VAUXHALL CAVALIER

CLELAND’S HOMEGROWN HERO

At the start of its career it took on the BMW M3 and at the end it was fighting off hordes of foreign invaders. In between, the front-wheel-drive Cavalier took 19 points-paying wins and helped make John Cleland a star of the BTCC.

The early Dave Cook Engineering cars (above) couldn’t quite topple BMW in the drivers’ championship, although the result of 1992 might have been different had it not been for the infamous Steve Soper-cleland clash at the finale.

RML subsequently took over the Cavalier programme and in 1995 Cleland used the bewinged version to defeat works efforts from Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ford, Honda, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota and Volvo to take his second drivers’ title.

The Vectra replaced it for the following season, but it never lived up to the record set by the Cavalier.