Who Misses the 1990's BTCC? Long Post Warning ;)

[uk_vette]

Motorrad said:

Nice post, takes me back to when I was more interested in BTCC than any other form of motorsport.

.
.
I agree, BTTC was almost a full on contact sport, which was very entertaining.

'vette

[IainW]

The contact was a lot more subtle back then. Now it's brutal and very obvious which I don't like.

Lots of great side-by-side racing too though, it's a shame the Silverstone finale of 1992 was overshadowed by the Cleland-Soper incident, because there was a great mostly contact-free battle between Rouse, Allam and Leslie at the front.

[snowen250]

More info on the RWD Cavalier, it was driven in 1990 by none other then a certain square headed ExF1 now commentator dont you know? Of course by the end of supertouring it was ex f1 drivers in btcc, not aspiring ones.....

A good place to see ex btcc cars now is the CTRC Classic thunder series, that and the LMA Eurosaloons.

Oh, and one more to add. and yes, this IS a supertouring car



Simon

[RetroWheels]

Just found this thread - Better than any car Mag article i've read this month (and i read Lots).
Excellent initial post (and subsequently quality thread) well researched ,loads of good info and great links.
In the words of Partridge... Textbook .

This is the sort of material that keeps me logging on to PH.

Edited by RetroWheels on Tuesday 28th December 01:48

[F1GTRUeno]

Just dragging this up, so many of these cars are up for sale nowadays in various states, imaging if they were bought, restored and raced...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/34723/BMW_32...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/34428/Bmw_st...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/22836/Alfa_R...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/33648/Ford_M...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/33008/Alfa_R...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/33369/Opel_V...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/33193/Honda_...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/33040/850_TW...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/33014/AUDI_A...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/31116/Ford_M...

[Plug550]

F1GTRUeno said:

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/33040/850_TW...

http://www.racecarsdirect.com/listing/31116/Ford_M...

These two caught my attention, although the Volvo sounds a little like Triggers broom!

"New shell, engine and 'box"

[dougc]

Who cares! Its only 13.5k!

[biper]

35k for the Volvo

[entropy]

Nick M said:

It's interesting reading this thread and seeing how many people were so influenced by the cars that the really wanted to go and get one. Granted I've still not managed to get around to an Alfa 155, but it seems plenty of people were interested enough to either go and get a BMW, Alfa or whatever.

I wonder if todays BTCC cars inspire the same feelings of *needing* to own one ?

Any PH'ers seriously thinking of getting a Chevy Cruze?


Thought not!

[TimmyArt]

I used to love the Cavaliers. As has been said, they just looked so right!
Along with many other videos this is a great one. Sorry if it's already been posted on this thread
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7NrmvbA0iA

[rallycross]

Nick M said:

It's interesting reading this thread and seeing how many people were so influenced by the cars that the really wanted to go and get one. Granted I've still not managed to get around to an Alfa 155, but it seems plenty of people were interested enough to either go and get a BMW, Alfa or whatever.

I wonder if todays BTCC cars inspire the same feelings of *needing* to own one ?

I must admit super touring did influence me into actually wanting to own some of those cars (Gsi cav', 155 t/s), maybe it was just because I was younger? Certainly dont feel inspired by the current crop of Chevrolet (daewoo), Leon Tdi, Focus lpg etc - hardly inspiring. I did buy a 155 2.0 TS in about 97', having been standing on the bank at Knockhill within about 20 meters of where Tarquini rolled his 155 into a ball it must have had an impact on me too, was quite a good car to drive the 155, shame it was so ugly.

[SHutchinson]

Not as expensive as you'd think to get into a proper road-going race replica.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2297040.htm

The Vectra ST200 complete with the brakes, gearbox, wheels and suspension (plus other bits) from the Vectra challenge race cars. It was a BTCC support series.

£6k gets you pretty much the tidiest one left of the entire 38 car production run.

Put a couple of stickers on it and a blind man on a galloping course wouldn't know it was bought from a tile floored dealership.

Sam
(ex Vauxhall Vectra Owners Club rep,mod,admin)

Edited by SHutchinson on Friday 14th January 16:42

[rallycross]

dont think anyone would put that high a value on a road going vectra but you never know.

most of them were just cosmetic models (and v6 as well) the one above is the real thing but its still only a 2.0 vectra road car. The extra bits included

AP racing brakes
AP Surtrac LSD
Lower final Drive
Koni dampers
Different alloys

[SHutchinson]

rallycross said:

dont think anyone would put that high a value on a road going vectra but you never know.

most of them were just cosmetic models (and v6 as well) the one above is the real thing but its still only a 2.0 vectra road car. The extra bits included

AP racing brakes
AP Surtrac LSD
Lower final Drive
Koni dampers
Different alloys

It's a 2.5 V6, as were the Challenge cars.

The 2.0 models were the watered down Supertouring versions (of which they also made a 2.5 v6 version just to confuse the subject a tad) that had none of the bits you mention above.

Edited by SHutchinson on Friday 14th January 17:18

[rallycross]

My mistake not 2.0. We did try to buy one of these after being led to believe it was a genuine MSD car only to find it was just a cooking version with the cosmetic only upgrades - hence never went to look at it end.

[SHutchinson]

rallycross said:

My mistake not 2.0. We did try to buy one of these after being led to believe it was a genuine MSD car only to find it was just a cooking version with the cosmetic only upgrades - hence never went to look at it end.

There's an actual challenge car on eBay atm: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vauxhall-Vectra-SRi-Challeng...

Whilst MSD prepared the ST200's they also converted every single Vectra B GSi (of which there are thousands)to GSi spec too. The standard Supertourings were pretty much the only upgraded model they didn't touch.

[phil_cardiff]

Great topic! Back in 90-something I went to a BTCC race at Pembrey. My parents had a Cavalier and I loved Cleland. They then bought a Carina.

Today I've been lusting after a Carina gti with 170 or so bhp!

[Dr JonboyG]

MiniMan64 said:

Not forgeting the most garish livery ever to visit a BTCC track:

The dayglo yellow Peugeot 406 Coupe might beat that Xedos in the retina-searing stakes.

[stabbed rat]

Only just spotted this thread, great write up OP. Thanks

[Clivey]

SHutchinson said:

Not as expensive as you'd think to get into a proper road-going race replica.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2297040.htm

The Vectra ST200 complete with the brakes, gearbox, wheels and suspension (plus other bits) from the Vectra challenge race cars. It was a BTCC support series.

£6k gets you pretty much the tidiest one left of the entire 38 car production run.

Put a couple of stickers on it and a blind man on a galloping course wouldn't know it was bought from a tile floored dealership

That is awesome. My Dad was driving company cars whilst I was growing-up and had a long line of Vauxhalls (which I still think were good cars despite what the badge-bores say), needless to say, I sat there religiously in front of the TV, willing the Vectras to at least beat their frog-eyed Ford rivals. I was another who spent hours on ToCA (now look what you've done, I'm digging it out again!) re-running the races to achieve the result I wanted when watching the TV.

Now If I could find an immaculate post-facelift Vectra GSI (1999-2002)...

...the other half just wouldn't understand.