How do you measure success? Overall wins? Total amount of championships? The wins to starts ratio? We’ve got them all here.

With the Touring Car off-season being a long one, we have a massive amount of content coming to keep things interesting during these bleak winter months. Today we ask the question (and deliver the answer) ‘Which chassis has had the most success in the NGTC era?’

We like to keep everyone involved, so if you’re hardcore you know what the NGTC era is, but for newer fans, it’s quite a simple, here’s a quick explanation. The NGTC, or Next Generation Touring Car, launched in 2011 and the championship ran with cars in a couple of configurations. By the start of 2013 all cars had moved to the NGTC rules, so we’re talking individual chassis in that period. If you’re new to Touring Car racing the other thing to point out is that this isn’t F1. It’s not a new car every season, some on this list raced for up to eight years in a row.

The list has been narrowed down to the 15 cars with (actually it’s 16, because a few in 14th have the same amount) the most wins. From there we’ve calculated the wins to start ratio, to measure in two different ways. As a first giveaway, the car with the most wins ranks in 12th when it comes to wins per start.

We’d just like to point out that some of the information in this article is publicly available at http://www.touringcarregister.com/NGTC/ where individual chassis numbers are logged. We did the maths bit, which has created a bit of a headache….

The list features five different versions of the Honda Civic, four cars from BMW, two iterations of the Ford Focus and one car each from Toyota, MG, Hyundai and Infiniti. We’ll go in reverse order by win total.

14 (joint): Honda Civic FK8 – NGTC-18-002

Wins: 9
Starts: 147
Starts per win: 16.33
Starts per win ranking: 16
Titles: 0
This Civic arrived in the BTCC with Dan Cammish in 2018 where the rookie took a pair of wins. He carried the car over to 2019 where with another pair of wins he came within a lap of winning the title. A break failure pitched the Leeds racer into the Brands barriers and allowed Colin Turkington to claim his fourth crown. In 2020 Cammish scored four wins in the shortened Covid season before Dan Rowbottom took a win in 2021. The car was stored in 2022 as Dynamics built new cars for their final entry. The chassis reappeared with Will Powell for half a season with One Motorsport in 2023, with Jade Edwards taking the seat for the second half of the year.

14 (joint): Honda Civic FK2 – NGTC-12-001

Wins: 9
Starts: 151
Starts per win: 16.77
Starts per win ranking: 15
Titles: 0
The very first NGTC car from Team Dynamics took five wins in its first season with Matt Neal at the helm. The title went to teammate Gordon Shedden at the final round showing that the squad had nailed down an early understanding of the new regulations, but the car was then parked for two seasons. Neal got back into the machine for 2015 and took three wins on the way to third in the championship. It then passed to Andy Neate for the opening round only before off-track problems put it back in the garage. Matt Simpson took over the car for the next three seasons up until its retirement at the end of 2019. Simpson ran the Civic with Dynamics, Eurotech then his own team. He took a victory in 2018 at Oulton Park, where he damaged the car during his win, to the point that he couldn’t race it for the rest of the weekend.

14 (joint): Toyota Avensis – SWM 001

Wins: 9
Starts: 119
Starts per win: 13.22
Starts per win ranking: 14
Titles: 0
This was the second Toyota Avensis that Tom Ingram raced for Speedworks. After an impressive debut in 2014 he switched to the new chassis for 2015. His first BTCC win came in the machine at Brands Hatch in the first race of the 2016 season. A second win that season was followed up with four in 2017 and three in 2018 before the Avensis was replaced with the Corolla.

11 (joint): Honda Civic FK2 – NGTC-12-005

Wins: 10
Starts: 117
Starts per win: 11.7
Starts per win ranking: 13
Titles: 0
A varied multi-generational life for this car. Matt Neal banged in four wins in 2013, and one in 2014 when the backend of the car was expanded – for a year – as an estate. After a year to recover it was re-activated for 2016 where another trio of wins were added, before two wins in 2017, upon which the car was retired. From the BTCC. Resurrected for 2019 the team entered it into the TCR UK dominated Touring Car Trophy. Henry Neal carried on the success of his Dad with two wins on his way to the title. In 2020 another four wins, and a second title came his way. 2021 should have seen a third TCT campaign, but when Honda pulled the plug on the Dynamics BTCC operation the plan to run Henry to challenge for a third crown before stepping up to an FK8 variant to race in BTCC was scrapped.

11(Joint): BMW 330M – G20-023-06

Wins: 10
Starts: 72 (car active at the end of 2024)
Starts per win: 7.2
Starts per win ranking: 4
Titles: 0
The replacement. This is the second BMW 330 that Colin Turkington has raced with West Surrey Racing, but it got of to a bit of a hammering of a start. The BMW that Turkington raced from 2019-2021 had been retired when this chassis made its debut in 2022. A reverse grid win at Brands Hatch on the Indy layout was the high point of the early part of the season. Oulton Park however was a different matter. After getting caught up in a huge crash with Dan Lloyd the damage was so great that it sat out the rest of the season. Fully repaired it was reintroduced for 2023 and over the last two seasons Turkington has taken nine wins with it. Currently it sits very high with a win every 7.2 starts. That should change over the next season or two.

11(joint): Infiniti Q50 – WPMS-NGTC-069

Wins: 10
Starts: 87
Starts per win: 8.7
Starts per win ranking: 8
Titles: 2
Across the first two seasons of competition this Infiniti Q50 won 10 races, five each in 2020 and 2021. From 57 starts, that would have been a win every 5.7 starts, or roughly one every two rounds. The argument could be that this machine is more successful than other cars in this list with the two titles it claimed with Ash Sutton at the helm. But we’re listing by race wins, by other criteria it’s certainly a classic. Despite Laser Tools racing bringing an Infiniti online in the middle of 2019, new versions were built for 2020, and it suited Sutton to a tee. However, the stats started to drop in 2022, and not just because rookie Dexter Patterson had a lot to handle, it was partially due to the team suffering massively from the conversion to hybrid. Pace reduction due to hybrid failure was often an issue.

10: Honda Civic FK2 – NGTC-12-003

Wins: 11
Starts: 110
Starts per win: 10
Starts per win ranking: 11
Titles: 1
The 003 FK2 was taken to the top of the points by Andrew Jordan who scored all 11 of its wins. One win in the first season was followed up with six – and the driver title – in 2013. A further four were added in 2014 before the car was sold on. Jeff Smith campaigned the machine in 2015 before Dan Lloyd took the reigns for three rounds the following season. Smith returned to the car for 2017, with the car being written off in the terrible Croft qualifying incident of 2017 where Smith almost lost his life.

9: Ford Focus – MBP-004-2014

Wins: 13
Starts: 144
Starts per win: 8.76
Starts per win ranking: 7
Titles: 0
This mark of Ford Focus seems to be forgotten with the current version going so well with NAPA. Mat Jackson spent three-and-a-half seasons with this car. Two wins in the first year was promising, and 2015 should have offered so much more. Lack of financial support sidelined Jackson for the first half of the season. Motorbase and Jackson secured funds for the second half of the year, and Jackson scored four wins from 15 races. Common belief is that a full season would have seen him win the title. For the next two seasons he didn’t match that win rate. Five in 2016 and one in 2017 saw the end of the car/driver relationship as Jackson left the series. Sam Tordoff added a final win in 2018 before Nic Hamilton raced a modified version for most of 2019 before pulling out for veteran Mchael Caine to take the car to retirement.

7 (joint): Honda Civic FK8 – NGTC-18-004

Wins: 16
Starts: 117
Starts per win: 7.31
Starts per win ranking: 5
Titles: 0
A car with an impressive strike rate over fur seasons, especially as a non-works chassis that had an engine change from Honda to TOCA/Swindon at the halfway point of its four seasons in the championship, then TOCAM-Sport for its fourth and final fling. Josh Cook drove the machine for BTC Racing taking three wins in each of the first two seasons with Honda power before scoring five wins each in 2021 and 2022 with TOCA powerplants. Nine of those wins came at Thruxton from 21 race starts at the Hampshire track. When Cook and the team switched to the ex-Dynamics Honda powered FK8 for 2023 it didn’t win once, and with different developments on the car Cook couldn’t replicate his success with the car he raced for four year before that.

7 (joint): BMW 330M – G20-023-01

Wins: 16
Starts: 105
Starts per win: 6.56
Starts per win ranking: 2
Titles: 1
The very first 330 chassis that WSR manufactured for the 2019 season. Retired and sold into a collection with figures that blew the doors off everything else on this list, the car was given a reprise to add to its race totals as a rescue machine, with its impressive service record diminishing thereafter. Already on this list is the 330 that replaced this one. Originally mothballed after 14 wins from 87 starts at the end of its third season in 2021 the car had taken Colin Turkington to the 2019 title with five wins. Another five followed in the shortened 2020 campaign, and another four in 2021 before being consigned to the Turkington collection. As is documented with the other Turkington 330, the Lloyd/Oulton crash meant that o1 was brought back out for the remainder of 2022 where ti picked up another two wins. Even with that it still has the second-best wins to starts ratio in the NGTC era.

6: Hyundai i30N – WPMS-NGTC-079

Wins: 17
Starts: 120 (Car active at the end of 2024)
Starts per win: 7.06
Starts per win ranking: 4
Titles: 1
A year with a TOCA engine, then three (so far) with the Hyundai/Swindon powerplant. Tom Ingram’s move to Excelr8 was unexpected, but he stamped his foot print in this chassis with three wins in that first season, then with the Hyundai engine there was six with a title to add. Only two wins came in 2023 but this past year it was six again as Ingram came within the width of a whisker of taking title number two. It will be interesting to see how the car fares under the 2025 regulations.

5: Ford Focus – MBP-2021-012

Wins: 18
Starts: 90 (Car active at the end of 2024)
Starts per win: 5
Starts per win ranking: 1
Titles: 1
A car with an impeccable record. Believe it or not, this is not the best set of statistics for the first three seasons with a car in the time of the NGTC regs. It does have the best individual season record. With Ash Sutton at the wheel it has racked up three wins each in both 2022 and 2024. In both cases the car seemed to just lack that last 2%, but in 2023 it made its nearest rivals look like they lacked the last 10%. With 12 wins on the way to the title it was a stormer. An interesting future awaits this chassis. NAPA/Alliance will be trying its hardest to replicate the 2023 season next year, but with the team currently planning to ditch the Focus for 2026, will this machine be retired, or passed onto race with a new custodian?

3 (joint): BMW 125i M – F21-2013-02

Wins: 19
Starts: 179
Starts per win: 9.42
Starts per win ranking: 10
Titles: 1
One of those long-lived cars front loaded with success. Back when West Surrey Racing developed their cars without any aid from BMW, they clawed back their investment with the 125i M Sport. Colin Turkington pushed the car to the top of the podium five times in the first year, and eight in his second season in the machine – where he won the title. With an ETCC title, and three from the WTCC under the belt, Andy Priaulx came back to BTCC in 2015 taking two wins (missing one round) with the car being run for Jack Goff. In 2017 Andrew Jordan took three wins, with one more coming in 2018.

3 (joint): BMW 330M – G20-023-03

Wins: 19
Starts: 176 (Car active at the end of 2024 season)
Starts per win: 9.26
Starts per win ranking: 9
Titles: 1
One of the originals. After six seasons this chassis has gone the unusual route compared to most of the others. Slow start, with the wins coming later, proving that not all cars start hot then creep to the knackers yard. In year one – 2019 – Tom Oliphant was handicapped by the fact he used the car as a setup mule as Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan battled for the title for WSR. Oliphant took a win in each of the 2020 and 2021 seasons before Jake Hill took control. Three wins were delivered in 2022, then another six were added in 2023. The piece de resistance so far being the title this year with eight wins for Hill. Even though it has a title and a whack of recent wins, its stats actually – away from win totals, isn’t massive.

2: Honda Civic FK2 – NGTC-12-002

Wins: 20
Starts: 149
Starts per win: 7.49
Starts per win ranking: 6
Titles: 2
The original pair of Team Dynamics NGTC machines stole a lot- but not all – of the glory in the early days of NGTC. Chassis 001 was where Matt Neal found success, but 002 was the prime real estate. Two titles for Gordon Shedden. Racing, like Chassis 005, as a hatchback and estate (sorry, tourer.) Shedden took eight wins and the title in 2012. Five in 2014 as the boxback and three in 2014 was followed by four wins in 2015 and a second title. Matt Simpson raced the car in 2016 before writing the machine off in testing just before the 2017 season started.

1: MG6 – V2012-C-0510-002

Wins: 22
Starts: 239
Starts per win: 10.86
Starts per win ranking: 12
Titles: 0
On the wins count, this is the single most successful car in the NGTC era of the BTCC. It could have ranked higher in other categories if it had been retired after three seasons. The law of diminishing returns damaged the numbers here, and the big surprise is that it didn’t win a title. Jason Plato took six wins in his first season with the car. In 2013 there were eight wins, which only gave a result of third in the final standings. Second place came in 2014 with another six wins. That was 20 races in three seasons – the total win amount of the second placed car. After Plato ditched the car Jack Goff jumped on board and took a win, which was equalled by Ash Sutton bagging his first BTCC win (after another had been stripped) to have the car at the top of the tree for one last time. Dan Lloyd and Josh Cook took turns with no success in 2017. Rory Butcher had a go in 2018. For one final fling, a new team, Excelr8 placed Rob Smith in the car as it trundled around at the back of the grid. An ignominious final season for the most successful car in NGTC history.

So what is the most successful car in the NGTC era? There’s 16 – it should have been 15 – but those last three by the joint number of wins couldn’t be separated. In wins total the MG6 runs away with it, but the starts to win ratio is clear with the machine that Ash Sutton has raced for the last three years, but there are two individual chassis with two titles each. One with Shedden, another with Sutton, so there’s still space for arguments for which car is the most successful of all time. Well, unless Hill, Sutton and Ingram keep winning in the cars they’ve raced over the last few seasons…..