BTCC Supertouring era 'cheating' rumours

[Robin Marriott]

I'm sure we've all heard some;

Wider front wings/track on Cavaliers
Flat fuel tanks on Mondeos
Roof chops on 850s
Folding mirrors on Accords
Double wishbone suspension on A4s
Dodgy cylinder heads
Dodgy engine blocks

Does anyone have any evidence of the above?

Magazine scans, online articles, pictures from the time, anything.

[JDog]

Cavalier had wider wing's purely for clearance, you cannot get any more than a quarter turn steering lock with a standard front wing so they become disposable items.

There was no performance advantage just ease of use really. James Thompson got kicked off pole position at Silverstone in '95 as the wing's were measured and judged to be too wide.

Also the early Swindon engined Vectra's had trick specially cast Cosworth cylinder heads which had more meat around intake and exhaust ports so more 'tuning' could be done

[brown dog]

A friend of mine owns the 1997 Alain Menu BTCC winner. Although not technically a "cheating item" the front "wings" do not have any bolts on the bottom edge, and when you turn the wheels it simply pushes them out of the way - genius!

[Umai Naa]

It was pretty common. Some teams even shaved the the rear edge of the bumper down to micro-millimetre thickness for optimum clearance.

As for the rest, I'm not sure. Flat fuel tank on the Mondeo doesn't strike me as cheating.

[terence]

Having been on the build side of the Cavaliers,I would point out that no extra material was added to the front wings,they were only re-rolled. As for the special heads,not too sure that was the case.

[Peat]

I thought the prodrive Ford's had completely flat-bottomed parts on the floor to mimic a flat floor? Didn't think it was illegal, just expensive....

[D-Type]

Of course the definition of cheating is "Why the hell didn't we think of that trick?"