ford delivered a second BSCC title to Jack Sears, the first driver to achieve this accolade.

Other famous names to make good use of the Galaxie included Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Dan Gurney, and Bob Olthoff.

5. Lotus Cortina

The Lotus Cortina made its debut in the BSCC in 1963, but it really made its mark in 1964 by scooping the title in the hands of Jim Clark.

The Formula One driver’s brilliance in this steed is demonstrated by his winning every round in Class B, as well as three outright wins.

Its 1964 victory proved the only one for the Mk1 Lotus Cortina. The Mk2 version scored another outright series win with Frank Gardner in 1968, though he also competed in an Escort Twin Cam that season.

6. Ford Mustang

In 1965, the Ford Mustang replaced the Galaxie as the class of the muscle cars.

The Mustang was hard to beat in the hands of Roy Pierpoint, and this combination of car and driver took four outright race wins as well as six out of eight class wins to earn the title.

However, the Mustang’s power advantage would be eroded the following year with a change to the rules that allowed more engine modifications.

This meant smaller, more nimble cars could challenge the US machinery down the straights.

7. Ford Anglia

New Group 5 regulations meant cars in the British Saloon Car Championship looked more like those in the showroom.

Underneath, however, the racers were allowed more modifications and Ralph Broad’s team took full advantage of this with its Anglia.

Driven by John Fitzpatrick, the diminutive Ford saloon won six out of eight class wins and gave Fitzpatrick the title.

Ford also dominated the race wins with the Mustang, Falcon Sprint, Galaxie and Lotus Cortina.

8. Ford Falcon Sprint

Muscle cars were back in dominant form for the 1967 season of the BSCC and the Ford Falcon Sprint proved the class of the field.

It took seven outright race wins from 12 events that year, and every one came with Australian Frank Gardner at the wheel.

Gardner became the first overseas driver to take the BSCC title in his Alan Mann-entered Falcon Sprint.

John Rhodes in a Mini Cooper 'S' won the 100th race in the series’ history, which was held at Mallory Park.

9. Hillman Imp

The first of three consecutive BSCC titles for the Imp came in 1970, and it also gave Bill McGovern a hat-trick of titles.

This was the first time any single driver had notched up a trio of championships, though the Lotus Cortina had contributed to three overall titles for Sears, Clark, and Gardner.

Further rule changes in the 1970s helped the Imp as the Group 2 regulations allowed for even more modifications.

The George Bevan-prepared cars made full use of this to deliver strong power from the Hillman’s 1-litre engine, resulting in eight class wins in 1970 and 10 class wins in both 1971 and ’72.

10. Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

The Chevrolet Camaro has become one of the more popular cars in historic saloon car racing, yet it only managed a single title win in the BSCC.

That came in 1973 in the hands of Frank Gardner, who hustled the 7-litre V8 machine to six outright wins from 11 races that season.

The Camaro’s only serious competition came from the BMW 3.0 CSL driven by Brian Muir, with another shared by Harald Ertl and Derek Bell in the Silverstone TT race.

Gardner’s title win gave him a hat-trick of championship victories in the BSCC.

11. Hillman Avenger GT

If the Hillman Avenger GT made an unlikely saloon-car racer, nobody bothered to tell driver Bernard Unett.

He took the Hillman to eight class wins to earn him the championship in 1974.

Rebadged as a Chrysler, the Avenger and Unett went on to two further title wins in 1976 and ’77.

This made him only the third driver in the history of the series to date to win a hat-trick of titles.

12. Triumph Dolomite Sprint

The Broadspeed-prepared Triumph Dolomite Sprint became a force to be reckoned with in the hands of Andy Rouse.

Rule changes for the start of 1974 favoured smaller-engined cars, and the Sprint’s 16-valve motor took the fight to the large-capacity Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro.

Twelve class wins was enough for Rouse and his Dolomite Sprint to take the 1975 title, as well as five outright race wins in the season.

13. Ford Capri

The Ford Capri is one of the most recognisable British Saloon Car Championship contenders from the 1970s, yet an overall title eluded this car.

The 1974 rule changes meant smaller-engined cars than the 3-litre Capri won outright, but it didn’t detract from Gordon Spice winning five successive class titles between 1976 and 1980.

Spice and the Capri were also more than up to winning races outright, taking victories in every one of the five seasons where they won the class title.

14. Mini 1275GT

If the Mini Cooper was no longer a contender in the British Saloon Car Championship, the Mini wasn’t done as a force in racing.

The 1275GT took up the cudgels and was prepared by Patrick Motorsport with some input from British Leyland. The result was a very able, nimble racer.

In the hands of Richard Longman, the 1275GT took back-to-back title wins in 1978 and 1979. Impressively, Longman won 11 out of 12 class battles in 1978, and followed that up with 10 out of 12 class wins the following year.

15. Mazda RX-7

The Mazda RX-7 showed its potential in 1979 when Tom Walkinshaw won his class with the rotary-engined coupé.

With its abrasively loud exhaust note, the RX-7 became the first Japanese car to win the BSCC title in 1980 with Win Percy driving and taking 10 class wins in as many races.

For 1981, the Tom Walkinshaw Racing-run RX-7 was back with a new livery and just as much determination from Percy, who scored nine class wins from 11 races.

16. Toyota Corolla

Win Percy became the first driver to win triple BSCC titles consecutively when he won in 1982, but he was not at the wheel of the Mazda RX-7 he’d used in previous years.

For this season, he switched to a Toyota Corolla Coupé, which might have seemed an unlikely choice at the beginning of the year.

Two outright race wins during 1982 showed the light, agile and rear-wheel-drive Corolla’s talent. This also helped the Toyota take all 11 class wins in the season.

The Corolla is notable as the only car to have won both the British Saloon Car Championship and, as it became in 1987, the British Touring Car Championship.

17. Alfa Romeo GTV6

The 2.5-litre Alfa Romeo GTV6, shown here in Euroturismo spec as driven by Lella Lombardi, was a clever choice for racing in the British Saloon Car Championship because it ran in a class with little competition.

Andy Rouse made the most of this and drove the Alfa to six class wins from eight starts. Despite having missed the first three races of the season, this was enough for Rouse to win that year’s title.

However, 1983 was dogged by controversy when the top three Rover Vitesses were all excluded by the FIA for technical infringements. This left the unsuspecting Tony Lanfranchi to take the 3.5-litre class win in his Opel Monza.

18. Rover Vitesse

A stalwart of the British Saloon Car Championship in the early 1980s, the Rover Vitesse was also a front-runner throughout its career.

Denied success in 1983 due to technical infringements, the 3.5-litre V8 Rover was back in fine form the following year and took Andy Rouse in his self-prepared car to the title with seven out of 11 race wins.

The Vitesse might have been a big car with simple rear suspension, but it proved very capable when driven by the likes of Jeff Allam, Peter Lovett, Tony Pond and Steve Soper, among many others.

19. Ford Sierra XR4Ti

While Ford was readying its RS Cosworth model, it used the Sierra XRTi in the British Saloon Car Championship.

The 2.3-litre, four-cylinder Ford used a turbocharger to give it prodigious power and it marked a turning point in the type of engines used in this series and elsewhere.

The XR4Ti was not the first turbocharged car to contest the BSCC, with Colt, Ford, MG and Nissan having already adopted the technology.

However, in the hands of Andy Rouse who took his third successive title with the Sierra, it was a foretaste of how much this model would come to dominate the series.

20. BMW M3 (E30)

BMW had been relying on its potent and well developed 635CSi up until the end of the 1987 season, but for 1988 it was all change with the compact M3.

Competing in the 2000-3000cc category, the M3 was the class of its field and Frank Sytner took the overall title with 11 class victories.

The Prodrive-prepared M3 might not have had the outright power of the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, which won a clean sweep of overall race wins in 1987.

However, those victories were shared between several drivers, so Sytner had a straighter run at the championship in the reliable BMW.

21. Vauxhall Astra GTE 16v

The British Touring Car Championship’s class structure endured into the late 1980s and this benefited John Cleland.

He took the overall title at the wheel of Vauxhall’s feisty Astra GTE, winning his class in 11 out of 13 rounds of the championship.

The only competition for the Astra was the underperforming Volkswagen Golf, but it was still an impressive start for the Vauxhall in its debut season in the BTCC.

It also set Cleland on a path to success with the marque that lasted throughout the 1990s.

22. Ford Sierra RS 500

The greatest touring car ever? The Ford Sierra Cosworth RS 500 has more claim to that than most, helped by clean sweeps of race wins in more than one season of the BTCC.

Its performance and poise made it a favourite with drivers and spectators alike, and it was often seen sliding through corners as the rear tyres tried – and failed – to meet the challenge set by the turbocharged 2-litre engine.

Curiously, however, the RS 500 only ever secured one BTCC title due to the class structure that persisted up until 1990.

Even then, the Ford only won that year because the classes were simplified into up to 2000cc and over 2000cc, with the turbocharged Sierra falling into the latter.

Rob Gravett was the best of the Sierra drivers that year and took the title with nine wins from 15 races – with a Sierra winning every other round, too, in the hands of Andy Rouse, David Sears and Mike Smith.

23. BMW 318iS

The BMW M3 enjoyed a fitting send-off in 1991 with a BTCC title win, but the following year it was all change with the new-shape E36 generation and the 318iS coupé.

This car was built to meet the new Super Touring regulations that stipulated an engine of up to 2 litres in capacity. The motor was an M3 unit, but with shorter stroke to meet the capacity requirement.

The 318iS gained notoriety in the final race of the 1992 season at Silverstone, when Steve Soper in the BMW collided with title contender John Cleland in a Vauxhall Cavalier.

Both ended up out of the race and the championship went to BMW driver Tim Harvey.

24. Vauxhall Cavalier

It’s a credit to race preparers Dave Cook and then Ray Mallock that a rep’s car such as the Vauxhall Cavalier was such a central contender in the BTCC.

The racers were built precisely to meet the Super Touring regulations and the front-drive Cavalier was in the thick of it from the start.

Further helping the Cavalier’s cause were great drivers such as John Cleland, and Jeff Allam.

Always a crowd-pleasing combination, the Cavalier and Cleland lifted the title in 1995, which was delayed compensation for losing it in spectacular fashion in 1992.

25. Alfa Romeo 155

Alfa Romeo’s entry to the British Touring Car Championship in 1994 was significant in many ways.

First, it demonstrated that the British series was the hardest-fought of all touring car series in the world. Second, Alfa drafted in former Formula One driver Gabriele Tarquini to pilot its new 155 race car.

The third point is that the 155 fired the first serious salvo in the aerodynamics battle in the BTCC.

Alfa used a jutting front splitter and a large rear spoiler to give the 155 lots of downforce, which Tarquini used to help him win the 1994 title.

This despite one of the BTCC’s most heart-stopping moments when he crashed at Knockhill in 1994 after a nudge from another car. Thankfully, he was fine and walked away.

26. Volvo 850

There were plenty of smiles and sniggers when Volvo turned up for the 1994 British Touring Car Championship with an 850 estate.

Surely this was for comedy value only? Perhaps, but there was serious intent behind this effort because the car was built by TWR, headed by former British Saloon Car Champion Tom Walkinshaw.

While the 850 estate didn’t win a race in 1994, its saloon sibling was a consistent winner in 1995 in the hands of Rickard Rydell.

However, the Swedish firm had to wait until 1998 for a BTCC championship title with its S40 saloon, with Rydell once more in the driver’s seat.

27. Audi A4 quattro

Having revolutionised the rally world with four-wheel drive, Audi set its sights on doing the same in the BTCC.

It 1996 A4 quattro was the only car on the grid with all-wheel drive, which could have proved a disadvantage in weight. However, it was clear from the off that the A4 and driver Frank Biela were the best of the bunch.

The A4 quattro became a victim of its own success when the BTCC organisers made it carry an extra 95kg of weight ballast.

It didn’t stop the A4 from running at the front and, for 1998, four-wheel drive was banned from the series – ending Audi’s involvement.

28. Renault Laguna

The Renault Laguna was built by a subsidiary of the Williams Formula One team, called Williams Touring Car Engineering.

It showed how badly Renault wanted to win in the BTCC and its Laguna was reckoned to be the most expensive car on the grid at the time.

The Laguna started out in the BTCC in 1994 and steadily improved and evolved, so that by 1997 it claimed the overall title with Swiss driver Alain Menu at the wheel.

That year was also significant because it introduced a young Jason Plato to the BTCC as the second driver in the Williams-Renault team.

29. Ford Mondeo

Built by Prodrive for the 1999 season, Ford’s Mondeo BTCC contender was as exotic as its roadgoing relative was ordinary.

Rumoured to have cost £1million per car, the Mondeo was a hand-crafted machine with almost every part bespoke for racing. That even extended to the front wings that were reshaped to cover the 19in wheels.

The engine was a Ford V6 reduced in capacity to meet the 2-litre rules, and it produced 305bhp driving through a six-speed sequential gearbox.

Its first year in 1999 was decent, then it took Alain Menu to the championship title in 2000.

Prior to this, the Mondeo was more remembered for Nigel Mansell’s huge crash at Donington Park in 1993 in an earlier generation of Ford’s racer.

30. Hyundai i30N

Bringing the British Touring Car Championship bang up to date is the Hyundai i30N that Tom Ingram used to win the 2022 season.

Run by EXCELR8 Motorsport, the Hyundai uses the latest hybrid technology that was introduced for 2022.

Ingram was the first driver to win a BTCC race in the new hybrid era, and he went on to win a further five races to secure the title.

It was a win that Ingram had been in close contention for in the previous six years.