BTCC star cars

The 50th anniversary season of the British Touring Car Championship opened during Autosport International at the Birmingham NEC with a display of cars charting the series’ development through half a decade.

The cars on show included the 1963 championship-winning Lotus Cortina raced by Jack Sears, who previously claimed the inaugural title in 1958 at the wheel of an Austin Westminster.

Against a video backdrop of classic film action from the 1960s and ’70s, other notable cars on show included a Ford Galaxie (below), a Ford Sierra RS500, an MG Metro Turbo and a Triumph Dolomite Sprint.