It’s hard being the ‘poor’ relation isn’t it. If F1 is your dig, or Moto GP, then shopping for Christmas is a total doddle. NASCAR stuff imported from the US is an easy swipe away on eBay. TT Racing and BSB is well catered for, but the biggest British racing show on UK TV – the BTCC? Not so easy, unfortunately.

For the hardcore who know their stuff there are online retailers who specialise in creating BTCC offerings, and there are a few who supply top gifts for the knowledgeable fan, but sometimes they get lost among one another, so at Touring Car magazine, we decided to pull together a bunch of BTCC Xmas ideas to suit every pocket into one place.

From stickers that can fit into a stocking, to a few higher end items, we thought we’d try and help out the BTCC fan – and if we’re honest, it gives us another chance to advertise our new driver photo books (which are only £15 each – with the Sutton and Ingram editions being the early leaders.)

So here we go, Santa might be able to stuff his sack with Tin Top goodies on Christmas eve this year, and he won’t need a hybrid to kickstart Rudolph!!

BOOKS

Okay, there are a ton of F1 books released every Christmas, and most of them are rehashed facts and figures books, or pretty bland tales about PR trained drivers, our first offering though? No, it’s not that kind of thing in the slightest. A couple of years old, but with plenty of new copies online ‘How Not to be a Professional Racing Driver’ by Jason Plato will have you coughing up that Egg Nog in fits of laughter – such a good fun read that even die-hard Matt Neal fans would get a kick from it.

‘Touring Car Racing 1958-2018’ by Matt James, again, is a book that has been out for a while, but there are plenty of new copies available if pre-loved isn’t your thing. Matt has been in the BTCC paddock for years and years – there has been no better placed journalist to write this tome about the first 60 years of the BTCC. In depth with excellent photography, each page is a goldmine of information covering the first six decades of the championship.

This is our selling point if we’re honest! With print specialists Mixam we have put together a series of driver photo books from the 2024 season. The collection covers 20 BTCC drivers and eight TCR UK drivers. Each one gets a 40-page glossy hardback A4 book featuring photos on and off track from across the 2024 BTCC and TCR UK season, with previews available. For £15 plus p&p you can make just about every Touring Car fan happy with that gift!

Also from Touring Car Magazine on demand is our Touring Car season review books from 2019 and 2021, and ‘Tales from the Tin Tops.’ Our editor Mick Palmer takes you to the height of Super Touring where much of the BTCC grid went to Bathurst, how Audi took two attempts to use the BTCC to improve its image (and sales) in the UK, how Win Percy and Tom Walkinshaw became embroiled in the most controversial Touring Car season and other tales from saloon car racing.

APPAREL AND ACCESSORIES

You can’t fault BTCC Blueprints. T-Shirts, Mugs, Stickers, Key Rings and much, much more covering the BTCC and TCR UK. You can get it all with these guys who’ve been a solid and reliable fixture in the BTCC paddock for years, and have a bulletproof reputation online. But it’s not just Ash Sutton from last year, or the classic Super Touring stuff here. From the very start of the championship to the current day, check out the website and get those stockings filled.

For fans of many drivers and teams it isn’t easy to just go online and click away to buy stuff to show your support, but two BTCC stars in particular have made the effort to get their logo onto clothes you want to wear, and accessories you want to use – Tingram and JH 24. 2022 champ Tom Ingram always has a stall at BTCC rounds where fans can grab merch, but you can also order online here, where there is much more than just the ‘Pointsy’ Tees. The new champ – Jake Hill – has his range here, with the big bobble hat being ‘proper’ for the winter months.

One person has gone all in to promote the BTCC this season – Nick Halstead. The Excelr8 racer has pushed Crazy Carts all season, and the shenanigans have become well loved. At non-BTCC events in UK motor racing it isn’t unusual to see a fan wearing a Crazy Cart T-Shirt or hat these days, and it’s not just at BTCC race weekends where you can purchase them, the Crazy Cart webshop has them all here.

CALENDAR

It is an unbreakable tradition – the official BTCC calendar. Just ignore all those temporary Calendar outlets that pop up in shopping centres all over the country. You don’t want the knock off Max Verstappen calendar, or Horse in a Horsebox 2025, you need the full fat Jakob Ebrey BTCC one, which you can get here. If you don’t know who JEP is – they’ve been the official championship photography providers for years and years, and Jakob is trackside with his team at every round producing images that are deserving of a calendar – get one. It’s the law!

And of course, check out all the canvas print goodies from Jakob at his ebay store here. There are a bunch of fantastic images from the BTCC on that page.

REVIEWS

The season review. A seasonal faithful year-on-year. Look back whenever you want to remember how the title was taken on the good old DVD, or (for a few quid less – via a download.) It’s not just the year gone however. Duke host, on download, and DVD every season review from 1994 onwards (plus 1991 as a one-off.) Some signed DVDs are in the mix too. Add in the 1993 TOCA shootout with Nigel Mansell and the 1993 FIA challenge at Monza and there’s even more BTCC related stuff. On top of that Duke carry a range of 80’s, 90s and 00’s Tin Top stuff from around the world too.

RACE TICKETS

All the BTCC rounds have reduced ticket prices right now for 2025, but season passes can be the best value. For Touring Car fans it’s hard to go wrong with the MSV four-wheel pass which comes in at £245. It will get you into six BTCC races, five TCR UK rounds, Super Touring Power 3 and other historic and club meetings where Touring Cars from past years join the field. Bargain!

CARS

Not the real cars, but the miniatures. And there are many ways to grab ‘em. Whether it’s for action or admiration you can actually get some pretty decent BTCC models.

The 1:43 scale is the big one when it comes to collectors, and there isn’t that many around, with new cars being rare, but the Atlas BTCC champion collection produced a couple of years ago is still stocked – with varying prices. The Jason Plato, Colin Turkington  and Matt Neal title cars from 2006, 2009 and 2010 are reasonably priced here at Trax, but the Super Touring championship machines of Menu (2000) Cleland (1995) and Tarquini (1994) are starting to rise in price.

An individual piece released earlier this year is the BTCC car of Roland Ratzenberger. The Austrian who lost his life alongside Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994 had raced in the BTCC before his F1 excursion, with a Limited Edition Spark model of his BMW from the championship being replicated, also available from Trax here.

If the good old snippers and glue is more up your street, then how about this classic Volvo S40 model kit? The Nunu produced winner of the 1997 Brands Hatch round is a bit more detailed than your average Airfix kit, and it’s a little bit more of a challenge than your basic Spitfire kit, but in its finished form it brings those Rydell years back.

Smash and crash. Scalextric have for the last few years produced a handful of BTCC cars from each season, and have begun adding more historic BTCC machines to their range. They’re robust and can handle a good battering on mini circuits in kitchens and living rooms across the land (you’re not letting the kids have all the fun!) The official site carries a limited range, but Scale Model shops have tons of cars going back over the last seven or eight years, and with the detail level today, they’re great as display models.

For the Tamiya RC fan the prospect of a new BTCC machine being added to their range is unlikely. Although you can still buy original 90s boxed cars at a premium, the prices are continuing to rise, but of you know what you’re doing there are third-party body kits for painting and adding livery to get some of those classic machines onto the RC Circuit as you can see here.

GAMES

This is the complicated one. A quarter of a century ago that was easy, just grab TOCA on PS1 or PC, or even Gran Turismo 2 for the Super Touring category. Now though? Not so simple. The utterly brilliant RFactor 2 carries the official BTCC cars and liveries from the past couple of seasons under license until 2026. It’s not pick up and play, well, not when I asked Ash Sutton, last season he told Touring Car mag that it was useful for understanding Hybrid deployment, but not much else, while a couple of other drivers said that it was great for keeping their chops up – but only on a sim. Joypad? Very awkward – we’ve experienced this – but RFactor2 is the only current place for a full on BTCC experience officially.

Christmas comes but once a year, and for Tin Top fans there’s sometimes a challenge to find some decent pressies (once again, our books are topper – quite a few drivers have purchased copies themselves!) but we hope this little list has helped a little in your Crimbo hunting, but don’t forget, there’s some classic stuff on those auction sites too.