TouringCarTimes celebrates 30th anniversary: 1995-2025
TouringCarTimes celebrates 30 years of the fastest touring car news online this year. Join us as we delve into three decades of thrilling racing and take a look at the past, present and future of our sport.
The touring car scene of 2025 is vastly different to 1995, just as it was compared to our previous two anniversaries in 2005 and 2015.
When the site launched in 1995, then named BTCC-Magazine, Super Touring had properly kicked off to dominate the touring car scene and the British Touring Car Championship featured nine manufacturers and the FIA Touring Car World Cup attracted a grid of 40 cars.
Ten years further on saw the rebirth World Touring Car Championship which attracted entries from Alfa Romeo, BMW, Chevrolet and SEAT, while the BTCC saw a growing mix of S2000 and BTC entries at the same time.
Moving the calendars another ten years to 2015 and the World Touring Car Championship was on its second year of the then new TC1 regulations with the dominant Citroën team fighting against Honda and Lada. Meanwhile, the BTCC was on its fifth season of the NGTC regulations with constructor entries from BMW, Infinity, Honda and MG.
Fast forward to today and we have a completely different landscape of a healthy but vastly different British Touring Car Championship, a struggling FIA TCR World Tour as the sole global representation of touring car racing and a DTM which has switched to GT3.
But more on that later.
The past 30 years have provided us with a wide variety of thrilling touring car racing, ups and downs, all around the globe – let’s move on with the TouringCarTimes’ staff picks of favourite seasons, drivers and cars of the period:
ICONIC TOURING CAR SEASONS – 1995-2025
Johan Meissner – Founder and owner
“The 1998 BTCC season had it all; Super Touring at its absolut height, a close and controversial title fight between Rickard Rydell and Anthony Reid, nine manufacturers and iconic races such as the Mansell madness at Donington. The race weekend at Croft that year was also my first live experience of the BTCC at the age of 15, leaving a solid core memory.”
Matt Salisbury – Editor
“Choosing a single season is very difficult after two decades working in the BTCC package but if I had to select one, then I’d go for 2009 and a championship battle that went down to the wire – for a change.
“This was the time when much of the focus was on the battles between Matt Neal and Jason Plato, with the addition of Fabrizio Giovanardi to the grid only adding to the quality at the front of the grid. Colin Turkington had been showing he had the talent to match the experienced trio and he really came of age to beat them to the title.
“The 2009 finale at Brands Hatch will go down as one of the best ever, with the emotion of Turkington lifting the crown and the drama of Plato becoming only the second driver to score a weekend hat-trick.”
Stephen Brunsdon – Contributor
“After much deliberation, I have gone with the 2006 BTCC season. Although not an out-and-out classic to rival the Super Touring era, this year had a bit of everything: great racing, a season-long title battle, a solid and expanding TV package that sparked the interest of a large portion of the UK population. But what made it even more dramatic was the increasingly spicy rivalry between Jason Plato and Matt Neal. Neal had the final laugh, taking the title for the second year in a row, with the rivalry carrying on for years to come, dividing fans in the process.”
Tamara Aller – Contributor
“I fondly remember the 2018 DTM season that delivered a great fight between Mercedes and Audi for the title, with Gary Paffett winning his second crown after a tough battle with René Rast right until the last lap of the season. They certainly knew how to keep us on our feet shouting as they fought side-by-side!”
ICONIC TOURING CAR DRIVERS – 1995-2025
Johan Meissner – Founder and owner
“For me, it’s difficult to beat Laurent Aiello’s touring car career. The Frenchman won the French, German and British Touring Car Championships and the DTM during the era that was arguably the most competitive. His 1999 BTCC season stands out, winning the title on his first attempt despite having little to no experience of the British circuits or the RML-prepared Nissan Primera.”
Matt Salisbury – Editor
“Trying to choose a favourite driver is nigh on impossible for me, quite simply because of the fact that there have been so many top quality drivers over the past three decades. From Menu, Aiello and Winkelhock in Super Touring through to Muller, Plato and Neal in the 2000s, and then the likes of Turkington, Hill, Sutton and Ingram – BTCC fans really have been spoiled rotten.
“I’d argue however that a favourite driver doesn’t always have to be the one who was most successful – Paul O’Neill is perhaps the best example of that given the huge support he had throughout his career.”
Stephen Brunsdon – Contributor
“In a toss-up between Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini, I’ve picked the latter due to his longevity and impact throughout his illustrious career. From first seeing him dramatically crashing out of the BTCC race at Knockhill in 1994, Tarquini has been an omnipresence in my life as a touring car fan. Incredibly fast in virtually anything he piloted, Tarquini’s resilience, determination and professionalism makes him one of the iconic names in touring cars, and this attitude followed him into management post-driving career. The fact he was still able to win the WTCC title in 2018 at the age of 57 only confirmed his legendary status.”
Tamara Aller – Contributor
“Throughout these years I’ve had the privilege of meeting a lot of drivers and it’s difficult to pick just one favourite, especially when we have shared highs and lows, fun and sad moments with so many. I first met Norbi Michelisz when he still didn’t speak any English and had to interview him through an interpreter; I was also the first one to interview ‘Pechito’ López in Europe, at Paul Ricard in 2014, or Bebu Girolami, at Vila Real 2016. Even seeing Gabriele Tarquini show how it’s done at 60 years of age! The DTM years were also full of great anecdotes with most drivers as the high professionality in the series wasn’t an impediment for great comradery among everyone involved. An example is René Rast, whose skill on the track is only matched by his sense of humour outside.”
ICONIC TOURING CARS – 1995-2025
Johan Meissner – Founder and owner
“I made my choice in a TouringCarTimes article eight years ago, a choice which still stands today. The Renault Laguna in the hands of Alain Menu during the 1997 BTCC season was one of a kind, dominating a highly competitive field with the likes of Audi, Nissan, Volvo and more at the height of the Super Touring era. Perhaps equally impressive was Williams’ debut with their Laguna for the 1995 BTCC season, instantly competitive despite limited testing.”
Matt Salisbury – Editor
“The Lexus IS200 that raced in the BTCC in 2001 was far from a success on track but got my vote back in the day, whilst the engine note of the BMW 320i that Geoff Steel Racing brought to the BTCC with Martyn Bell was music to the ears.
“I also had a real soft spot for the Honda Integra, albeit more towards the time when it was the plucky underdog as the S2000-era started to develop as opposed to when it was the dominant force in the championship.
“Away from the BTCC, the Volvo S60 that GRM ran in Supercars deserves a mention whilst there was something about seeing a Lada doing battle against the likes of BMW, SEAT and Chevrolet that put a smile on the face.”
Stephen Brunsdon – Contributor
“Easy one, the Volvo S40 that delivered the 1998 title to Rickard Rydell. In its iconic blue and silver livery, the S40 looked sleek and rapid and became etched in my memory as a young BTCC fan. The Alfa Romeo 156 comes a close second.”
Tamara Aller – Contributor
“It’s hard to pick just one favourite touring racing car from these years, but I would go with the Volvo S60 TC1, which took Thed Björk to the WTCC drivers’ crown in 2017. I still want a road version of it, of course, in cyan colour!”
Next up, let’s join TouringCarTimes founder and owner Johan Meissner for a look at the future of touring cars and the site itself.
Now what?
There is no doubt that touring car racing is in a difficult spot at the moment.
Manufacturer involvement has significantly dropped, few drivers can make a living on the sport, several championships have closed down, there are few championships which are featured on major TV/media networks and the number of entries are down across the globe.
Some of the issues are not unique for touring car racing, but rather a development that has been visible for quite some time now for sports in general as the traditional media and social media landscapes have changed drastically.
There are also other contributing factors such as the aftermath of the COVID pandemic and the current financial turmoil.
Touring car racing has had its ups and downs in the past, the scene looked grim for example at the end of the Group A-era in the late eighties and early nineties, as well as during the early 2000s in the transition between Super Touring and S2000.
The million dollar question is whether those situations are comparable to today?
Let’s take a look at the development of full-season entries over the past three decades, focusing on four key championships: BTCC, WTCC/TCR World Tour, Supercars and STCC.
Full-season entries 1995-2025
Click to view larger image.
Looking at full-season entries does obviously not give a full view of a complex situation, but it does provide an indication on the health of respective championship over the course of time.
The BTCC and Supercars are more or less the sole two championships that have kept a high level throughout the past 30 years and a key factor to this is no doubt long-term consistency.
While both championships have made several major changes to its regulations throughout the years, both championships have been able to establish a viable platform for a long period of time. This has enabled teams to grow their businesses, create job opportunities, grow talents both on and off track and sustain a strong fan base.
Other championships meanwhile have gone through more turbulent circumstances which has seen sharp increases and decline in entries, popularity and viability for teams.
Contributing factors to this have for example been inept promoters, weak publicity platforms, reliance on short-term manufacturer/importer involvement and inability to create a sustainable base for growth for teams, drivers, partners and fans.
Will there be touring car racing in 2035?
A number of major touring car championships have already either changed completely to GT regulations, such as the DTM, or transitioned to a grey zone, such as the Supercars Championship.
Is that the fate for all of the current touring car championships, and what about electrification?
As previously written, more or less all of motorsport has suffered or changed drastically over the past ten years or so, but GT racing has arguably faired better than touring cars.
There is of course no easy answer to why, but one major contributing factor to this is a turbulent situation in the automotive world which touring cars are closely intertwined with.
There are two main traditional touring car regulations existing today in the form of NGTC (BTCC) and TCR, both with an aging fleet of models and few new ones on the horizon, although with some exceptions.
Not only has the automotive landscape changed drastically in terms of hybrids and electrification, the models which touring cars heavily relied on during its heydays have drastically decreased in sales as crossovers and SUVs dominate the markets across the globe today.
Both of these changes means that its has become increasingly difficult for touring car championships to attract manufacturers and even the championships which does not rely directly on manufacturer or importer support have also been affected by this fact.
There have been two attempts at electrified touring car regulations in the form of ETCR and EPWR (STCC), both of which unfortunately have failed (although CTCC is trying again) due to reasons which will be long debated but are no doubt connected to the chaotic current scene of the automotive world.
Now, automotive manufacturers does still sell plenty of cars all over the world and they still invest a lot of money into promoting the sales of them and the key question is whether NGTC, TCR and its connected championships can survive the coming ten years without drastic changes.
The changes needed for touring car racing could be further adjusting to the ever-changing automotive world or transitioning into/closer to the world of GTs.
Feel free to read the columns of our contributors for their journey with TouringCarTimes and their take on the future of touring cars:
Matt Salisbury: “Touring cars has long been my passion“
Stephen Brunsdon: “It didn’t take me long to get addicted to the panel-bashing nature“
Tamara Aller: “Long live touring car racing“
TouringCarTimes 1995-2025
The image above is a snapshot of this site 26 years ago in 1999, a snapshot which brings plenty of emotions to the TouringCarTimes team – the past 30 years have meant a massive amount of memories for us all involved.
And that does of course bring us to the question where TouringCarTimes will be in 2035?
We have done this longer than Google has existed and as long as there are touring cars racing in the world, we will continue to do our work.
But there is no hiding that we are in a period of transitioning which differs to the ones that have happened during the past 30 years and that we will have to adjust to.
TouringCarTimes is very much an enthusiast project and everyone involved with the website contributes alongside their regular ‘day job’ in various fields. This enables us to remain independent and we would appreciate anyone considering to be a Patron to the site, read more here on how you can support TouringCarTimes.
We would not be here without the support of you, our readers and the TouringCarTimes team would like to extend our warmest gratitude to the support that we have received throughout the past 30 years!
Here is to another 30 years of exciting touring car racing!
