In the 1990s, the 2 Litre Super Touring category became a world-wide phenomenon. It changed forever, the style of racing touring car competition produced, making it more combatant, intense, aggressive, and unpredictable.
The Group A era that preceded it set to create close racing through allowing a large variation of makes and models, all quite different in terms of size, weight, number of cylinders, and engine capacity, to try and co-exist using a sliding weight and wheel width scale, which invariably failed to work successfully, usually resulting in complete domination by one make and model. But the Super Touring formula effectively made each car on the grid the same, by setting the maximum cubic capacity at 2 litres, and only allowing normally aspirated engines. From there, wheel sizes were also controlled, with all cars being identical, with differing weight limits applied depending on whether the vehicle was front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, or four wheel drive. Ultimately, four wheel drive would eventually be phased out altogether.
The new formula, initially called ‘2 Litre Touring Cars’, was introduced in the 1990 British Touring Car Championship, where it was created, and where it was always strongest, and run alongside Group A, which was to be phased out at the end of the season. 1991 was the first year in which the BTCC was open only to 2 Litre Touring Cars, and the grids consisted of a combination of newly built 2 Litre specific cars, and ex-Group A cars, adopted to the new rules. In the case of the previously dominant Sierra RS500’s, this meant now being normally aspirated. Will Hoy, driving a former Group A BMW M3 for Vic Lee Motorsport, won the championship that year.
In 1991, the rights to the BTCC were bought by the TOCA group, owned by Australian Alan Gow. TOCA completely transformed the way in which the BTCC was produced, making more of a ‘show’, including a very intense television package, which was almost arcade-like in its execution, with rapid camera switching between various in-car cameras, and a vast array of track-side cameras, along with the excitable tones of veteran commentator Murray Walker. Visually, the cars looked great, sitting very low to the ground on impossibly hard-riding suspension that made them dart about like single seaters, and with huge diameter wheels and low profile tyres tucked right up inside the bodywork.
The 13 rounds making up the 1991 BTCC produced six different race winners, and some hugely close and exciting racing, with plenty of body contact between the cars which turned out to be a huge draw-card for race fans. The 1992 championship saw the series boom, and the championship came down to a three-way nail-biter between Will Hoy (Toyota), John Cleland (Vauxhall), and Tim Harvey (BMW), with the BMW driver emerging as champion, following some unbelievably dramatic incidents.
In 1993, 2 Litre Touring Cars was officially defined by the FIA, and France, Italy, Portugal, and Australia all adopted the formula. 1993 also saw the reinstating of the World Touring Car Championship (officially a World Cup), which had been dropped after 1987, although it would now be run as a single event, rather than a full series.
The formula continued its global explosion in 1994, and was adopted by Japan, Germany, Belgium, South Africa, New Zealand (brought in as a one-off mini series rather than a full championship), and was also used for the Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship.
Manufacturer support was huge, with the formula becoming the ultimate marketing tool, to help sell otherwise fairly ordinary four-door mid-sized sedans. The ‘Super Touring’ name was eventually applied in 1995. 1995 was also the third and final year of the World Cup.
As the decade wore on, so Super Touring continued to grow (there were even pc games created of the BTCC), even being expanded into the US, but with such heavy manufacturer involvement, and with the cars becoming so sophisticated, and so expensive, as the 1990s drew to a close, so Super Touring was fast losing momentum. 2000 was the last year in which the formula was used in the BTCC, where it began, and a new, more cost effective category was created to replace it, albeit, to the disappointment of many who found the new formula lacking the visual and aural appeal of the out-going class.
Today, 2 Litre Super Touring Cars have become prized possessions, and are appearing in ever greater numbers at historic events around the world. The annual Silverstone Classic event runs a touring car category that is largely made up of 2 Litre Super Tourers, such is their popularity among historic racing competitors.
The 2 Litre Super Touring category is now long since dead, but the style of racing it produced, the controlled environment created to make each car almost identical in performance, along with the hugely entertaining television package, are all used in various touring car categories to this day. It broke new ground.
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