SUPER TOURING’S PROBLEM

The machines are spectacular and popular, but grids for touring cars of the 1990s are struggling, so what’s the problem?

Thruxton’s 50th anniversary celebration was undoubtedly a success, with excellent cars, a fine crowd and popular demonstrations. But a late change to the line-up underlined a problem for one of historic racing’s most appealing series. The Historic Sports Car Club’s Super Touring Car Trophy was originally on the bill, only to be cancelled due to a lack of entries. And just 12 cars appeared at the Donington Historic Festival last month.

The category for tin-tops of the 1970-2000 (now extended to ’05) era, with the two-litre Super Touring cars of the 1990s at the forefront, proved a hit when included on the 2012 Silverstone Classic programme. That led to more races and then a slot on the British Touring Car programme at Oulton Park in ’14. But grids have always fluctuated and now the series is in danger of being discontinued (at least with the HSCC) next season.

That’s a shame because the cars are superb and can bring a younger audience to historics. “the spectators like them, the circuits like them because they are promotable, and the marshals love them, ”says HSCC CEO Grahame White.

“We would love to think the Super Touring Car Trophy could continue to be successful, but the entry level is inconsistent. No-one can run a series without the support of the competitors to make it financially viable.”

Drivers love them too. Period BTCC racer Patrick Watts, an occasional competitor in his Peugeot 406, says: “a Super Tourer is fantastic around Thruxton – uncompromising suspension and damping with a little bit of aero. For 1000kg cars with

300bhp, the lap times were amazing.”

So, what’s the problem? Cost would be an obvious answer, but there is more to it than that, given the money required for many other successful categories – STS of the late 1990s can be bought for under £100,000. That’s not cheap, but there are many cars in historics with higher values. It’s more the commitment needed to run them.

“The cars are not easy to maintain and there are no spare parts available, ”reckons White. “t hey were run by manufacturers that, if they needed a part, they made it.”

But series champion James Dodd believes part of the problem is perception – and that some cars are easier than others. “people think they’re more awkward than they are ,”he says. “we’re lucky with the Honda Accord and Nissan Primera – if we had a Ford Mondeo we probably wouldn’t be racing.”

Co-founder and competitor Dave Jarman adds: “i think the cars have a bad reputation for being expensive and difficult – it’s created by the Mondeos. They’re very difficult to run.

“People don’t realise there are people like me. I’ve run a Nissan for five years and never had a problem. There are people with Hondas sending the engine to Neil Brown on a Friday, and getting them back the following Friday with a rebuilt engine for £3000.”

Watts agrees some cars are trickier to run than others, but points out that all of them are potentially more challenging than the older cars most historic preparers are used to.

“They’re all specially made with fabricated suspension – nothing is off the shelf, ”he says. “and nothing was built to last. Every race, they’d strip the whole car and probably change half of it. They’d spend maybe 300 man-hours preparing for the next race – by comparison, my Group 1 Ford Capri requires 16!”

He adds that, although it is possible to modernise the ECUS, they are “outside the realms of people running historic cars.

They have to put a lot more work into it.”

It may be that the 1990s and rise of electronics provides something of a barrier for historic racing. But the industry did get on top of Group C sufficiently for that to become viable, and the Masters Endurance Legends for endurance GTS and sports prototypes of the 1995-2012 period has made a promising start.

A relatively small pool of available cars puts the pressure on the regulars to come out. “i think a portion of people who have bought the cars are collectors and not racers, ”reckons Jarman. “i think there are about 30 raceable Super Tourers in the country. If you then take the number in garages or sat in collections, there are probably another 30 or 40. It relies on the same people to race their cars often.”

Given that the Super Touring Car Trophy is open to tin-tops going back as far as 1970, the existence of the overlapping Motor Racing Legends ’historic Touring Car Challenge could also be a factor, as is the general malaise due to current economic uncertainties.

Perhaps fewer events, to minimise costs and give preparers time to get on top of the technology, could help. Keeping the rules broad, including cars such as the Group A Ford RS500S, seems sensible.

The Silverstone Classic invariably attracts a strong field. And next month it needs to, to demonstrate that viable grids are still possible.

Watts wants to be out next year – he’s got no plans this season because he“needs an engine builder”. Let’s hope there are some events for him in 2019. A pack of Super Tourers flying around Thruxton – where the current BTCC cars still don’t lap faster than their predecessors – would be a worthy addition to the calendar.

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