It’s an enduring reality of motorsport that race cars aren’t built for posterity or longevity. They aren’t conceived to one day become icons. They’re just built to win. The team in question takes all of the know-how and technology – and budget – available to them and puts together the most competitive machine they can. And then, after a season or two, they build something better and chuck the old one away.
It’s because of this utilitarian and efficient approach that it can sometimes be hard to unpick the history of old race cars; take the Mk2 Escort rally car with the registration number STW 201R, for example – more than one Escort that still exists today can lay the claim to that identity, each one arguably equally legitimately, owing to the arcane methods in which Works cars were re-shelled, re-registered and so on.
With a renewed and growing interest in the Supertouring era of the British Touring Car Championship, it’s pleasing to find that enough of these racers of various brands exist to fill a grid or two and
