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Originally Posted by KA
I'll look out the 1989 and 1990 details shortly
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OK, found it...
1989: the 'big' class of the BTCC was almost exclusively RS500, the only interloper being Trident Motorsport's Maserati Biturbo...
- Andy Rouse- 4 cars: 2 Kaliber backed for Rouse and Guy Edwards, and two run as a seperate team, Team Labatt's for Tim Harvey and Laurence Bristow
- Graham Goode- 3 cars- 2 Listerine backed cars for Goode and Mike Newman, plus a third, backed by FAI Automotive for Sean Walker. This is the car shared in the Donington 1 hour/2 driver race by none other than Damon Hill
- Terry Drury Racing- 3 cars in most rounds for Dave Pinkney, Robin Donovan and Mike O'Brien
- Trakstar- a new 2-car team for Robb Gravett and Mike Smith. Cars came from Dick Johnson in Australia
- Roger Dowson- a single Arquati-sponsored car for Jerry Mahony
- Graham Hathaway Racing- a single car for Hathaway
- Brooklyn Motorsport- one car for Chris Hodgetts. May not have done the full season, as he also drove the JQF entered car on occasion
- JQF Engineering/Fina- one car for Gerrit van Kouwen
- Asquith Autosport- one car for Karl Jones in Duckhams Oils colours
- Brodie-Brittain Racing- one car for Dave Brodie in several races
- Mark Rennison- appeared in a couple of rounds in his RS500
1990- the first year of the 2-litre regulations, introduced as a secondary class. The RS500s remained in the top class
Andy Rouse- 4 cars- one ICS-backed for Rouse, the second FAI Automotive-backed for Sean Walker, plus the
Team Labatt's pair for Harvey and Bristow
Graham Goode Racing- 2 Listerine-sponsored cars for Goode and Mike Newman
Trakstar- one full-season entry for Robb Gravett, and a second appeared in a couple of races for Mike Smith
Graham Hathaway Racing- one ex-Trakstar car for Hathaway
Brodie-Brittain Racing- one car for Dave Brodie
Partservice Exeter- one car for former Rover privateer Dennis Leech
Crypton Engineering- ran an Eggenberger-prepared car at Brands Hatch for Italian Amato Ferrari
Stuart Donnan- one car for Donnan appeared at a couple of races
There may well have been others- I don't have complete results to hand for these seasons.
To round off the story, in 1991 the 2-litre regulations took over, although the RS500s were still allowed with heavily restricted turbo boost- enough to make them uncompetitive, so no-one really bothered. The only car to appear regularly was Dennis Leech's car in some early-season races until it was damaged in a crash. I think Trakstar also ran an RS500 in qualifying at one mid-season meeting, but didn't start the race. I can't recall the driver, it may have been Sean Walker or Mike Smith.
Anyone feeling brave enough to tackle the ETCC/WTCC entries? One problem is that I don't beleive there was a single 'source' of RS500s- unlike the 635s or M3s which were largely built from BMW Motorsport shells and kits, I think a variety of different teams (Rouse, Eggenberger, Wolf, Graham Goode etc) produced RS500s, both for their own use and for customers. That might make it difficult to have a go at putting together a definitive chassis list....