How works BTCC teams have changed in 20 years

When Vauxhall won the British Touring Car Championship in 1995, in the height of the Super Touring era, it was up against eight other manufacturers.

Those were the halcyon days of the tin-top championship, when works deals were plentiful and money wasn't in short supply. The budget for that title-winning campaign for the cars carrying the Griffin logo was estimated to be well north of £3million.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg. Budgets continued to increase through the rest of the 1990s as Super Touring ramped up technical development at a mighty pace. The cars were some of the most spectacular ever seen in the BTCC in terms of attention to detail and build quality.

Manufacturers rushed to co-opt Formula 1 teams to help bolt together their programmes. Alongside Williams Grand Prix Engineering, which led Renault to success, operations such as TWR and RML were mainstays.

Along with them came big-name drivers too. Gabriele Tarquini, Frank Biela, Laurent Aiello and Gianni Morbidelli - tempted by six-figure pay packets - joined the regulars on the grid and the whole series took a step forward.

Jason Plato joined the Williams-run Renault operation for 1997. The Brit was immediately aware just how seriously the game was being played.

"I remember going to Spain for a pre-season test and there were a fleet of lorries - we are talking loads," he remembers. "There was one artic [transporter] that only contained Michelin tyres. And they were just for me...it was a very different time."

That spending couldn't last forever, and it came to a halt after the 2000 season. Manufacturers were scared off by the increasing financial demands of operating at the front of the field, and the series hit the reset button with low-cost regulations.

It has been through several reinventions since then, but cost capping has always been key. Carmakers are still able to see that the BTCC offers a valuable platform for promotion, but it is used in a vastly different way these days.

The news that Vauxhall is returning to the BTCC next season has been in the offing for a while, and it is down to the work of Power Maxed Racing boss Adam Weaver that it has happened.

He tempted the firm back to the series with a deal that involved bringing it into contact with a host of potential business opportunities.

Power Maxed Racing is part of the Automotive Brands parent firm, which supplies myriad products to over 2500 motor factors and motor stores in the UK.

Through that, it has other partners that mean Vauxhall now has access to firms that operate a fleet of up to 25,000 light commercial vehicles. Deals have already started to slot into place for Vauxhall, and the benefits are apparent.

As Weaver says: "These days, it isn't just about getting a sponsor, backer or works outfit involved and expecting it to be enough just to put a few bits of branding on the cars. You have to add extra value to any deal that you do, and that is what we have been able to offer. It is the modern way of doing deals."

The deal highlights the current landscape in the BTCC - and other series beyond that - in terms of manufacturer deals. The "modern way" of doing things means that most 'works' projects are not factory deals as we used to know them.

Times have changed. There is clearly a benefit for a carmaker to be part of the high-profile BTCC but, in this day and age, it is not about making a bottomless pit of cash available.

The Power Maxed arrangement, for example, is a business-to-business deal. Yes, it gets Vauxhall back on the grid, but 99.5% of the agreement is in the background.

The definition of a works team in the BTCC is very different, as the Subaru programme highlighted at the start of 2016. When Team BMR approached the UK arm of the Japanese firm, boss Paul Tunnicliffe was initially sceptical as he explained earlier this year.

"I was contacted by Team BMR and my initial reaction was 'thanks, but no thanks' because I do a bit of motorsport myself and so I'm aware of what kind of budget is involved in touring cars," he said.

"But when the team said they had their budget in place and just needed some support with cars, it began to make a lot of sense."

So Subaru blessed the operation and gave it a level of support, but nowhere near what would have been expected two decades before. BMR had the resource in place first, and getting the stamp of approval from Subaru was merely the icing on the cake.

Honda uses the championship to run its latest motors in the Civic Type-Rs of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal. It joined as a manufacturer in 2009.

Honda is probably the operation that most closely resembles the model that works teams used to operate to, running its latest engine block in the 2016 cars to mimic the roadgoing range. The Japanese carmaker also provides proper funding for the attack.

Before that, Team Dynamics, which operates the cars, had been classified as a BTCC 'constructor'. That term was added to the 'manufacturers' title contest in 2006. It is now the BTCC manufacturers'/constructors' championship.

The manufacturer/constructor battle also helps collect teams that get manufacturer assistance, such as WSR, which runs the BMW 125i M Sport in the championship. It isn't a team that is fully funded by the German firm, but it is in the same category as Honda.

MG, too, has been a strong supporter of the championship with Triple Eight-run cars. It has been in the series since 2012.

It has put funding behind its programme and has used it wisely to project its image to a younger audience. It's driver partnership of Josh Cook and Ashey Sutton in 2016, aged 26 and 22, is evidence of that.

It is the second longest standing deal in the championship and has been a race winner in each of its seasons. It won the manufacturers' crown in 2014.

There seems to be a desire from the championship bosses to label entries as manufacturer-blessed or manufacturer-backed, but those words combine to mean something else in the modern parlance.

The BTCC continues to offer excellent promotional opportunities for manufacturers who want to showcase their products, and the series is the biggest in the country.

The broadcast deal with ITV, the massive media coverage it gets keeps on growing and the BTCC performs in front of more trackside fans than anything else in the UK - by a long chalk.

The numbers are strong, but the way manufacturers go about engaging with the championship has changed hugely in the last two decades.

But are manufacturers necessary at the level the BTCC operates at? It is really a moot point.

What the championship needs is cars that can populate the grid and while the control parts situation means that the creation of a new product is easier than in previous generations, it is still a mighty effort.

Look at the GT model in SRO's championships for GT3 and GT4 cars. It encourages manufacturers to build cars that comply to the rules, but it discourages pure factory entries. Instead, it hands over the operation of the cars to private teams on the grid.

There are a lot more nuances to it than that but, in essence, that is a perfect model. The manufacturer makes products that generate income, the teams have a source of equipment and the series remains healthy. GT3 certainly isn't struggling for numbers. It is a model that works.

So while the manufacturer names are coming into the British Touring Car Championship, the landscape is very different. The public needs to redefine its perception of what a works team actually is.