VW GOLF BTCC
big pond Small fish…
How a one-man band is making a splash in the British Touring Car Championship
1989, the final year that the championship was run with a multi-class format. The 2010 car is a Mk5 variant of the ubiquitous Golf, campaigned by another newcomer to the BTCC arena, AMD Racing, a privateer outfit based in the British county of Essex. The car and team have been one of the Touring Car success stories of the past two years, graduating from ‘also rans’ to regularly jostling established outfits for top 10 position. Sean Hollamby, team principal, occasional driver, and proprietor of AMD, explains the path taken to the top flight of UK tin-top racing: ‘We have run Seat Leons
T
he Volkswagen name has returned to the British Touring Car Championship for the first time since
BY LAWRENCE BUTCHER
in the Dunlop Sport Maxx championship for the last few years, and won the championship in 2009. Before that, we ran Golfs in the VW Cup. Having won in Sport Maxx we looked at where to go next, and investigated a number of avenues – Britcar, Porsche Cup, all sorts of series. But we soon realised that it is not that much more to move up to the BTCC as a privateer, and that is a far bigger deal. It is very much an advertising, promotionally-structured project for us. It has got to get column inches, so even running towards the back of the grid, it is a thousand times better than winning in Britcar.’
AMD’s car originally harks
from Eastern Europe, Estonia to be precise. It had been campaigned in the FIA Baltic Touring Car series, against a similar variety of machinery to that found in the BTCC. The basic car is built around the VAG A5 platform, common to a number of Volkswagens, Audis and Seats, which provides a fully independent suspension chassis with an advanced multi-link rear end. This gives greater scope for chassis development than a number of similar vehicles in the compact sector, many of which still rely on a beam rear suspension set up. For the 2010 season, the car debuted in essentially ‘as bought’ condition, though the chassis had been completely stripped and rebuilt. Time constraints did not allow for any major changes,
TECH SPEC
VW Golf BTCC Chassis: VW Golf Mk5, based on the VAG A5 platform
Suspension: MacPherson strut front with multi-link rearValves: 32
Dampers: KW bump and rebound adjustable with remote reservoirs
Brakes: Alcon four-piston calipers with steel discs
Engine: NGTC-spec 2.0-litre turbocharged
Gearbox: Sadev six-speed sequential
ECU: Pectel Data logging: MoTeC Wheels: Team Dynamics
September 2011 •
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