Early years with which
Jack Sears won the 1958 British Saloon Car Championship The championship was initially run with a mix of classes, divided according to engine capacity, racing simultaneously. This often meant that a driver who chose the right class could win the overall championship without any chance of overall race wins, thereby devaluing the title for the spectators – for example, in the 1980s
Chris Hodgetts won two overall titles in a small Toyota Corolla prepared by Hughes of Beaconsfield, at that time a Mercedes-Benz/Toyota main dealer when most of the race wins were going to much larger cars; and while the
Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500s were dominating at the front of the field,
Frank Sytner took a title in a Class B
BMW M3 and
John Cleland's first title was won in a small Class C
Vauxhall Astra.
Modern era Super Touring cars won the championship in 2000, the final year running
Super Touring regulations. In 1990, the BTCC introduced a class for cars with an engine displacement up to 2.0 litres which would later be adopted by the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and become the
Super Touring regulations that were used in various championships in Europe and around the world. In their first year, these cars were run alongside a second class which continued to allow larger engines and was once again dominated by the Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500, however from 1991 they became the only cars eligible to compete. The new one-class system was popular with manufacturers from the beginning with six manufacturer supported teams from
BMW,
Ford,
Mitsubishi,
Nissan,
Toyota and
Vauxhall entered in the championship. During the first seasons, the cars were not fitted with aerodynamic aids such as a front splitter or a rear wing which were allowed from 1995 after
Alfa Romeo caused controversy a year earlier, when they entered the 155 fitted with a rear wing – an item that was delivered with the road-going version of the 155, however unfitted in its boot.
Audi joined the BTCC in 1996 with its four-wheel drive A4 Quattro, and went on to take that year's title. The continuously high number of manufacturer-backed teams meant rapid development on the cars and quickly growing costs to compete which caused several manufacturers to withdraw from the championship until the 2000 season, when only Ford, Honda and Vauxhall remained in the championship. To this day, the 'super touring era' during the 1990s is still looked at as the most successful period of the BTCC. The high number of manufacturer-backed teams provided very close competition, close and hard-fought racing on track and many spectators at the circuits.
BTC Touring and Super 2000 cars cars racing at
Brands Hatch, April 2006 at a BTCC during race at
Brands Hatch, April 2011 In order to reduce the costs to compete in the championship, the organisers introduced new regulations for the 2001 season. The
BTC Touring regulations cut costs dramatically but both manufacturer and spectator interest was low. The
Super 2000 rules were adopted for the
2007 season. The 2000s saw cheaper cars than the later Supertouring era, with fewer factory teams and fewer international drivers.
Next Generation Touring Car in his
NGTC Honda Civic during practice at
Thruxton Circuit, April 2012 In 2009, the BTCC released details of its
Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) specification, to be introduced from 2011. The introduction of these new technical regulations were designed to dramatically reduce the design, build and running costs of the cars and engines as well as reducing the potential for significant performance disparities between cars. The NGTC specification also aimed to cut costs by reducing reliance on
WTCC/
S2000 equipment, due to increasing costs/complexity and concerns as to its future sustainability and direction.
Current NGTC cars Currently, the cars used are a mix of 2.0L saloons (sedans) such as the BMW 3-Series and Infiniti Q50, and hatchback cars such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Ford Focus, based on models from a variety of manufacturers, using
NGTC regulations. S2000 cars continued running in the Jack Sears Trophy until the 2014 season.
Teams BTCC teams are a mixture of manufacturer entries (currently
BMW and
Toyota) and independent teams such as
BTC Racing, and
Motorbase Performance. In 2010, following Vauxhall's decision to pull out of the series, there were two new works teams
Chevrolet, run by
RML; and
Honda, run by
Team Dynamics. In
2005,
Team Dynamics became the first independent outfit to win the BTCC drivers and team championships;
Matt Neal won the overall and independent drivers contests in his Team Dynamics Honda Integra. This included finishing all 30 championship races that year, something no other driver had achieved before and only equalled by Adam Morgan some 10 years later in 2015. This ended Vauxhall's run of 4 victories in the drivers and teams championships between 2001 and 2004. Neal and Dynamics were also victorious in 2006, before Vauxhall won the 2007 title with Italian
Fabrizio Giovanardi.
Team Dynamics also achieved the first overall independents race win in the 'Supertouring' era when Neal won a round of the 1999 BTCC at Donington Park, earning the team prize-money of £250,000. As a result of
Matt Neal's championship victories, and the fact that
Team Dynamics were designing and building their own S2000
Honda Civic Type R (with unofficial support from
Honda), they were no longer entered into the Independents category, and were classed as neither an "independent" or "works" team until the 2009 season, when the Manufacturers championship was renamed Manufacturers/Constructors Championship to allow both
Team Aon and
Team Dynamics to compete with at the time the sole works entry of
Vauxhall. ==Car regulations==