Sound plays a vital part within the enjoyment of motorsport. Just ask any F1 fan who enjoyed the V8 or V10 era.
But I don’t just mean volume, tone or pitch. On the 2024 Classic & Modern Touring Automobile Festival held at Mallory Park, the Classic Touring Automobile Racing Club (CTCRC) races made me realise that the diversity of sounds is arguably a very powerful.
Historic touring automobile racing is well-known for being among the most fun motor racing, and a part of its appeal is the sheer range of cars which have competed in it through the years.
In fact, it wasn’t all the time historic racing. The British Saloon Automobile Championship was established in 1958 by none apart from Stirling Moss’s manager, Ken Gregory, as a way for ‘modern’ production cars to compete in a longtime race series.
Over the a long time, the game evolved, and its popularity grew amongst fans, drivers and manufacturers alike, resulting in legendary eras resembling Group 5, Group A and Super Tourers.
The late Sixties were arguably probably the most diverse years of touring automobile racing within the UK, with cars ranging in size and category from classic Mini Coopers to Porsche 911s to American beasts resembling the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Falcons within the 1967 season.
It’s not only the style of automobile that was diverse, however the scope of the drivers, too. Formula 1 stars, including Jacky Ickx and Graham Hill, rubbed shoulders with amateur racers in touring cars, resulting in a mixture of crowds and classes rarely seen in motorsports today.
One distinct feature of early touring automobile racing was the structure, wherein different classes would compete for a similar overall championship win while concurrently racing on the identical track.
This meant that although you weren’t necessarily racing your Austin A40 against the Chevrolet Impala ahead of you, as long as you were leading your class however the Impala driver wasn’t leading theirs, you’ll get more championship points.
Some extent of contention for drivers through the years, because the upper classes became increasingly popular, it naturally became tougher for larger-engined entrants to win the championship. In truth, 84% of championship winners within the two-class days of British Touring Cars competed within the lower cubic capability category.
Because the Seventies led to stricter homologation rules, the category system underwent a couple of more changes until selecting an upper limit of three,500cc in 1980. This meant goodbye for the American-built monsters and was a probability for European-built Ford Capris, Alfa Romeo GTVs and SD1 Rover Vitesses.
The Nineteen Eighties are arguably probably the most iconic period of touring automobile racing globally, especially towards the tip of the last decade as Group A became the accepted vehicle standard. Ford Sierra RSs and BMW M3s dominated, taking the highest podium spots from Toyota Corollas and Ford Escort RS Turbos within the UK. Meanwhile, DTM was hotting up for iconic battles with Mercedes 190 E 2.3-16s in the combination.
1991 was the beginning of the BTCC’s most advanced era of racing – Super Tourers – with a standardised 2,000cc format and budgets going through the roof. Chaydon did a improbable job bringing the golden era of BTCC to our pages last 12 months, so take a look at his article for an in-depth dive into the series.
Today, under the ‘Next Generation Touring Automobile’ format, we still have a mixture of FWD and RWD entrants and a wide selection of manufacturers. Nonetheless, shared crash structures and customary engines have somewhat dulled the variability once experienced in the game.
The racing remains to be intense, with door-to-door motion and drivers going bumper to bumper at every meeting, but, as is the way in which with a variety of motorsports, the necessity to bring the pack closer together and cap costs has taken priority over all else.
The 2024 Classic & Modern Touring Automobile Festival was a day of experiencing legitimate race cars of yesteryear and ‘latest’ cars built to period-correct spec. This opened my eyes to the wonder that variety can provide motorsport. Silhouette racers and the Super Saloon format provide the chance to witness a mixture of eras and forms of cars. Nonetheless, the competitive nature can have some devastating results.
Watching a Ford Falcon leave a Mini Cooper S in its dust along the longest sections of the track with its thundering V8 reverberating around Mallory Park’s hills, only to have the plucky Mini out-brake it and carry immense speed (by comparison) through the bends is an experience I wish for all motorsport fans to have at some point.
Or to witness Lotus Cortinas, with their twin-cam engines screaming on a quick downhill left whilst being chased by tiny Ford Anglia 105Es and 998cc Hillman Imps with a front wheel within the air.
My favourite battle of the day was between Stephen Primett in his Mk1 Ford Escort and Jonathan Corker in a lovely Datsun 510. I don’t think they were ever separated by greater than a second from the off, with only 0.25 seconds between them as they crossed the finish line.
Primett took the race on the Saturday that I used to be there, whilst Corker won with a commanding lead in Sunday’s race.
Race weekends in championships resembling the CTCRC are improbable because they permit spectators to not only see their favourite classic cars being sent across the track in anger but additionally because they get to experience what made motorsport so special for enthusiasts within the generations before us.
A part of that have is the sound, and I’ll be damned if there’s a better-sounding race series than what the Classic Touring Automobile Racing Club puts on today.
Mario Christou
Instagram: mcwpn
mariochristou.world
This Article First Appeared At www.speedhunters.com
