Touring cars are extremely cool, there are no two ways about it. Pick any era from touring car history, you’ll find charismatic drivers doing impressive things in cars that look like stickered-up versions of your neighbourhood’s daily drivers, probably while clattering into everybody in the vicinity in a bloodthirsty rush for the apex.
Look at the inaugural 1958 season, in which Jack Sears and Tommy Sopwith ended the year on equal points, so the winner was decided by a head-to-head sprint around Brands Hatch in a pair of Riley One-Point-Fives.
Or in 2014 when Rob Austin threw his BTCC Audi up the strip at Santa Pod against a 570bhp VW splittie, just for a laugh. Or the 1992 season finale, when Cleland, Hoy, Harvey and Soper all got very physical, ending in acres of crumpled steel and all manner of bruised egos…
These are noisy, shouty cars, taking
