Gow drives the NGTC Alfa
BTCC kingpin Alan Gow developed NGTC rules to ensure the series’ success in a changing world. And he’s already looking to the next step
The man behind the current BTCC rules gets behind the wheel of Rob Austin’s racer
The entire basis of the British Touring Car Championship’s meteoric success was set in stone by the single set of car specifications that came into place in the early 1990s, and they eventually became the Super Touring formula.
That exploded as the category was adopted around the world, but motorsport is cyclical and by 2000 the bubble had burst.
The early years of the 2000s were defined by a difficult balancing act. The European and World Touring Car Championship opted for Super 2000 regulations, but the
BTCC had already gone down its own route of simplified Btc-touring specifications in 2001.
When Alan Gow returned to the helm of the category for his first full season back in 2004, he could see that the writing was on the wall for BTC-T and opened up the entry to S2000 cars too. An equivalency system was put in place, mainly based around the weight of the cars, but it would lead to endless gripes (and that was even before the introduction of things like the turbodiesel SEAT Leons in ’08 and the liquefied petroleum gas Ford Focus machines in ’10).
So the series bosses and the Technical Working Group, which comprises leading members of the top teams, had a rethink and NGTC was born in 2010. NGTC originally stood for Next Generation Touring Car, although that is a moniker that Gow is no longer keen on (“How can they be
‘next generation’ when they’re already here?” he rightly asks).
“The Super 2000 rules were dying out and it was also way too expensive,” says Gow. “There weren’t any new manufacturers coming into S2000 – and the costs of it were rocketing. It had had its day and we thought that we didn’t want to rely on international categories to shape the future of the BTCC because in the past that hadn’t worked all that well for us.”
Gow says the premise of NGTC was to make the cars as cost-effective as possible and to open up to many different shapes and sizes. The NGTC regulations involved several spec parts to take the cost out of development of the cars, and also gave the championship the option for some diversification.
“It gave us the chance to have front and rear-wheel-drive cars, which was important,” says Gow. “There are other championships around that stick with just one drivetrain format and they are very restricted on body styles. We sought to have the greatest diversity of cars that we could have. We have front and rearwheel drive. We have three, four and five-door cars. We have saloons, estates and hatchbacks.
“And there is nothing in the regulations to stop someone building a mini-suv-type car, and someone will do that I’m sure. That was an important part of the regulations for us: we wanted to open it up to as many things as we could.”
The introduction of the forefather of what’s on the grid today came at Brands Hatch’s final meeting of 2010 in free practice, when James Thompson drove a Gprm-assembled Toyota
Avensis to shake down some of the development parts.
That included the off-the-peg motor, which was supplied by Swindon Race Engines. It was a new idea of effectively offering a turnkey powerplant. It was an innovation for the BTCC, and again tore down some of the barriers to entry.
Those engines were used in the BTCC for the first full season in 2011 by four cars – though they were older-spec S2000 cars – and Andrew Jordan took the maiden win for the motor fitted to his Vauxhall Vectra at Croft in the middle of the season.
By 2012, all but eight of the cars had NGTC motors. Honda became the first of the leading teams to fully commit to an NGTC chassis and engine – and it took the title. By ’13, the top class was entirely NGTC, with older-spec cars able to compete in the Jack Sears Trophy before being phased out.
“We decided to give people the option that if they couldn’t develop and build an engine, or didn’t have the budget, there was something else we’d put in place for them: there was a plug-andplay engine that they could lease,” says Gow. “It also helped because it meant that someone could design a car that didn’t necessarily have the right spec engine in the manufacturer’s road range that they could then use. I think any team would tell you that our engine regulations have probably been the
‘OUR ENGINE REGULATIONS ARE THE BIGGEST TRIUMPH OF ALL THE THINGS WE’VE DONE’ ALAN GOW
biggest triumph of all the things we’ve done.
“The regulations have been a massive success, by any measure: the number of cars that are competing is strong, and I don’t just mean the amount of cars, but the amount of different types. You wouldn’t have 32 cars on the grid competing if it wasn’t costeffective. You wouldn’t have the amount of cars that are so close if the regulations weren’t effective. Look at the time difference between first and last on any grid – that’s the proof of it.”
All regulations are cyclical, and there needs to be a nod to the future. The road-car landscape is changing dramatically, and that will be reflected in the BTCC in years to come, but don’t expect an overnight alteration.
“We are having technical meetings already to look at the way ahead, and absolutely an element of electrification will be on the horizon,” explains Gow. “You have to reflect what’s going on in the market and all road cars will have to become hybrid, so we will make ours that way too.
“Because our regulations work so well, and everyone has made a big investment in the componentry, the next phase of our regulations will merely be an evolution of what we’ve got. We will still use the current car and add electrification into it. Then we will be ready for the future.”
NGTC is here to stay until 2021 at least, and then things will start to change and a whole new breed of BTCC race car will be born. The fact that the future is in sharp focus even now shows the foresight needed to make something successful, and that is something that the BTCC, in its modern guise, certainly has been. NGTC TECH FOCUS P56