The 2001 BTCC season was actually the 1st Motorsport season I watched, as my friends Dad who was a Motorsport fan had this season on DVD and when I went round he would put it on. I have vivid memories of when Mullers car caught fire at Brands Hatch its the main thing I remember.
Quality video this mate, I feel like this era of BTCC is often overlooked because it came after the Super Touring era but it certainly wasn't short on action
imo the best year of btcc, just Peugeot had a crap car and everyone else went part time and people just dismiss it but both classes has excellent racing for a few years. if production got more airtime it was have been a smash hit
ARe. the Silverstone incident: (1) Muller wasn't conserving tyres, he was conserving fuel, (2) the 'engine cuts' were due to fuel starvation, (3) Plato didn't go for any gap, he was lining up on Muller when Muller's engine cut out leaving Plato no time to react. From a team point of view Muller should have kept out of Plato's way and limped over the line in second. And the stewards should have kept well out of it and instead done something about the season-long Soper - Bennett feud, which was actually dangerous and required intervention.
@@olivergould3878 Yeah, sadly. Although he carried on racing historic saloon cars - I saw him at Zandvoort about 7 years ago overtaking on the inside at Tarzan. He was on two wheels, using the car next to him to keep himself from rolling over. The man's an animal! Sadly the stewards thought the feud between him and Bennett was entertaining (which it wasn't particularly) so let it escalate until it got to the point where they were just firing each other off. One of them at least had the good sense to do it in places where there was a decent amount of run-off. Bennett - not so much.
They had no competition until the dc5 came about n then it struggled. I'm not a hater, I own a coupe turbo. They're nice cars to look at n drive but there are better track cars out there that just didn't enter btcc at the time 🤷♂️
Think the DC5 integra was the only car close to those Astras 888 brought in the newer Astra in 2005 but was a weaker car, its just the BTC-T regulations best suited that coupe like shape and other cars were nowhere near as developed.
I'll forever dub that 2000 Thruxton issue as Muller 21 Also wasn't that the same round that one of the Fords got hooked into the barriers at Allard just off the start as well, I do remember that, but can't find the highlights because Duke Video happenedthe
Phil 'P4/Bad Boy' Bennett, so named because he was usually lurking around P4, and IIRC got himself either a penalty or a DQ which led to the absolutely great line of I have been a bit of a bad boy really from Phil that got printed in Autosport along with a shot of Phil on track. Don't remember if it was 01 or 02, but he was definitely not leave a car's width every time sort of driver at timestime
According to Plato's biography, it was more because of past resentments developed during the Renault Spider Series, which Plato won as a driver before getting to BTCC. If I remember correctly, Menu was an "owner" of a rival team and was accusing Plato of some allegedly unfair advantages to justify his triumphant campaign.
@@SimoneMX950 ahhh gotcha. Thanks for clarifying, didn't know JP had a book out, might be one I have to track down. Sounds like it could be full of fun stories.
@@insertgenericusernamehere2402 it's a great read, I strongly recommend it! And actually yes, now I remember (more or less) that towards the end of the 97 season Plato was battling for runner up in the championship and needed a victory at the last race, but Menu instead of helping him (since he'd been already crowned champion the previous race) decided otherwise, they had a rough battle on track and in the end Plato finished 3rd in the final standings.
Hello my name is Kyle from Australia can i just say as a motor racing person who watching overseas motor racing on tv British Trouing cars is better racing between tream mates and other drivers and all cars and treams and crashing and racing lots of passeing and over takeing who is the boss of the British Trouing cars Champship they think great rules so any make of car or driver could win not just the one driver like over here in Australia thankyou for takeing the time to answer my question good luck with next year in 2025 bey from Kyle ❓
It's the livery that makes it look ugly. It would look great with the old 406 green and gold Esso Ultron livery. The road car, penned by Pininfarina is quite a good looking car in real life, well it looked good for the time.
Vauxhall Warfare sounds like a thriller novel Jeremy Clarkson would write 😂
Chapter 3: Jason Plato and the Vexed Vectra
The 2001 BTCC season was actually the 1st Motorsport season I watched, as my friends Dad who was a Motorsport fan had this season on DVD and when I went round he would put it on. I have vivid memories of when Mullers car caught fire at Brands Hatch its the main thing I remember.
Quality video this mate, I feel like this era of BTCC is often overlooked because it came after the Super Touring era but it certainly wasn't short on action
imo the best year of btcc, just Peugeot had a crap car and everyone else went part time and people just dismiss it but both classes has excellent racing for a few years. if production got more airtime it was have been a smash hit
Makes me want to dig out my 2001 review and watch it again. 👍
Ahh the good old days.. Super touring end was sad, but these seasons had some fun moments.
ARe. the Silverstone incident: (1) Muller wasn't conserving tyres, he was conserving fuel, (2) the 'engine cuts' were due to fuel starvation, (3) Plato didn't go for any gap, he was lining up on Muller when Muller's engine cut out leaving Plato no time to react.
From a team point of view Muller should have kept out of Plato's way and limped over the line in second. And the stewards should have kept well out of it and instead done something about the season-long Soper - Bennett feud, which was actually dangerous and required intervention.
Didn't Bennet end his career?
@@olivergould3878 Yeah, sadly. Although he carried on racing historic saloon cars - I saw him at Zandvoort about 7 years ago overtaking on the inside at Tarzan. He was on two wheels, using the car next to him to keep himself from rolling over. The man's an animal!
Sadly the stewards thought the feud between him and Bennett was entertaining (which it wasn't particularly) so let it escalate until it got to the point where they were just firing each other off. One of them at least had the good sense to do it in places where there was a decent amount of run-off. Bennett - not so much.
Phil Bennett was like that one guy on the Forza online he take you out because your driving is better then there's
Maybe it's childhood nostalgia but I think those Astra coupe's are super underrated
they absolutely dominated the early 2000's.
They had no competition until the dc5 came about n then it struggled.
I'm not a hater, I own a coupe turbo. They're nice cars to look at n drive but there are better track cars out there that just didn't enter btcc at the time 🤷♂️
One was still being ragged around in the field around 2009/2010…hopelessly outdated by that point sadly.
sexy little car tbh
Think the DC5 integra was the only car close to those Astras 888 brought in the newer Astra in 2005 but was a weaker car, its just the BTC-T regulations best suited that coupe like shape and other cars were nowhere near as developed.
Plato and Neal next please 😊
You need to talk about 1979 Daytona 500 and its impact on the popularity of Nascar in the 80s-90s
I'll forever dub that 2000 Thruxton issue as Muller 21
Also wasn't that the same round that one of the Fords got hooked into the barriers at Allard just off the start as well, I do remember that, but can't find the highlights because Duke Video happenedthe
Phil 'P4/Bad Boy' Bennett, so named because he was usually lurking around P4, and IIRC got himself either a penalty or a DQ which led to the absolutely great line of I have been a bit of a bad boy really from Phil that got printed in Autosport along with a shot of Phil on track. Don't remember if it was 01 or 02, but he was definitely not leave a car's width every time sort of driver at timestime
this prepared T8 for anything and everything while dealing with drivers when they went to V8supercars
Müller was an absolute bellend.
@@samuelgarrod8327 No Bennett was
Didn't plato have a big rivalry with menu during 97 with them both being renault drivers at the time
According to Plato's biography, it was more because of past resentments developed during the Renault Spider Series, which Plato won as a driver before getting to BTCC. If I remember correctly, Menu was an "owner" of a rival team and was accusing Plato of some allegedly unfair advantages to justify his triumphant campaign.
@@SimoneMX950 ahhh gotcha. Thanks for clarifying, didn't know JP had a book out, might be one I have to track down. Sounds like it could be full of fun stories.
@@insertgenericusernamehere2402 it's a great read, I strongly recommend it!
And actually yes, now I remember (more or less) that towards the end of the 97 season Plato was battling for runner up in the championship and needed a victory at the last race, but Menu instead of helping him (since he'd been already crowned champion the previous race) decided otherwise, they had a rough battle on track and in the end Plato finished 3rd in the final standings.
@@SimoneMX950 97 was the first championship I remember watching vividly had a VHS tape of the season in review I believe.
@@SimoneMX950 You can even listen to him read it to you, which is a bigger laugh
Hello my name is Kyle from Australia can i just say as a motor racing person who watching overseas motor racing on tv British Trouing cars is better racing between tream mates and other drivers and all cars and treams and crashing and racing lots of passeing and over takeing who is the boss of the British Trouing cars Champship they think great rules so any make of car or driver could win not just the one driver like over here in Australia thankyou for takeing the time to answer my question good luck with next year in 2025 bey from Kyle ❓
egg
Muller and Plato was never going to work. Muller was too competitive and Plato a massive tosser.
That Peugeot looks hideous, the front at least
looks like that meme of the guy with no chin
It's the livery that makes it look ugly. It would look great with the old 406 green and gold Esso Ultron livery. The road car, penned by Pininfarina is quite a good looking car in real life, well it looked good for the time.
@@blackflagqwerty I thought there were some bodywork changes