M-Sport will supply the British Touring Car Championship’s off-the-peg customer ‘TOCA’ engine from the 2022 season onwards.
Best known for its accomplishments in the World Rally Championship, M-Sport has been afforded the next five-year contract to supply the TOCA powerplant after current engine builder Swindon’s deal expires at the end of next season.
Nine companies had expressed interest in acquiring the deal, seven filed a formal tender, before those were whittled down to a final four. The decision was taken on Wednesday during a meeting of the BTCC teams.
While Swindon’s TOCA engine has never won the outright championship since its introduction, it has won numerous races, and 55 percent of the BTCC field will use it in 2020, including the official Vauxhall and Toyota teams plus the Laser Tools Racing Infinitis.
Swindon was also involved in the BTCC at the height of the 1990s Super Touring era as tuner for the factory Vauxhall team, which carried John Cleland to the 1995 title.
M-Sport will work closely with Cosworth, which is developing the new BTCC hybrid system due for introduction at the same time in 2022.
BTCC chief Alan Gow spoke about M-Sport’s signing through an official statement.
“I’m delighted to welcome M-Sport into the BTCC family and congratulate them on their successful tender.
“The opportunity to supply the TOCA engine from 2022 understandably attracted great interest from an extremely high calibre of bidders, so it is testament to M-Sport’s professionalism and expertise that they were able to come out on top of such a competitive and comprehensive process.
“I would also like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Swindon Powertrain, who have been such an integral part of the success of the BTCC engine regulations, and we look forward to working closely with them for the remaining two seasons of their contract.”
M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson expressed excitement regarding the deal.
“We’re delighted to have been selected to supply the new TOCA BTCC engine in 2022.
“The BTCC has long been a popular and prestigious part of the British motorsport scene, and we’re all looking forward to working with TOCA and the relevant teams on this new and exciting project.
“I firmly believe that M-Sport has some of the best engineering expertise in the country, and with the development of our on-site Evaluation Centre this capability is only going to increase.”