The new Toyota Corolla that rising star Tom Ingram will campaign in this year's Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) has had its first test outing, at Oulton Park.
The Corolla, which goes on sale as a road car in the spring, will be prepared by Speedworks Motorsport and entered by Team Toyota GB. Ingram is a two-time BTCC Independent class champion and battled eventual title winner Colin Turkington for the crown last season.
Ingram gave the car its first outing in a pre-season BTCC test at the Cheshire track today (Friday). The car ran in a testing livery. While the road-going Corolla will be sold in the UK with a choice of two hybrid powertrains only, the race car will compete in the BTCC with a 2.0-litre petrol engine due to the regulations.
The Corolla is rival for the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf in the road car market and its nameplate has a long history in the BTCC, with Chris Hodgetts winning back-to-back championship titles in a Corolla GT Coupé in 1986 and 1987.
Last season, driving a Toyota Avensis, 25-year-old Ingram scored three victories in the BTCC and he and the Speedworks team scooped both the Independent Driver and Team trophies in 2017 and 2018. He has had nine BTCC wins in his career so far.
The new Corolla will be joined on the 2019 grid by three examples of the new BMW 3 Series, which will be run by the West Surrey Racing outfit. Turkington will drive one of those cars.
BTCC organisers have outlined plans to introduce hybrid power to the series from 2021, having already moved forward a mooted 2022 start date.
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Why bother?
Why bother with a BTCC campaign unless Toyota intends to build a super sports version of the new Corolla? Otherwise the company is just promoting a model that doesn’t exist (or if the race car is slow, just reinforcing established views that it can’t build performance cars?) I can only see the benefit of competition if it can demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s hybrid electric system or eCVT transmission, something the current rules won’t allow.
Lets face it BTCC is really just another one make series with regulations designed to equalise performance between cars which should be dissimilar. The racing may be great but I can’t see much promotional value or technical interest.
LP in Brighton wrote:
All the cars in the BTCC are not road cars, from BMW, to vauxhall through to Toyota... They are just shell with the base chassis, everything ekse is standardised.. If you look at last year the Toyota Avensis won a few races..so i don;t understand your point..
As for Toyota not knowing how to build sports cars or racig cars.. look at the Lexus LC500 in the Japanese SuperGT GT500 class, prior that the Lexus SC430, then even before that the Toyota Supra..
or the Toyota Hybrud LMP1 in the WEC championships for the past 7 years ?
I don't understand your beef with Toyota !
BTCC....
Shame these Cars can shapewise be translated into a Road Car....
What?
Thought they might’ve gone Rallying again......
I've a long memory
Cheated then as well!
xxxx wrote:
Alot of manufacturers have cheted in the WRC.
https://www.carthrottle.com/post/wqm9665/
Peugeot, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Audi etc..
th
Alot
Not to the extent Toyota went to with those Turbos, hence the ban
They are already in WRC, with
They are already in WRC, with the Yaris.
Replace with...?
Why not?, yeah, why not?
Peter Cavellini wrote:
They are .. with the Yaris.. doing well it seems..
Peter Cavellini wrote:
Standard BTCC regulations
Drivetrain: