VAUXHALL ASTRA COUPE

PACESETTER FOR A NEW DAWN

Vauxhall was one of the first to commit to the low-cost Btc-touring rules that replaced Super Touring and, given a blank sheet of paper, it created a car that would go on to dominate for four seasons. The Astra Coupe was the class of the field – so much so that the works Triple Eight team was asked to run the cars at 90% throttle to allow for some competition on the grid.

Jason Plato, James Thompson and Yvan Muller were the masters of the British machine and took four crowns between them. Between 2001 and ’04, the two-litre four-cylinder Astra took 62 wins from 96 races. It wasn’t until Team Dynamics introduced the controversial Honda Integra – which was unavailable to buy in UK showrooms – that the Vauxhall’s star began to wane.