Story time.
The Supertouring era of touring car racing ended because of one huge factor. Cost.... A simple two car factory team was costing manufacturers upwards of £1m with Ford famously spending around £2m per car to win the BTCC in 2000 with Prodrive building 3 dominating Mondeo's and required a huge team of 100+ staff back at based and another 50 trackside to run them
The replacement decided upon was the cheaper BTC-T regulations utilising many cheap ''spec'' components such as standardised brakes giving the world the exciting sights of the Astra Coupe fighting for wins on track against the errr... Alfa 147 and Peugeot 406 coupe. Cheap it was (initially), but thrilling...not so much. The most successful BTCC engineer turned driver Andy Rouse thought the world needed loud noisy racing cars battling as Britain's premier racing series. His brainchild was this. SCV8.
Take one lightweight spaceframe chassis able to be clothed in a variety of different manufacturer body panels to let small independent teams build a car cheaply without need for a manufacturer backing the project. The projected cost of build was circa £250k per car complete as the car was designed to use many high-spec but standard production components, no expensive casting or milling necessary. The two most important features to make it exciting for fans eager for spills and thrills that touring car racing generates was the engine and driveline.
Engine was going to be big. And noisy. A V8 sourced from Cosworth derived from their F1 project mated to a 6sp H-pattern gearbox feeding power to the rear wheels. And no driver aids. This was going to be a brute of a car to drive no doubt. Raw an exciting was the goal an the ingredients were in the recipe.
Initially one test mule was built by Rouse to prove the concept, clothed in a Peugeot 406 saloon body it ran laps as a shakedown at Rockingham in 2002. It reportedly ran very well apart from one small issue. Test driver Jeff Allam reported spinning the wheels up in 4th gear on the banking of the Rockingham final corner. "it was an eye-opener!"
The test car did the job though and ahead of the planned 2004 season launch four teams had signed up for the new series dubbed SCV8, or Super Car V8.
Team Varta (Honda Accord)
Team Dynamics (Peugeot 407)
Vic Lee Racing (BMW E46)
Rouse Engineering (Jaguar X-Type)
To drum up more interest Rouse rebodied the Peugeot test car in Jaguar panels to prove the chassis versatility for further development. into luxury car body types. This version of the car was presented to the media at the Autosport show and shown on track with the late Justin Wilson Jaguar F1 driver piloting at Snetterton making a fantastic sound.
However despite all the promise on the eve of the new SCV8 season only 3 cars had entered and the plug was pulled and not to be revived. A case of "what if" the UK had a rival to Aussie V8s?
Justin Wilson test drive:
The Jaguar prototype came up for sale in 2008 and subsequently sold but has yet to surface since.....Until. 2021.
The sole built car surfaced during a Covid lockdown up for sale once again. Looking remarkably like it did back in the day, the car appeared to have spent post of its life in storage unused and forgotten. Consigned with CNC Motorsport AWS to find a new owner happily the car was purchased my Swallows Racing, a Jaguar racing specialist who are documenting its return on their youtube page.
The Supertouring era of touring car racing ended because of one huge factor. Cost.... A simple two car factory team was costing manufacturers upwards of £1m with Ford famously spending around £2m per car to win the BTCC in 2000 with Prodrive building 3 dominating Mondeo's and required a huge team of 100+ staff back at based and another 50 trackside to run them
The replacement decided upon was the cheaper BTC-T regulations utilising many cheap ''spec'' components such as standardised brakes giving the world the exciting sights of the Astra Coupe fighting for wins on track against the errr... Alfa 147 and Peugeot 406 coupe. Cheap it was (initially), but thrilling...not so much. The most successful BTCC engineer turned driver Andy Rouse thought the world needed loud noisy racing cars battling as Britain's premier racing series. His brainchild was this. SCV8.
Take one lightweight spaceframe chassis able to be clothed in a variety of different manufacturer body panels to let small independent teams build a car cheaply without need for a manufacturer backing the project. The projected cost of build was circa £250k per car complete as the car was designed to use many high-spec but standard production components, no expensive casting or milling necessary. The two most important features to make it exciting for fans eager for spills and thrills that touring car racing generates was the engine and driveline.
Engine was going to be big. And noisy. A V8 sourced from Cosworth derived from their F1 project mated to a 6sp H-pattern gearbox feeding power to the rear wheels. And no driver aids. This was going to be a brute of a car to drive no doubt. Raw an exciting was the goal an the ingredients were in the recipe.
Initially one test mule was built by Rouse to prove the concept, clothed in a Peugeot 406 saloon body it ran laps as a shakedown at Rockingham in 2002. It reportedly ran very well apart from one small issue. Test driver Jeff Allam reported spinning the wheels up in 4th gear on the banking of the Rockingham final corner. "it was an eye-opener!"
The test car did the job though and ahead of the planned 2004 season launch four teams had signed up for the new series dubbed SCV8, or Super Car V8.
Team Varta (Honda Accord)
Team Dynamics (Peugeot 407)
Vic Lee Racing (BMW E46)
Rouse Engineering (Jaguar X-Type)
To drum up more interest Rouse rebodied the Peugeot test car in Jaguar panels to prove the chassis versatility for further development. into luxury car body types. This version of the car was presented to the media at the Autosport show and shown on track with the late Justin Wilson Jaguar F1 driver piloting at Snetterton making a fantastic sound.
However despite all the promise on the eve of the new SCV8 season only 3 cars had entered and the plug was pulled and not to be revived. A case of "what if" the UK had a rival to Aussie V8s?
Justin Wilson test drive:
The Jaguar prototype came up for sale in 2008 and subsequently sold but has yet to surface since.....Until. 2021.
The sole built car surfaced during a Covid lockdown up for sale once again. Looking remarkably like it did back in the day, the car appeared to have spent post of its life in storage unused and forgotten. Consigned with CNC Motorsport AWS to find a new owner happily the car was purchased my Swallows Racing, a Jaguar racing specialist who are documenting its return on their youtube page.
would have been an interesting series but BTCC Supertouring was so massive I can't see how you compete with that V8's or otherwise. 
Ax GTi Turbo
