There were certainly enough of them to talk about- there always seemed to be hordes of them in the ETCC....
Just looked back through some of my old notes of BTCC results so I'll kick things off with a rough rundown on the BTCC cars.....
The CHMS/Toyota GB programme started in 86 and delivered two BTCC championships- initially a single car programme for Hodgetts (the white car) later joined by a second (red) Demon Tweeks-backed car for Alan Minshaw. CHMS also did selected ETCC rounds and most of the WTCC in '87 with Andrew Bagnall sharing the car- Gulliver's Travel (Bagnall's company?) were a sponsor for most of the overseas adventures.
All sorts of other people appeared in CHMS cars often in one-off drives- Barry Sheene, Patrick Watts, Alex Moss, Will Hoy, Mark Hales, Tony Dron, Chuck Nicholson Colin Pearcy etc....I don't think anyone ever handled one in quite the extrovert manner Hodgetts did though....
Apart from the Hodgetts cars the main Corolla campiagners in the BTCC tended to be Geoff Kimber-Smith and Tony Crudgington. MIL Motorsport also had one which occasionally appeared alongside their Supras in 1988
GK-S's car was entered under the AGK Motorsport banner (later 'Five Star Racing or something like that) and made a few ETCC appearances as well- a certain Mr Marshall had a couple of outings in the car as I recall?
Other Kimber-Smith co-drivers included Crudgington, Barbara Cowell, and Bob Holden in the Spa 24 hours- was that with GK-S's regular car, or did Holden ship one of his over from Australia? (didn't Holden make a couple of Spa appearances around 1986-8 or so?)
Crudgington's car was usually sponsored by Clausthaler, which was an alcohol-free lager (I've got a vague memory that he ran a pub?). I think he occasionally shared the Kimber-Smith car in the 1-hour BTCC races and some ETCC appearances.
The fwd version of the Corolla appeared in '87 initially in a programme of selected races for TOM'S GB with Phil Dowsett and Tiff Needell behind the wheel- think we've been through some of the history of the TOM'S car before on here- believe it's now in Australia?
There were a couple of other Corollas around 1988/9 for Les Liddiard and Tony Dolley- I think these were the fwd variety like the TOM'S/Dowsett car- Can anyone confirm that, or even better have pics? (don't think I ever saw either of these at the time)
Anyone got any pics? I might have some 1988 TT pics somewhere, plus maybe a few BTCC shots- I'll have a look