European Touring Car Challenge / Championship (1963–1988) The
European Touring Car Challenge, as it was originally known, was created in 1963 by Willy Stenger at the behest of the FIA. Cars competed under FIA Group 2 which allowed a variety of
touring cars of different sizes and engine displacements to race together, from the small
Fiat 600 and
Mini to the large
Jaguar Mark 2 and
Mercedes-Benz 300SE In 1963 races and
hillclimbing events at
Nürburgring,
Mont Ventoux,
Brands Hatch,
Mallory Park,
Zolder,
Zandvoort,
Timmelsjoch and even in the Népliget (People's Park) in
Budapest counted towards the ETCC, which was won by German
Peter Nöcker and his Jaguar. In 1968, the regulations were changed to allow
Group 5 cars to participate, however these highly modified Special Touring Cars would only be eligible for two years. In 1970 the series name was changed from European Touring Car Challenge to
European Touring Car Championship. Group 2 again became the principle category although Group 2 regulations were now much more liberal in nature than the old Group 2. Following the
1973 oil crisis the next two seasons had few entrants. It was only in 1977 that the situation was normalised with the return of factory teams. Rules allowed Group 2 and Group 1B "National" cars to compete together, with
BMW 3.0 Coupé CSL and
Capri RS remaining the most competitive entries. In 1982, the FIA replaced Groups 1 and 2 with
Group N and
Group A. The first one was mainly ignored by the ETCC entrants, all cars going the Group A route. BMW and Alfa Romeo prepared regular touring cars for the championship, but it was the big-engined
Tom Walkinshaw Racing prepared
Jaguar XJS and
Rover 3500 Vitesse that would be more competitive in the years to come, fighting against the
BMW 635 CSi, the turbocharged
Volvo 240T and
Ford Sierra Cosworth as well as (from 1986) Australian manufacturer
Holden and its
V8 powered
Commodore. The championship was cancelled after the end of the 1988 season, due to escalating costs (a one-off
World Touring Car Championship in 1987 also exacerbated the problem). By then, the FIA had allowed "Evolution" models to be homologated, and it was special cars such as the
BMW M3 Evo and
Ford Sierra RS500 that dominated the grids and results. The
Macau Guia Race, the
Spa 24 Hours and the
24 Hours Nürburgring were the only international touring car races during those years. With the success and popularity of
Supertouring in many national championships, the FIA organised the one-round Super Touring World Cup for these cars, between 1993 and 1995. In 1996, the FIA promoted the
DTM, which already had races outside Germany in its calendar, to International Touringcar Championship (ITC), but once more escalating costs ended the series after two seasons.
European Touring Car Championship (2000–2004) In 2000, the
Italian Superturismo Championship was promoted to
Euro STC. The series was made up mostly of Italian drivers from the former Italian Campeonato Superturismo and teams plus some other coming from the German
Super Tourenwagen Cup. In the first season of Euro STC, six rounds were in Italy while the other four were in Austria, (A1 Ring), Hungary (Hungaroring), Czech Republic (Brno) and Slovenia (Ljubljana). The series was very balanced with four drivers winning five races apiece (Giovanardi, Kox, Morbidelli and Colciago) with four manufacturers (Alfa Romeo, Honda, BMW, Audi). At the end of the year Giovanardi was able to win the title beating Kox in last round. In 2001, this series became the FIA
2001 European Super Touring Championship, with an extra class for Super Production cars alongside the main
Super Touring class. As the former year also this one was very fought and attractive riveting thanks to the battle between Alfa drivers' Giovanardi and Larini and Honda driver Tarquini. Tarquini won 9 of 20 races, compared with the 3 victories each by Giovanardi and Larini, but lost the title to Giovanardi due to several retirements that he had during the season. In 2002, due to high costs FIA decided to let Super Touring make way for the new class
Super 2000 and named the new series FIA ETCC, using
Super 2000 rules. This new category provoked much interest and saw participation from
Alfa Romeo 156 GTA and
BMW 320i,
Volvo S60 and
SEAT Toledo Cupra. Alfa Romeo won the first two championships with
Fabrizio Giovanardi and
Gabriele Tarquini while in the last season the title was won by
Andy Priaulx and his BMW. The series became popular with the public due to the intense competition and
Eurosport live broadcasts. For this reason in 2005, the ETCC was promoted to
WTCC status.
European Touring Car Cup (2005–2017) The European Touring Car title was given from 2005 until 2009 to a once a year
European Touring Car Cup, with the best representatives from national championships running to Super 2000, Super Production and Super 1600 regulations in the Baltic States, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Starting in 2010 the ETCC will once again become a multi event racing series. Four events of two races each are set to be held in Portugal, Italy, Austria and Germany at the
Circuito Vasco Sameiro in Braga, the Autodromo Bonara in Franciacorta, the
Salzburgring in Salzburg and the
Motorsport Arena Oschersleben in Oschersleben, respectively. However, on 25 Mar 2010, fiawtcc.com reported that the event in Germany was cancelled to avoid clashes with the German touring car series. == Champions ==