I may have fallen victim to my love for touring cars at this year’s Essen Motor Show, paying little attention to anything else. Sorry, not sorry.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. This is the second spotlight on historic racers from the show. However, unlike the legendary machines featured in my previous post, these aren’t the iconic names of the Group A era.
What we have here are the little fighters of the touring car world from a simpler time – when Group 2 regulations ruled, and from 1971 a European Touring Car Championship class dedicated to cars under 1,300cc existed.
For those of you who measure in freedom units, that’s just a mighty 79 cubic inches.
One car missing from this lineup is the stunning Alfa Romeo GT Junior, the first winner of the 1,300 division championship. What you see here, instead, is a fascinating mix from various decades, countries, and drivetrain configurations.
The NSU TT is one of my favourite shapes from the ’60s. With its rear-engined, air-cooled, rear-wheel-drive layout, it’s a quirky little car. NSU was an interesting brand, absorbed into Auto Union, which later became modern-day Audi. And yes, it served as the inspiration for the now-iconic Audi TT, both in name and design philosophy.
Italy and France have long been masters of small-car engineering, and the beautiful Fiat 128 Coupé was a competitive contender when it debuted in the 1972 series. Then there’s this Renault 5, which surprised me. Aside from the wild R5 Turbo II in rallying, I had no idea the Renault 5 had raced in any major circuit-based series.
And that’s the beauty of the 1300 European Touring Car Challenge (1300 ETC) championship today. It’s a fairly open series, allowing any sub-1,300cc car that follows the regulations up to the 1981 FIA Appendix J rules to enter.
That’s why this Mk1 VW Polo is in the mix. In Europe, these little hatchbacks are well-regarded as Berg Cup hill climb machines, but after watching a few 1300 ETC races, I can assure you the competition is as fierce as ever, no matter the age of the cars or their original purpose.
Preserving historic race series is important, but it can be prohibitively expensive. These small but mighty racers offer a relatively affordable entry point into the world of historic touring cars – and they deserve to be celebrated.
I wonder how much a Mk1 Ford Escort 1300 is going for these days…
Mario Christou
Instagram: mcwpn, mariochristou.world
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