ONE OF the most famous cars in the history of the British Touring Car Championship has made its way to Adelaide.

The 1992 Vic Lee Motorsport BMW E36 made a surprise appearance at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival in the hands of current owner, Chris Oxley.

The car is one of the more notable in the 60-year history of the BTCC having been key in deciding the climactic 1992 championship when driven by Tim Harvey.

Harvey’s teammate Soper drove the car for a majority of the season however the chassis was taken over by Harvey – a key championship contender – in the climactic Silverstone finale’ after his original car was damaged in a pre-event testing crash.

However it perhaps more famous for its role in the dramatic finale that remains one of the most memorable moments in the series’ 60-year history.

The car was involved in the famous three-way dice with Havey, Soper and Vauxhall driver John Cleland fighting for fourth position late in the final race of the year.

The somewhat aggressive style of racing displeased the Scotsman, prompting Murray Walker’s famous ‘I’m going for for first, says John Cleland!’ line – as Cleland gave Soper a one-fingered salute shown to the world from the in-car camera.

Once Harvey had passed both cars, Soper and Cleland famously then collided at Luffield – ending Cleland’s championship hopes and both of their races, prompting Cleland’s famous ‘the man’s an animal’ character reference in a subsequent interview.

Harvey cruised through to win the championship, his only BTCC crown, while the incident between Cleland and Soper became etched into BTCC folklore and remains one of the defining moments in the growth of the championship in the mid 1990s.

According to the Super Touring Register, the car then was sold to Team Dynamics and contested the BTCC in 1993 and 1994 before Australian Super Touring privateer Paul Pickett purchased the car and shipped it to Australia for the 1995 season.

Current owner Chris Oxley then purchased the car and restored it to original condition – to the point where the car retains Soper’s original seat from the 1992 season.

“It was here in Australia, it was owned by Paul Pickett, who went on to race Hyundai’s, and it was just sitting the back of a garage so I did a deal and we bought it,” Oxley said.

“It took me about 10 years to put the engine back together so I have only had it running two years.

“Vic Lee Motorsport had a bit of chequered history – as you are aware they were well funded to run in the series and they spent a lot of money on the cars. They had all the good stuff on it. It is great.

“I’ve seen all the videos of that (1992 title decider) moment and It is great (to be apart of that) and it is good to keep cars like this going

“When I got the car it wasn’t in its original colour so I painted it up and got the sticker kit and rolled that out.”

“It is great to drive,” he added. “I go to events like this with it now and I did the Sandown historic last year. This is the first super sprint I have done it but it has been fun.”

WATCH THE CLASSIC BTCC MOMENT HERE: 

WORDS: Richard Craill
IMAGES: Adelaide Motorsport Festival