(S) 2001 British Touring Car Championship

The 2001 theAA.com MSA British Touring Car Championship season will be the 44th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season and marks the beginning of a new era of lower-cost rules and regulations for the series.
==Changes for 2001==
2001 sees a complete overhaul of the BTCC, aimed at reducing the cost of competition and making the series more appealing to the fans.
===New regulations===
The spectacular but expensive Supertouring car regulations were finally ditched at the end of 2000. 2001 sees the field divided into two classes: BTC-T and BTC-P. The latter being a simple renaming of 2000's "Class B" Super Production specification cars, whereas BTC-T (T for Touring) is a completely new set of rules designed to produce closer racing and cheaper cars to build.
===Teams and drivers===
The new rules have provoked different reactions from the three remaining manufacturers in the BTCC. Ford decided against buling cars for the touring class and instead moved to BTC-P, Honda have taken some time out to develop a new car and hope to be on track by the end of the year. In the meantime they too have cars entered in BTC-P. Meanwhile Vauxhall immediately set to work on a new car and have entered six new-regulation Astra Coupes built and run by Triple 8 Racing. Yvan Muller and Jason Plato remained in first two entries under the Vauxhall Motorsport banner, being joined by 2000 champion Alain Menu while James Thompson moved from Honda to partner Phil Bennett, debuting in the BTCC, and reigning independents champion Matt Neal in Egg Sport-liveried cars. Four new manufacturers were attracted to the series: Peugeot entered a trio of 406 Coupes driven by Class B graduates Alan Morrison, Dan Eaves and Toni Ruokonen. Alfa Romeo entered two hatchback 147's for 1999 champion Laurent Aïello and Matt Emmens. Lexus made a surprise entry with two rear-wheel drive Is200's driven by Kurt Luby and Tommy Erdos. MG have also entered two ZS' for last years runner-up Anthony Reid and F3000 star Warren Hughes, although they are expected to miss the first round.