1996 British Touring Car Championship

The 1996 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season marked the arrival of Audi to the sport with their four wheel drive A4s.

The title was won by Frank Biela, with Swiss driver Alain Menu again finishing in second place and Swede Rickard Rydell in third.

[1] Joining Biela at Audi was rookie John Bintcliffe, winner of the 1995 Ford Fiesta championship and the 1994 Renault Clio Cup.

Honda continued their promise of 1995 despite a slow start David Leslie took three wins during the second half of the season, including the British Grand Prix support race.

Winkelhock took several wins during the year but was too inconsistent to challenge his compatriot for the title, whilst Ravaglia only won a single race and was mostly remembered for a string contentious moments with the likes of Radisich and Menu during the season.

Total Team Peugeot entered the new 406 model, but Tim Harvey and Patrick Watts struggled for pace and suffered poor reliability throughout the season.

Having been dropped by Ford, Andy Rouse ran a semi-works Nissan team, running Primeras for Gary Ayles and Owen McAuley, but results were limited.

Ian Heward entered selected rounds in an ageing Vauxhall Cavalier [7] but the car lacked competitiveness and was a long way from the pace of the other independent runners.