BTC Touring
In motor racing, BTC Touring was the set of new regulations for the British Touring Car Championship introduced in 2001 BTCC, after the demise of the Supertouring category. The cars were based on standard bodyshells, but were allowed significant modifications to turn the car into a racecar and differentiate it from the Super Production class that would run alongside BTC Touring in the 2001 BTCC. In chronological order of their appearances, the cars were: BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Coupe BTC-T Peugeot 406 Coupe BTC-T Alfa Romeo 147 BTC-T Lexus IS200 BTC-T MG ZS EX259 BTC-T Honda Civic Type-R BTC-T Proton Impian BTC-T Peugeot 307 BTC-T Vauxhall Vectra BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch BTC-T Honda Integra Type R A year after the regulations began, the European Touring Car Championship launched its Super 2000 regulations; as the latter allowed manufacturers to have their cars seen internationally, most major companies opted for this, meaning that the BTCC suffered from small grids. In 2007, the TOCA allowed Super 2000 cars to compete, with rules designed to equalise the performance of both classes.
However, BTC-T cars were made ineligible to win the main championship. The 2010 season was meant to be the last year BTC Touring cars would be eligible to enter the championship, however they were allowed to compete for one more season in 2011, with their base-weight +50 kg on 2010
Front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout
In automotive design, an FF, or front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout places both the internal combustion engine and driven roadwheels at the front of the vehicle. This designation was used regardless of whether the entire engine was behind the front axle line. In recent times, the manufacturers of some cars have added to the designation with the term front-mid which describes a car where the engine is in front of the passenger compartment but behind the front axle. Most pre-World War II front engine cars would qualify as front-mid engine, using the front-mid designation, or on the front axle; this layout is the most traditional form, remains a popular, practical design. The engine which takes up a great deal of space is packaged in a location passengers and luggage would not use; the main deficit is weight distribution — the heaviest component is at one end of the vehicle. Car handling is not ideal, but predictable. In contrast with the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, the FWD layout eliminates the need for a central tunnel or a higher chassis clearance to accommodate a driveshaft providing power to the rear wheels.
Like the rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout and rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout layouts, it places the engine over the drive wheels, improving traction in many applications. As the steered wheels are the driven wheels, FWD cars are considered superior to RWD cars in conditions where there is low traction such as snow, gravel or wet tarmac; when hill climbing in low traction conditions RR is considered the best two-wheel-drive layout due to the shift of weight to the rear wheels when climbing. The cornering ability of a FWD vehicle is better, because the engine is placed over the steered wheels. However, as the driven wheels have the additional demands of steering, if a vehicle accelerates less grip is available for cornering, which can result in understeer. High-performance vehicles use the FWD layout because weight is transferred to the rear wheels under acceleration, while unloading the front wheels and reducing their grip putting a cap on the amount of power which could realistically be utilized.
Electronic traction control can avoid wheel-spin but negates the benefit of extra power. This was a reason for the adoption of the four-wheel-drive quattro system in the high performance Jensen FF and Audi Quattro road cars. Early cars using the FWD layout include the 1929 Cord L-29, 1931 DKW F1, the 1948 Citroën 2CV, 1949 Saab 92 and the 1959 Mini. In the 1980s, the traction and packaging advantages of this layout caused many compact and mid-sized vehicle makers to adopt it in the US. Most European and Japanese manufacturers switched to front wheel drive for the majority of their cars in the 1960s and 1970s, the last to change being VW, Ford of Europe, General Motors. Toyota was the last Japanese company to switch in the early 1980s. BMW, focused on luxury vehicles, however retained the rear-wheel-drive layout in their smaller cars, though their MINI marque are FWD. There are four different arrangements for this basic layout, depending on the location of the engine, the heaviest component of the drivetrain.
The earliest such arrangement was not technically FWD, but rather mid-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. The engine was mounted longitudinally behind the wheels, with the transmission ahead of the engine and differential at the front of the car. With the engine so far back, the weight distribution of such cars as the Cord L-29 was not ideal; the 1934 Citroën Traction Avant solved the weight distribution issue by placing the transmission at the front of the car with the differential between it and the engine. Combined with the car's low slung unibody design, this resulted in handling, remarkable for the era. Renault is the most recent user of this format - having used it on the Renault 4, the first generation Renault 5, but it has since fallen out of favor since it encroaches into the interior space; the 1946 Panhard Dyna X, designed by Jean-Albert Grégoire, had the engine longitudinally in front of the front wheels, with the transmission behind the engine and the differential at the rear of the assembly.
This arrangement, used by Panhard until 1967 had a weight distribution problem analogous to that of the Cord L29 mentioned above. However, the Panhard's air-cooled flat twin engine was light, mounted low down with a low centre of gravity reducing the effect; the air-cooled flat twin engine of the Citroën 2CV was mounted low, in front of the front wheels, with the transmission behind the axle line and the differential between the two. This became quite popular; this is the standard configuration of Subaru front-wheel-drive vehicles. In 1979, Toyota introduced and launched their first front-wheel-drive car, the Tercel, it had its engine longitudinally mounted, unlike most other front-wheel-drive cars on the market at that time; this arrangement continued on the second-generation Tercel, until 1987, the third generation received a new, transversely mounted engine. Other front-wheel-drive Toyota models, such as Camry, Corolla, had transversely mounted engines from the beginning on; the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado used a novel arrangement which had the engine and transmission in a'side-by-side' arrangem
Tim Harvey
Tim Harvey is a British racing driver, best known for being the 1992 British Touring Car Champion, the 2008 and 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain champion. A household name in the 1990s, Harvey won sixteen races in the British Touring Car Championship between 1987 and 1995, but competed in the series until 2002, he was the winner of the invitational Guia Race of Macau touring car event, in 1989. After leaving touring car racing, Harvey moved into the one-make Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain series. In seven full seasons in the championship, Harvey finished in the top four of the final championship standings in each season, left the series after a class victory in the Porsche Carrera World Cup meeting at the Nürburgring, with a series record of 35 overall victories. Along with media commitments for television broadcaster ITV4, their coverage of the British Touring Car Championship, Harvey competes in the British GT Championship. Born in Farnborough, Harvey first raced in the BTCC in 1987, taking three Class A wins in a Rover Vitesse In 1988 and 1989 he dovetailed sports car racing with BTCC outings, before finishing third in Class A in 1989 and 1990.
He was 8th overall in 1991. His 1992 title was achieved while run by Vic Lee Motorsport, he won five of the last seven races, having only won once. A dramatic final race saw him beat John Cleland and reigning champion Will Hoy to the title, after Hoy suffered an engine failure and Cleland clashed with Harvey's team-mate Steve Soper, he had a difficult 1993 season developing the Renault 19 for the new Renault entry but still managed to win the European Grand Prix support race in lurid conditions, while he was outpaced by team-mate Alain Menu in 1994 in the new Laguna. He raced for Volvo in 1995, using his wealth of experience to develop the all new Volvo 850 saloon, finishing 5th overall and taking 2 wins but unable to match team-mate Rickard Rydell, his experience was used to develop the new Peugeot 406, signing with the French marque in 1996 but was unable to deliver the win that eluded Peugeot during the heyday of the supertouring years. He drove for Peugeot in the 1996, 1997 and 1998 seasons, his best year being 1997 where he finished 9th in the championship, which included two 2nd-place finishes, strong drives in the wet at Thruxton.
After a couple of years away, his last BTCC years were 2001 and 10th in 2002 (reuniting with Vic Lee to drive one of his Peugeots, before quitting the series to pursue a media career. The Alfa Romeo 147 that Tim Harvey raced is now owned by Allitalia – an Independent Italian Auto Specialist based in North Wales, he has raced in the Porsche Carrera Cup for several years, finishing second to Richard Westbrook in 2004 and Damien Faulkner in 2006. In 2007, Harvey drove for Redline Racing in the new 997 Porsche GT3 in the British edition of the Carrera Cup. With stars such as Faulkner, Danny Watts and Richard Williams no longer competing, Tim now in the top team of 2006, he started as title favourite, but finished up second again, by just four points behind James Sutton. In 2008 he continued to battle for the title. Tim won the Porsche Carrera Cup Drivers Championship, on 21 September at Brands Hatch, he holds series records for fastest laps. He finished third in 2009, taking his first win of the year in race 6 at Thruxton and a double win at Snetterton.
He opened 2010 with nine wins in the first ten races. He wrapped up the 2010 title with one race to spare at Brands Hatch on 9 October with a second-place finish behind Stephen Jelley to ensure that he could not be caught by championship runner up Michael Caine. Following a puncture in race 20 which saw Harvey fail to score points for the first time in the season, Harvey claimed the 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship by 10 points, with 11 race wins. Harvey's two wins at Croft on 20 June saw him become the most successful driver in the history of the championship, with 33 race wins at the time, he would end the season 4 clear, with 35 wins, over 150 podiums. At the end of May 2011, Harvey announced he was quitting the championship with immediate effect, citing difficulty in adapting to regulation changes as his motivation and allowing up and coming Kieran Vernon the opportunity to benefit from his seat in the Motorbase Performance car, he explained during the ITV4 coverage of the Oulton Park BTCC round on 5 June 2011 that he wasn't retiring from racing and would be reappearing somewhere before long whilst continuing to commentate for ITV.
In what may have been his last Porsche race, Harvey won the Porsche Carrera Cup GB race held at a wet Nürburgring in Germany as part of the Porsche Carrera World Cup. Harvey finished 13th overall, ahead of a number of the faster Supercup models. Harvey has been a prolific winner in sports cars. A distinguished career in international motorsport has given him a deep seated knowledge of the business and substantial reserves of experience. A factory driver for Spice in the halcyon days of the World Sportscar Championship saw Tim battling the Jaguars and Mercedes Benz during the 1989 and 1990 seasons, he twice won the BRDC C2 Championship in 1988 and 1989. He has contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times, winning his class in 1987, he won the British Sports Car Championship in 1999. He is a double winner of the Oulton Park Gold Cup in 2000 and 2001, joining previous winne
MG Cars
MG, the initials of Morris Garages, is a British automotive marque registered by the now defunct MG Car Company Limited, a British sports car manufacturer begun in the 1920s as a sales promotion sideline within W. R. Morris's Oxford city retail sales and service business by the business's manager, Cecil Kimber. Best known for its two-seat open sports cars, MG produced saloons and coupés. Kimber was an employee of William Morris; the MG business was Morris's personal property until 1 July 1935 when he sold MG to his holding company, Morris Motors Limited, restructuring his holdings before issuing shares in Morris Motors to the public in 1936. MG underwent many changes in ownership starting with Morris merging with Austin in The British Motor Corporation Limited in 1952. MG became the MG Division of BMC in 1967 and so a component of the 1968 merger that created British Leyland Motor Corporation. By the start of 2000 MG was part of the MG Rover Group, which entered receivership in 2005; the assets and MG brand were purchased by Nanjing Automobile Group for GB£53 million.
Production restarted in 2007 in China. The first all-new model from MG in the UK for 16 years, the MG 6 launched on 26 June 2011; the original MG marque was in continuous use, except for the duration of the Second World War, for 56 years following its inception in 1924. The production of predominantly two-seater sports cars was concentrated at a factory in Abingdon, some 10 miles south of Oxford; the British Motor Corporation competition department was based at the Abingdon plant, producing many winning rally and race cars, until the Abingdon factory closed and MGB production ceased in the Autumn of 1980. Between 1982 and 1991, the MG marque used to badge-engineer sportier versions of Austin Rover's Metro and Montego ranges; the MG marque was not revived in its own right until 1992, with the MG RV8 – an updated MGB Roadster with a Rover V8 engine, previewed at the 1992 Birmingham Motor Show, with low-volume production commencing in 1993. A second revival came in the summer of 1995, when the high-volume MG F two-seater roadster was launched.
The MG marque, along with the Rover marque, went to the MG Rover group in May 2000, when BMW "broke up" the Rover Group. This arrangement had the return of MG badges on sportier Rover-based cars such as the MG ZT in 2001, along with a revised MG F model, known as the MG TF, launched in 2002; the assets of MG Rover were bought by Chinese carmaker Nanjing Automobile in July 2005, subsequently bought by SAIC in December 2007, which now operate a UK subsidiary, MG Motor. The company's name originated from the initials of Morris Garages, W R Morris's original retail sales and service business in Longwall Street, when the business's manager, Cecil Kimber, began promoting sales by producing his own versions. Kimber had joined the company as its sales manager in 1921, he was promoted to general manager in 1922, a position he held until 1941, when he fell out with Lord Nuffield over procuring wartime work. Kimber died in 1945 in a railway accident; the site of the garages was redeveloped in 1980, retaining the original frontage, is now used as student accommodation by New College.
Debate remains as to when the MG Car Company started, although the first cars bore both Morris and MG badges, in addition to reference to MG with the octagon badge appears in an Oxford newspaper from November 1923, the MG Octagon was registered as a trademark by Morris Garages on 1 May 1924, with its 90th anniversary being celebrated in 2014. Others dispute this and believe that MG only properly began trading in 1925; the first cars, known as "Kimber Specials", were rebodied Morris models that used coachwork from Carbodies of Coventry. Morris Garages built them in premises in Oxford. Demand soon caused a move to larger premises in Bainton Road in September 1925, sharing space with the Morris radiator works. Continuing expansion meant another move in 1927 to a separate factory in Edmund Road, Oxford, near the main Morris factory and for the first time it was possible to include a production line. In 1928, the company had become large enough to warrant an identity separate from the original Morris Garages and the M.
G. Car Company Limited was established in March of that year, in October for the first time a stand was taken at the London Motor Show. Space soon ran out again, a search for a permanent home led to the lease of part an old leather factory in Abingdon, Oxfordshire in 1929 taking over more space until production ended there in 1980; the MG Car Club was founded in 1930 for enthusiasts of MG cars. William Morris owned MG and in a re-arrangement of his various personal holdings he sold MG in 1935 to Morris Motors, a change, to have serious consequences for MG its motor-sport activities. MG was absorbed with Morris into The British Motor Corporation Limited, created in 1952 to merge Morris Motors Limited and The Austin Motor Company Limited. Long-time service manager John Thornley took over as general manager, guiding the company through its best years until his retirement in 1969. Under BMC, several MG models were no more than badge-engineered versions of other marques, with the main exception being the small MG sports cars.
BMC took over Jaguar Cars in September 1966 and that December BMC changed its name to British Motor Holdings. BMH joined with Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968 to form British Leyland Motor Corporation. Following partial nationalisation in 1975, BLMC became Britis
Lexus
Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 70 countries and territories worldwide and has become Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars, it has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese global brands in market value. Lexus is headquartered in Japan. Operational centers are located in Brussels and the U. S. in Plano, Texas. Lexus originated from a corporate project to develop a new premium sedan, code-named F1, which began in 1983 and culminated in the launch of the Lexus LS in 1989. Subsequently, the division added coupé, convertible and SUV models. Lexus did not exist as a brand in its home market until 2005, all vehicles marketed internationally as Lexus from 1989 to 2005 were released in Japan under the Toyota marque and an equivalent model name. In 2005, a hybrid version of the RX crossover debuted and additional hybrid models joined the division's lineup. Lexus launched its own F marque performance division in 2007 with the debut of the IS F sport sedan, followed by the LFA supercar in 2009.
Lexus vehicles are produced in Japan, with manufacturing centered in the Chūbu and Kyūshū regions, in particular at Toyota's Tahara, Aichi, Chūbu and Miyata, Fukuoka, Kyūshū plants. Assembly of the first Lexus built outside the country, the Ontario-produced RX 330, began in 2003. Following a corporate reorganization from 2001 to 2005, Lexus began operation of its own design and manufacturing centers. Since the 2000s, Lexus has increased sales outside the United States; the division inaugurated dealerships in the Japanese domestic market in 2005, becoming the first Japanese premium car marque to launch in its country of origin. The brand was introduced in Southeast Asia, Latin America and other regions; the brand was created around the same time as Japanese rivals Nissan and Honda developed their Infiniti and Acura premium brands. The Japanese government imposed voluntary export restraints for the U. S. market, so it was more profitable for Japanese automakers to export more expensive cars to the U.
S. In 1983, Toyota chairman Eiji Toyoda issued a challenge to build the world's best car; the project, code-named F1 developed the Lexus LS 400 to expand Toyota’s product line in the premium segment. The F1 project followed the premium Toyota Mark II models. Both the Supra and Mark II were rear-wheel drive cars with a powerful 7M-GE or 7M-GTE inline-six engine; the largest sedan Toyota built at the time was the limited-production, 1960s-vintage Toyota Century, a domestic, hand-built limousine, V8-powered model, followed by the inline-six-engined Toyota Crown premium sedan. The Century was conservatively styled for the Japanese market and along with the Crown not slated for export after a restyle in 1982; the F1 designers targeted their new sedan at international markets and began development on a new V8 engine. Japanese manufacturers exported more expensive models in the 1980s due to voluntary export restraints negotiated by the Japanese government and U. S. trade representatives. In 1986, Honda launched its Acura marque in the U.
S. influencing Toyota's plans for a luxury division. The initial Acura model was an export version of the Honda Legend, itself launched in Japan in 1985 as a rival to the Toyota Crown, Nissan Cedric/Gloria and Mazda Luce. In 1987, Nissan unveiled its plans for a premium brand and revised its Nissan President sedan in standard wheelbase form for export as the Infiniti Q45, which it launched in 1990. Mazda began selling the Luce as the Mazda 929 in North America in 1988 and began plans to develop an upscale marque to be called Amati, but its plans did not come to fruition. Toyota researchers visited the U. S. in May 1985 to conduct focus groups and market research on luxury consumers. During that time, several F1 designers rented a home in Laguna Beach, California to observe the lifestyles and tastes of American upper class consumers. Meanwhile, F1 engineering teams conducted prototype testing on locations ranging from the German autobahn to U. S. roads. Toyota’s market research concluded that a separate brand and sales channel were needed to present its new sedan, plans were made to develop a new network of dealerships in the U.
S. market. In 1986, Toyota’s longtime advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi formed a specialized unit, Team One, to handle marketing for the new brand. Image consulting firm Lippincott & Margulies was hired to develop a list of 219 prospective names. While Alexis became the front runner, concerns were raised that the name applied to people more than cars; as a result, the first letter was removed and the "i" replaced with a "u" to morph the name to Lexus. Theories of the etymology of the Lexus name have suggested it is the combination of the words "luxury" and "elegance," and that it is an acronym for "luxury exports to the U. S." According to Team One interviews, the brand name has no specific meaning and denotes a luxurious and technological image. Prior to the release of the first vehicles, database service LexisNexis obtained a temporary injunction forbidding the name Lexus from being used because it might cause product confusion; the injunction threatened to delay the division's marketing efforts.
The U. S. appeals court lifted the injunction, deciding that there was little likelihood of confusion between the two products. The original Lexus slogan, developed after Team One representatives visited Lexus designers in Japan and noted an obsessive attention to detail, became "The
Internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine is a heat engine where the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber, an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine; the force is applied to pistons, turbine blades, rotor or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into useful mechanical energy; the first commercially successful internal combustion engine was created by Étienne Lenoir around 1859 and the first modern internal combustion engine was created in 1876 by Nikolaus Otto. The term internal combustion engine refers to an engine in which combustion is intermittent, such as the more familiar four-stroke and two-stroke piston engines, along with variants, such as the six-stroke piston engine and the Wankel rotary engine. A second class of internal combustion engines use continuous combustion: gas turbines, jet engines and most rocket engines, each of which are internal combustion engines on the same principle as described.
Firearms are a form of internal combustion engine. In contrast, in external combustion engines, such as steam or Stirling engines, energy is delivered to a working fluid not consisting of, mixed with, or contaminated by combustion products. Working fluids can be air, hot water, pressurized water or liquid sodium, heated in a boiler. ICEs are powered by energy-dense fuels such as gasoline or diesel fuel, liquids derived from fossil fuels. While there are many stationary applications, most ICEs are used in mobile applications and are the dominant power supply for vehicles such as cars and boats. An ICE is fed with fossil fuels like natural gas or petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel or fuel oil. There is a growing usage of renewable fuels like biodiesel for CI engines and bioethanol or methanol for SI engines. Hydrogen is sometimes used, can be obtained from either fossil fuels or renewable energy. Various scientists and engineers contributed to the development of internal combustion engines.
In 1791, John Barber developed the gas turbine. In 1794 Thomas Mead patented a gas engine. In 1794, Robert Street patented an internal combustion engine, the first to use liquid fuel, built an engine around that time. In 1798, John Stevens built the first American internal combustion engine. In 1807, French engineers Nicéphore and Claude Niépce ran a prototype internal combustion engine, using controlled dust explosions, the Pyréolophore; this engine powered a boat on France. The same year, the Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz built an internal combustion engine ignited by an electric spark. In 1823, Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied industrially. In 1854 in the UK, the Italian inventors Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci tried to patent "Obtaining motive power by the explosion of gases", although the application did not progress to the granted stage. In 1860, Belgian Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir produced a gas-fired internal combustion engine. In 1864, Nikolaus Otto patented the first atmospheric gas engine.
In 1872, American George Brayton invented the first commercial liquid-fuelled internal combustion engine. In 1876, Nikolaus Otto, working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, patented the compressed charge, four-cycle engine. In 1879, Karl Benz patented a reliable two-stroke gasoline engine. In 1886, Karl Benz began the first commercial production of motor vehicles with the internal combustion engine. In 1892, Rudolf Diesel developed compression ignition engine. In 1926, Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket. In 1939, the Heinkel He 178 became the world's first jet aircraft. At one time, the word engine meant any piece of machinery—a sense that persists in expressions such as siege engine. A "motor" is any machine. Traditionally, electric motors are not referred to as "engines". In boating an internal combustion engine, installed in the hull is referred to as an engine, but the engines that sit on the transom are referred to as motors. Reciprocating piston engines are by far the most common power source for land and water vehicles, including automobiles, ships and to a lesser extent, locomotives.
Rotary engines of the Wankel design are used in some automobiles and motorcycles. Where high power-to-weight ratios are required, internal combustion engines appear in the form of combustion turbines or Wankel engines. Powered aircraft uses an ICE which may be a reciprocating engine. Airplanes can instead use jet engines and helicopters can instead employ turboshafts. In addition to providing propulsion, airliners may employ a separate ICE as an auxiliary power unit. Wankel engines are fitted to many unmanned aerial vehicles. ICEs drive some of the large electric generators, they are found in the form of combustion turbines in combined cycle power plants with a typical electrical output in the range of 100 MW to 1 GW. The high temperature exhaust is used to superheat water to run a steam turbine. Thus, the efficiency is higher because more energy is extracted from the fuel than what could be extracted by the co
2002 British Touring Car Championship
The 2002 Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship season was the 45th British Touring Car Championship season which began at Brands Hatch on April 1 and concluded at Donington Park on the 22nd of September. The second season of BTC-T rules in the top class saw two new manufacturer backed teams enter, with Honda returning and Proton entering for the first time. Reigning champions Vauxhall again entered four Triple 8-run Vauxhall Astra Coupes. With reigning champion Jason Plato not returning, 2001 runner-up Yvan Muller was partnered by James Thompson in the Vauxhall Motorsport entries while Thompson's place in the Egg Sport entry was taken by Matt Neal, fresh from a season in the European Touring Car Championship, alongside Production class graduate Paul O'Neill. MG, who had trialled their West Surrey Racing-prepared ZS in the closing stages of 2001 retained experienced touring car hand Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes at the wheel. After a year absence Honda returned with a pair Honda Civic Type-R's prepared by Arena Motorsport, who had entered as an independent in 1999.
Guernseyman Andy Priaulx, who crossed over from Formula 3 after impressing on a one off BTCC outing for Vauxhall in 2001, was signed alongside Northern Irishman Alan Morrison, the 2000 Production champion. In late 2001 it was announced that Proton would enter a pair of manufacturer backed cars backed by Petronas and run under the Petronas Syntium Proton - Team banner. Jason Plato was linked with the drive before Scottish veteran David Leslie and Phil Bennett, dropped by Vauxhall, were announced. With Peugeot withdrawing their factory backing, Vic Lee Racing now headed the independents class, reinstated after a 1-year hiatus, with their pair of 406 Coupes, Dan Eaves remained and was joined by 1992 champion Tim Harvey, moving across from JSM; the pair were joined in the year by Formula Renault championship winner Carl Breeze in a third car. The works MG squad was supported from second meeting onwards by a WSR-run satellite team carrying the name of the girl band Atomic Kitten as part of a sponsorship deal.
This team ran the young pairing of Fiesta racer Colin Turkington and Production graduate Gareth Howell. Barwell Motorsport stepped up from the Production class to complete the Touring grid with a pair of ex-works Vauxhall Astra Coupes driven by New Zealand superbike racer Aaron Slight, who switched to car racing after a successful guest appearance for Peugeot in 2001, 17-year-old rookie Tom Chilton. In the Production class Synchro Motorsport gained the upper hand by stepping up from the Honda Accord to the brand new Civic Type R, recruiting former Honda factory driver James Kaye from Barwell alongside the returning Dave Allan; the Accords were still campaigned by new squad Beacon Motorsport with Lotus Elise championship graduates Mark Thomas and Spencer Marsh, John Batchelor's team swapped from Integras to a pair of Accords for Jim Edwards Jnr and Batchelor, injured in a crash during the second meeting at Oulton Park and replaced by Peter Cate and Hyla Breese. Tech-Speed Motorsport continued their Peugeot 306 campaign, with Lotus Elise champion Mark Fullalove replacing Vauxhall-bound Paul O'Neill alongside Annie Templeton, GA Motorsport returned with their Alfa Romeo 156s, this time campaigned by series newcomers Graham Saunders and Alan Blencowe, accompanied by 2001 driver Gavin Pyper at circuits with enough grid space to accommodate a third car.
Pyper received a race ban following an incident at Thruxton and his car was driven by former Ford and Volvo driver Kelvin Burt. Rob Collard returned in his self-entered Renault Clio but did not contest a full programme; the big new arrival to the class was Edenbridge Racing's pair of BMW 320is, driven by teenager Tom Boardman in his second year in the class, experienced German production saloon racer Norman Simon who had raced in the European Super Production championship in 2001. TH Motorsport appeared at selected rounds with a Mitsubishi Carisma for Steve Wood. Number of race weekends reduced from 13 to 10 ITV took over terrestrial broadcasting rights from the BBC Greenflag took over as title sponsor from AA. Hyla Breese became the first driver in the championship's history to end the season with a negative points score after collecting 20 penalty points for engine changes taking is final tally to -16. † Not eligible for points. All races were held in the United Kingdom. No driver may collect.
Note: bold signifies pole position in class, italics signifies fastest lap in class and * signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap.† Not eligible for points
