The British motorsport landscape had never seen anything like the boom time of the British Touring Car Championship through the 1990s. International drivers and manufacturerbacked programmes flocked to the UK to battle it out for what had become the most prestigious tin-top series on the planet.
The domestic series had seen the writing on the wall for saloon car racing before anyone else and set a trend that, ultimately, the rest of the world followed for a glorious decade. At its peak, there were 10 manufacturer-supported teams in the BTCC, robust television coverage and a phalanx of international stars all chasing the British accolade.
It was a long journey from the decade before. In the 1980s, tin-top racing had been fought out between cars of different specifications and engine capacities all scrapping for honours on the same track. The champion could come from any one of those intra-class fights, and it had been that way since the British Saloon Car Championship was first contested in 1958.