Dunlop British Touring Car Championship

This Is Not A Love Song - 1987 index


After the dismal 1986 season, 1987 could only be better. Earlier than last year, there was clarity about the championship and it even had a title sponsor in Dunlop. But that was about all the good news one could find. There may have been interesting races, but so is the Renault 5 trophy. The quality of the field was poor. Of course, Andy Rouse had built two new Cosworth Sierras, but he had a WTCC program and was not able to contest even half of the races, while his second car was driven by sponsor Pete Hall, who was out of his depth in such a fast car. Graham Goode built another Cosworth, but it was unreliable though he had one win. The rest of the class A camp consisted of Rovers, some of 1986 TWR quality but in private hands, some much older; in any case, the days of the Rover were over but not in the UK. Class B then; the ARDT took a brave move to enter two Turbo 75's, but they never went well and Kirby's car was brought back to V6 specification before it was totalled. There were some Escort Turbos, outdated and fragile, and late in season Sytner brought the first BMW M3 to the grid. Class C consisted of one Metro Turbo youngtimer, and Renault 5 cup cars - which was a disgrace to the championship in my eyes.
The most professional team (apart from Rouse) was Chris Hodgett's Toyota club, well-prepared cars in capable hands. Chris got the championship, and in this class too there was lack of competition he didn't even need full points to get a huge championship lead.

The races:

The cars

Final classification

British Touring Car Championship

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