Favourite Race Cars Part 1 - UK

With the motor racing off season upon us I find myself questioning... what does the author of a topical motorsport based blog write about when there is no racing??

The first answer I have come up with is to talk about what I love about racing, starting with my favourite race cars, so here we go... Part 1, UK racing 

BTCC

I grew up watching the likes of Andy Rouse, Rob Gravett and Tim Harvey racing 600+ BHP Ford Sierra RS500's. The cars were rear wheel drive, had 5 speed H-pattern gearbox's and were a "mans" car. The drivers had to manhandle the cars around the track and compared to todays front wheel drive econo-boxes were "real race cars". Oversteer anyone??




The day the BTCC went front wheel drive was a dark day for me. However the first few years did contain some very good racing! I was a John Cleland fan. So my favourite car of the FWD era has to be his Vauxhall Cavalier GSi 2000. Before Alfa Romeo came along the cars were still very production based, devoid of wings and splitters, and big arches. These were the big selling family cars of the day racing door-to-door, hard but generally fair (Mr Soper aside) across the UK. This picture must have been taken in practice as the car has both mirrors lol... 


UK CLUB RACING

In the mid 90's British club racing was pretty dull. Until the Eurocar package came along. Eurocar started out at a couple of short tracks including Birmingham Wheels with about six cars, and rapidly grew to the be the big hit of the 1990's.

First came the V6; what looked like a Ford Mondeo was actually a space-frame, rear wheel drive, left hand drive, 290bhp 2.9 V6 powered brute! It was NASCAR for the UK, down to the steel wheels, big steering wheels and BIGGER numbers. The cars raced two or three wide everywhere (including round Clearways at the Formula Ford Festival) thanks to the organisers and drivers adoption of oval racing etiquette, grooves and respecting each other's room, on the big tracks. Brilliant racing...

Then came the V8! Looking like a two thirds scale Winston Cup Pontiac Grand Prix, the cars were good looking (Mike Jordans MacTools car was very pretty), they even had a Roush V8 providing loads of power! The V8's never achieved their full potential but they looked and sounded great!

Lastly the Pickup Trucks! Two litre 16 valve engines, this time right hand drive for the UK circuits! Big grids again ensured great racing on the circuits! When the Rockingham oval opened the trucks were converted to left hand drive, and restrictor plate racing hit the UK! They are still racing, and while numbers may not be what they once were, the quality of the show is still as good as ever! 

V8 SUPERCARS

OK, not UK based, but I had to include them - 

The earliest memory I have of touring car racing in Australia, on TV, is of an in-car camera pointed at John Bowes feet, watching them dance as he drove Mount Panarama, Bathurst in a yellow Ford EB Falcon. V8, rear wheel drive, 3 pedals, H-pattern 'box... see a pattern forming here? Great cars, great track!



In 2001 Ford raced the AU Falcon in V8 Supercars. The car raced by Craig Lowndes, with its evil green eyes, and two tone Ford paint job was especially mean looking, and goes down as my favourite V8 Supercar!





OTHERS

TVR Tuscan - Another light weight, V8 engined, rear wheel drive, space-frame chassis beast of a race car. No patttern here honest!! Best one make series ever!!





Part 2... NASCAR...