Ebay Motors, BMW 320si (Photo Credit: btcc.net)
EBAY MOTORS
No.8 Rob Collard – No.18 Nick Foster – No.38 Tom Onslow-Cole
BMW 320si
At the start of last season the aging BMW appeared to be living its last days in the BTCC. Twelve months later the prescriptive gear ratios aimed at limiting the rear wheel drive Bimmer's fearsome start are gone and West Surrey Racing have dropped an NGTC engine into their cars. And the 320si, introduced into the BTCC fold in 2007, has a new lease on life.
Now WSR are seen by some as dark horses for race wins, even the championship with Rob Collard and Tom Onslow-Cole in the same garage.
Whether the team can live up to that statement remains to be seen, but in Collard and Onslow-Cole they have two drivers who could easily propel them towards the top of the teams' title. Even Nick Foster, who had a quiet, but solid debut season in 2011, has the potential to return to the podium (he scored a second place at Croft) on a more regular basis.
Rob Collard on….the boost from the new engine
“It's very hard to tell at the moment, you don't know what others are doing up and down the pitlane, we've only done press day at the moment, so we won't really know until qualifying at Brands Hatch, but we feel quietly confident that there's a big enough improvement in the engine to give us more podiums this year.”
Nick Foster on….his aims for the season
“The goal this year is to improve my qualifying. I want to try and be regularly in the top ten in qualifying. The car's always generally performed strongly in the second half of the races so with the better qualifying I'd like to get some more top six finishes.”
Tom Onslow-Cole on…..the advantages of a proven package
“I think it will be, well I hope it will be. We have got a proven chassis, the team know it very, very well and there are Motorbase out there that have the same thing and if anything from their point of view they have an engine and a chassis package that they're familiar with. We're still learning the engine and touch wood it's gone well so far so we're feeling lucky at the moment.”
