BTCC 1993 what a season

[pistonchris]

Found this video on youtube and thought it was ace.
Would love to see if anyone as found more old touring car videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgoi-xHGAR4&fea...

[MxJames]

For me the 94 season was even more spectacular, the Alfa Romeo team just turned up and won, with the stunning 155s.

92 was a great year with the famous ending.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCij9mYIokA

[robsco]

MxJames said:

For me the 94 season was even more spectacular, the Alfa Romeo team just turned up and won, with the stunning 155s.

92 was a great year with the famous ending.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCij9mYIokA

I love that video, an incredible three laps of motorsport.

[Welshbeef]

I used to watch this era BTcC week in week out.
Brillient racing.

Do I watch it now? Only seen one race in two years.
Basically it all went downhill when it was just Vauxhall became rubbish shame.

Having said that I found Ozzie v8's which is superb and I see the odd name racing there who used to be BTCC

[NelsonR32]

Anything BTCC from 1992 to 1998 was amazing. Sadly all the major manufacturers pulled out after that

[Jw Vw]

NelsonR32 said:

Anything BTCC from 1992 to 1998 was amazing. Sadly all the major manufacturers pulled out after that

Agreed, but 1999 was great as well. From 2000 it was downhill IMO.

[robsco]

Welshbeef, I presume you're not watching this season's BTCC? I went through the same phase as you a couple of years ago - the racing got boring, the cars were boring and the whole thing just seemed to lose its appeal. This season has been great though. There's been some fantastic racing, fantastic politics and fantastic whining/driving from JP. Try tuning in when you can, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[stewjohnst]

MxJames said:

For me the 94 season was even more spectacular, the Alfa Romeo team just turned up and won, with the stunning 155s.

92 was a great year with the famous ending.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCij9mYIokA

iirc from my old copies of Carweek, Alfa had been given about £7m by fiat to try and win the BTCC in the hope they might actually shift some 155's.

Used to watch the BTCC religiously back then, still remember John Cleland and Steve Soper smashing into each other and Soper fininshing a race with 3/4's of his BMW mangled...

That was when BTCC peaked for me, everyone was in on it, Toyota, Nissan, Vauxhall, Volvo with the TWR 850 Estates...It started to lose it when they grew wings and the overtaking dropped off (anyone remember the homologation editions that had extended wing kits in the boot, Renault Laguna Airflow, etc?)

Apologies for the rambling nostalgic post..going to dust off the VHS...

[MG CHRIS]

I hate it not moaning at you welshbeef when people say it got boring when it was just vauxhall,it wasn't just vauxhall there were more cars like lexus, peugeot, alfa, and mg in 2001 and then on it risen, honda, proton, seat, ford, and a few more not all were manafactures but you dont need then to make good racing. The last 3 years have seen incredibly close races and 2009 finaly race was one of the top btcc races in history for turkington to win the title against the 2 vauxhall that were trying to knock him off, and plato for coming through the field to be 1 of only 2 drivers to ever win 3 race wins in a meeting. This year we seen 4 new cars, toyota avensis, audi a4, proton gen2 and the global focus. 26 cars more than the wtcc, dtm, f1 its growing watch it you be surprised how good it it.

[hesnotthemessiah]

1991 season.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=8x9KQo75Ul0

[Welshbeef]

The other thing is WTCC didn't exist during the BTCC so drivers didn't switch or have the odd race in different series.

DTM also went downhill too.

I know lexis and MG were there I watched it for a while then got fed up as the privateers apart from Matt Neil didn't comets at the front they competed against lowly Lexus.

I watched that JP interview and it was rightly full of emotion.
However the thing is the downsizing of engines isn't great at all. The 1.6ltr turbos do not sound good and the 2ltr petrols still don't push anywhere near the "red top" vauxhalls engines these GSI's power

[philmots]

I started to not like it when the cars started to look less and less like the cars you could buy from the showroom.

In the old days Clelands Vectra, the 3 series just looked like a GSI or M3 with some big wheels/brakes shoved up into the arches! When all the aero kit came on and they had the stupid wheel arch extensions (which broke suspension after the slightest knock) the cars looked crap.

98/99 was the end of the good times

[pistonchris]

btcc 1988 rouse vs percy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mcpfLMQsp8
Love how they fight with the car.

[pistonchris]

Rouse and soper this is a good race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KblzpqH1iJ0&fea...

[chevronb37]

I can still remember the thrill of standing between Old Hall and Cascades for the 1993 BTCC round at Oulton Park. I was 9 years old and my dad had just bought his first BMW so we were desperate to see Smokin' Jo or Steve Soper win. From a standing start on the first lap he had a new lap record according to my (probably inaccurate) stopwatch. It was an amazing buzz. We did pretty much every BTCC round at Oulton 1989-2000 but only seen the championship twice in the last 10 years. It's fine now but just doesn't hold my attention like the good old days.

[anonymous-user]

Watching the old clips brings back memories before all the lardy over aero's cars that turned it into expensive banger racing. I think I started falling asleep the season after the A4's turned up. Dont bother at all with it now.

[MG CHRIS]

Welshbeef said:

The other thing is WTCC didn't exist during the BTCC so drivers didn't switch or have the odd race in different series.

DTM also went downhill too.

I know lexis and MG were there I watched it for a while then got fed up as the privateers apart from Matt Neil didn't comets at the front they competed against lowly Lexus.

I watched that JP interview and it was rightly full of emotion.
However the thing is the downsizing of engines isn't great at all. The 1.6ltr turbos do not sound good and the 2ltr petrols still don't push anywhere near the "red top" vauxhalls engines these GSI's power

Mg were battling against vauxhall they won a few races they stopped vauxhall wining every race in the 2001 season after only 4 rounds in competions. The wtcc are going 1.6 the btcc are going 2.0 turbo that are pushing 300 bhp and will be up to 340 when its all turbo cars. The n/a cars are pushing 270-280 bhp more than a red top.

[John D.]

Astounded this has survived so long in GG. Are the mods on holiday?

[Stitch]

stewjohnst said:

iirc from my old copies of Carweek, Alfa had been given about £7m by fiat to try and win the BTCC in the hope they might actually shift some 155's.

Used to watch the BTCC religiously back then, still remember John Cleland and Steve Soper smashing into each other and Soper fininshing a race with 3/4's of his BMW mangled...

That was when BTCC peaked for me, everyone was in on it, Toyota, Nissan, Vauxhall, Volvo with the TWR 850 Estates...It started to lose it when they grew wings and the overtaking dropped off (anyone remember the homologation editions that had extended wing kits in the boot, Renault Laguna Airflow, etc?)

Apologies for the rambling nostalgic post..going to dust off the VHS...

I also remember contemporary reports about the gamesmanship that Alfa employed. Rolled up to the first race with a boot-mounted spoiler as per the road car, open boot take out pack of spacers that were supplied with the road car, unbolt the spoiler, fit spacers, there you have a spoiler with some aero effect.

In fact just read that the front apron was also adjustable with a few rivets that were supplied with the road car.

[s m]

John D. said:

Astounded this has survived so long in GG. Are the mods on holiday?

I never figure out why they will move some specific car ones to the One-make forums....but others they don't?