Triple 8 had worked on the Astra in the summer of that year and as a result, with 4 cars - 2 with Vauxhall sponsorship (driven by Jason Plato and Yvan Muller) and 2 with Egg Banking sponsorship (driven by James Thompson, Phil Bennett, and a one-off appearance by Andy Priaulx) had given themselves a head start on the rest of the field at the start of the 2001 season.

Despite the multitude of technical issues, a full time MG campaign, and the debut of both Honda and Proton, Vauxhall won a clean sweep of the titles again, with all of the top 3 positions in the Driver's Championship filled by drivers of the cars - Thompson this time finishing the victor, by 20 points.

Despite the arrival of SEAT with former champion Jason Plato, and strengthened Honda and MG efforts, they were unable to break the dominance of the Vauxhall, which again won the drivers, manufacturers and teams championships.

In fact, despite the strengthened works teams that had come into the BTCC since 2001, the gap still remained huge - Muller finished the season 49 points ahead of the nearest challenger.

After two years without an entry, the car returned to the series in 2009,[7] in the hands of Martin Johnson, who scored 2 points in his first season.