BTCC: The Electric March Towards 2022

The British Touring Car Championship is in its 60th season. Over the decades series has evolved from Jack Sears winning the 1958 championship in an Austin A105, to the Muscles vs MINIs in the 60s, to Rover Vitesse in the 80s, the super tourers in the 90s though to the current regulations of the New generation touring cars (NGTC). In 2022 after 21 years of the current regulations, the series will be bringing in hybrid technology.

The BTCC technical working group (TWG) which comprises of its technical chiefs and leading engineers from each team have laid out plans for a hybrid unit to be attached to the current drive train. This will allow each car to reserve an amount of hybrid energy to use during the race similar to the push to pass that Indycar use in America.

Over the past few weeks I have seen a few mixed reactions on social media, with comments ranging from; It will be to expensive, it’ll force the small teams out of the championship, the noise will suffer as a result.

Personally, I like the move, it keeps the series current with more manufactures using a form of hybrid technology in their models. Being a Formula One fan aswell as a touring car fan I have seen the benefits of hybrid technology, the cars have got quicker with the drivers deploying electric power to attack and defend. Its added a skill that some drivers have learnt some better than others. I can only see adding a new skill can only make the better racers rise to the front.

It could also bring in more manufactures to the championship wanting to show off how good their Hybrids are. Like the days of the super tourers, when manufactures would pile money into the teams, bringing along their drivers who were part of their driving scholarship.

The only worries are that if costs do rise too much, the smaller teams would struggle to survive. There is few technical aspects that needs to ironed out with the ambition that some of the parts could conflict with keeping the cost down.

Then there is a chance that the noise does dampen down. As we saw in Formula One the noise did change, and they are quieter, I do like the note that the hybrid engine produces it reminds me abit of the old group B rally cars. This is a view that’s shared by AmDTuning.com with Cobra Exhaust’s Ollie Jackson:

“The EV technology fits the sprint nature of the BTCC although I think the noise is a big part of the excitement, so if the Hybrid technology keeps the noise and fends off the change to electric for a while then I welcome it.”

BTCC continues this weekend at Silverstone on their traditional National layout.