The BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2005 British Touring Car Championship season by Triple 8 Race Engineering, who ran Vauxhall's official works program.
[1][2] An experimental BTC-T spec Vectra had been built in 2003, but the experiment was not continued due to the weight of the car.
[3] Replacing such a successful car proved difficult, however; and the car only won ten out of the sixty races it contested as a works entry, in the hands of Yvan Muller, Colin Turkington and Fabrizio Giovanardi.
[6] After the car's replacement with the Super 2000-spec Vectra,[7] the Turkish driver Erkut Kizilirmak bought three of the four chassis, and used them for his Arkas Racing team in the BTCC for 2007,[8] with some occasional races in the Turkish Touring Car Championship.
In 2008, Erkut expanded the BTCC effort to a two-car team, being joined by Martyn Bell.