Best Season

[AndyF]

Which has been the best Touring Car Season over the past 10 years. I pick '95 - Cleland may have had it easy, but it was probably one of the most dramatic.

[SL]

Sorry to take it out of 10 years, but the best touring car race was the battle in the Silverstone Tourist Trophy in 197? between the Ford RS3100 Capri the Batmobile BMW. Famous BBC footage wheel to wheel for lap after lap.

Cannot recall the drivers or year tonight but I'm sure others will.


Simon

[racer69]

I can't choose between 3. 1995 for the drama and the close points battle, and a weird year. Volvo's were fastest at the start, the Vauxhall in the middle, and the Laguna's at the end.

Even though Biela flogged everyone, i think 1996 produced the best action and racing on the track. Like Winkelhock's wild style, Ravaglia and Radisich at Brands, and Round 11 at Snetterton would have to have been the best race in the championships history.

1999 was good because of the technology, and there were some good races, and the Aiello vs Leslie thing was funny, but the sad part was you couldn't race wheel to wheel anymore, like at Silverstone Round 4, when Rydell had a little touch with Plato and broke the Volvo's suspension.

Probably 1996 was my favourite

On the silverstone TT, what kind of rules were around back then, and some of the races back then were pretty cool i've heard

[hunttheshunt]

There's no way you can say JC had it easy in 1995! It was one of the closest championships in my book. There were constant battles throughout the field and the races were superb! My vote goes;

1/ 1995
2/ 1998
3/ 1992

[Radisichrox]

1992 was probably the best season in terms of excitement. As many of you recall, Tim Harvey (BMW 318is), Will Hoy (Toyota Carina), and John Cleland (Vauxhall Cavalier) all had a chance to win the title that year in the final round and only due to Steve Soper's tactics on John Cleland did Harvey take the title. I think 1993 was the best in terms of competition, because anyboby could win a race that year, demonstrated by Kieth O'Dor in the Nissan and Tim Harvey in a Renault 19 that had only done 1 race. Julian Bailey, and Alain Menu were also unexpected winners, along with, of course, Ford, with my main man Paul Radisich and the all time great Andy Rouse. Even though in 1993 BMW totally dominated for most of the season, I still think it was a good year in terms of competition. The most competitive year I have seen has been 1996. You had to be fast to win, and a lot of people were fast. The wings and spoilers took away a lot of the fun, but we still saw some good racing, demonstrated by John Bintcliffe (Audi) at Knockhill, Jo Winkelhock at Snetterton and several other circuits(BMW). So, that's my opinion.

[Hobson]

Cos I'm a Volvo fan, then I choose 1998. Rydell won the BTCC, Jim Richards won the ASTCC and both Rydell and Richards won the Bathurst 1000.

That '98 S40 rocked!

[JTBK]

A few choices;

98 - Purely because of Donington Feature with Mansell and rain!

95 - Cleland's year, big accidents and thrills

89 - The year I got interested, will go down in my book for a long while....

[Radisichrox]

For some reason the 1995 season does not do anything for me. I don't know why, but I just don't find it as exciting as any of the other years. The rivals that Cleland had I don't like (Rickard Rydell and Alain Menu). They really weren't worthy opponents, in my opinion.

[AndyF]

In my opinion, the title fight in 95 was very enjoyable. However, I felt 95 was probably one of the best, if not the best, for action in the midfield - just before the numbers started to tail-off.

[hunttheshunt]

For Sure Andy F-in '95 behind Vauxhall, Volvo and Renault we had Toyota, Ford, BMW, Pug, Alfa and Honda as well as the privateers all mixing it up in the midfield. Quality racing throughout the field!

[AndyF]

I have looked through the Touring Car Annuals from 1992 to 1999, and have found that '95 was (in my opinion) such a good season due to the number of cars entered. 1992 and 1993 had 26 points scorers in the main championship. 1994 and 1995 had 25, 1996 -22, 1997 -19, 1998 -21 and 1999 -19. I think the early 90s were probably the best seasons because of the numbers of cars.

[Radisichrox]

1993 and 1994 were great because of, as Andy F said, there were a lot of cars entered. The only problem with 1995 is that there was no variety of cars entered for privateers. They were all ford and 1 vauxhall (nigel smith).

[hunttheshunt]

What about Hamish Irvine's Pug 405?!

[Radisichrox]

Originally posted by hunttheshunt
What about Hamish Irvine's Pug 405?!

Oops...

[Bennett Fan]

1991 all the way to 1999. I rate them all as highly as eachother. 1995 being a high point for me as John Cleland won his 2nd title and also 1993 for Kieth O'dor's British GP support race win. 2 of my drivers doing well there. 94 was good only because that was the first time i attended a race and witnessed Tarquini's roll at Knockhill in person.

[Radisichrox]

You have a fellow O'Dor fan in me!

[knowlesy59]

has to be 95.it was just so ace.and o'dor was just so good a driver.

[Radisichrox]

Originally posted by knowlesy59
has to be 95.it was just so ace.and o'dor was just so good a driver.