This might interest a few TNFs, the earlier stuff at least, ITV4 are running three one hour programmes on the history of what for some never explained reason, we have to refer to as "Touring Car" racing in the UK. Coverage begins at 8pm on Wednesday February 5th with what they say was "The first ever such race in late 1957", but didn't we all refer to it as Saloon Car Racing back then?
A warning though, it's narrated by Tiff Needell, a good bloke, but I'm not too sure about the thought of listening to him for a solid hour.
For me, any interest in UK tin-top racing began with Mk 2 3.8 Jags and later green-striped Lotus Cortinas and ended with the disappearance from the events of E30 BMW M3s, but there may be a few here who still watch the sad and unprincipled demolition derby that the series has declined into.
I'll give the first one a chance, but will probably have gone long before today's ludicrous facsmilies of Seat and Chevrolet shopping trollies start banging plastic panels and trying to nerf each other off the track. The word nerf is a proper "Touring Car" racing word by the way, I think it originally comes from the early days of NASCAR, which for all I know our American friends may refer to as "Good ole USA Touring Car racing", but it was a term used all the time in my teens and early 20s UK slot racing days.
But do you own a "Touring Car"? I think I do, though as far as I know, the only time that any car nominally similar to mine actually raced was a few years ago when the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft or German DTM series still allowed two-door cars.
I'm off now, at the wheel of my "Touring Car".