09 Oct 07
One round of the British Touring Car Championship to go, and the contenders for the title have been whittled down to two: Fabrizio Giovanardi in his Vauxhall Vectra and Jason Plato in a Seat Leon.
This year the BTCC championship includes cars powered by diesel and bioethanol, but the top two have no-nonsense mainstream petrol engines fitted inside their High Street bodies.
These are serious race cars, run by big-bucks operations, but in the spirit of the BTCC they have a strong resemblance to roadgoing cars. The drivers and the teams are in it for the love of the sport, but the manufacturers are in it because it's part of their marketing strategy.
Is it all hype and spin? If your driving world is less Brands-Thruxton-Rockingham-Snetterton and more Homebase-Wyevale-Tesco-KFC, does it actually make any sense to pay more for the hottest Vectra or Leon? And if so, which one? To find out we drove a VXR and a Cupra - not around a race circuit, but around the suburbs and the provinces, plus a bit of motorway and some back roads.
