OUR CAR

BMW 330i M Sport LCI

Years: 2025-onwards

Returning to the cut-and-thrust of the British Touring Car Championship in 2025 is the BMW 330i M Sport, now sporting several external differences due to model-wide ‘Life-Cycle Impulse (LCI) changes, but some far more significant in-car developments.

Chief of these is the removal of the hybrid motor that was present in the 330e M Sport that raced from 2022-24, and produced upto 60bhp extra when deployed; such systems no longer permitted in the BTCC following off-season rule changes.

This means a 3 Series race car that is now 55kg lighter by regulation and will be more nimble and agile as a result.

Further developments aimed at enhancing the car’s already-impressive reliability and performance are made every year in-house at WSR’s Sunbury-on-Thames headquarters.

In 2025 all the power comes from BMW’s four-cylinder modular turbocharged internal-combustion engine, assembled in the UK and tuned by Neil Brown Engineering to produce more than 350bhp.

A six-speed Xtrac sequential gearbox and differential transfers the power from the propulsion unit to the track via the BMW’s rear-wheel-drive layout.

Safety features include the very latest TIG-welded rollcage, designed to current FIA requirements, plus front and rear crash structures, increased driver protection, the latest FIA-homologated race seat, on-board fire extinguisher and lifting points.

To keep budgets to a sensible level, a number of common components must be used by all cars. These include the gearbox and differential, clutch, front and rear subframes, suspension, tyres, wheels, fuel, brakes and electronic control unit (ECU).

BMW 330e M Sport

Years: 2022-2024

One of WSR’s most successful racing cars to date, the BMW 330e M Sport brought hybrid power into the British Touring Car Championship as part of a new set of propulsion rules in 2022; a revised power unit being the key difference between this G20 3 Series-based machine and the 330i M Sport that preceded it.

Designed and built in-house at WSR’s specialist facility at Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, the car started 90 races over three seasons and scored 30 wins and 81 podium finishes; its greatest season coming in 2024 as Jake Hill became Drivers’ Champion at the season finale while BMW scored a record-breaking 10th Manufacturers’ title.

Propulsion came from the BMW B48 four-cylinder modular turbocharged internal combustion engine, tuned by Neil Brown Engineering to produce 350bhp while the BTCC’s mandated hybrid system gave drivers access to an additional 30bhp (increased to 60bhp in 2024) for a set number of seconds per lap in races to aid straightline speed and overtaking.

BMW 330i M Sport

Years: 2019-2021 

Ushering in a new era of BMW touring car competition in the BTCC, the BMW 330i M Sport, designed, built and prepared by WSR was created around the then brand-new G20 3 Series saloon. 

Powered by the BMW B48 four-cylinder modular turbocharged internal combustion engine and tuned by Neil Brown Engineering to produce 350bhp, the 330i M Sport made a sensational debut that kicked off the most successful season in WSR’s touring-car history. 

A victory on the opening weekend of the season for Andrew Jordan was the first of 11 scored across the year – the most ever recorded by WSR in a single BTCC campaign. 

With 20 podiums from 30 races, WSR drivers finished first and second in the Drivers’ Championship for the first time; Turkington triumphing by just two points over Jordan as the destiny of the title was decided less than two laps from the end of the year. 

Three consecutive Manufacturers’ titles from 2019-21 made BMW the first marque to win the title six years in a row (all as a result of WSR-run programmes) while other significant successes included the Teams’ title in 2019 and a first BTCC win for Tom Oliphant in 2020.

BMW 125i M Sport

Years: 2013-2018 

The BMW 125i M Sport, produced for the new ‘NGTC’ technical regulations still in place today, was the first racing car designed and built by WSR. It proved itself to be a winner at only its second appearance on-track at Donington Park in 2013. 

Its short wheelbase and efficient central weight distribution made it unbeatable in slow-speed traction stakes and led to immense levels of success at Croft, Knockhill and Oulton Park; those three venues usually all falling in the middle of a season and forming the bedrock of many a title challenge. 

That first real title challenge came in 2014 when Colin Turkington scored eight wins and 19 podiums from 30 races to storm to the crown – his second – and add the Teams’ and Independent Drivers’ and Teams’ trophies. 

The day of days, however, came at Croft a year later as Andy Priaulx, Sam Tordoff and Rob Collard scored a 1-2-3 podium lock-out (a result repeated at Oulton Park three years later) and won all three races between them. 

The titles kept pouring in; Teams’ and Manufacturers’ in 2016 and – following the introduction of ‘Team BMW’ in 2017 (and with it, a switch from a modified engine to BMW’s purpose-built modular B48 turbocharged production unit) the same again. 

Even more significant was Turkington’s 2018 Drivers’ crown, which came after a season in which he won just once but proved consistency is key by finishing in the top six on 16 occasions; he, Andrew Jordan and Collards Rob and Ricky completing a title treble. 

It remains WSR’s most successful touring car in terms of wins, championships and podium finishes.

BMW 320si

Years: 2007-2012 

Built from a pair of kits supplied from BMW Motorsport in Munich, the pair of Super 2000-spec race cars (as per the technical rules used by the BTCC at the time) raced magnificently in orange in what has been recognised as one of the series most iconic colour schemes. 

Eschewing the trend of the factory cars to use H-pattern gearboxes as a weight-saving measure, WSR’s machines were equipped with six-speed sequentials and were winners almost instantly; Colin Turkington triumphing at the Brands Hatch season-opener and Tom Onslow-Cole breaking his victory duck at Snetterton. 

Turkington truly became the King of the Independents’ class in this car, winning the title three years running from 2007-09 and adding the overall Drivers’ crown – the first of his record-equalling four – in the latter season. 

Things got even better in 2010 with a limited campaign in the FIA World Touring Car Championship that peaked with a victory for Turkington at Okayama, Japan. 

A a switch from a normally-aspirated two-litre, four-cylinder engine to a turbocharged NBE-prepared unit for 2012 (in anticipation of a full switch to an NGTC-spec car the following season), breathed new life into an ageing machine. 

A victory first-time out for Rob Collard was the first of three that season while he, Onslow-Cole and Nick Foster all proved more than capable at running at the front of the field.