Plato on his mighty Vauxhall Astra BTCC winner: 'Simply brilliant'

The championship attempted to right itself by introducing cheaper cars with simpler technology but at first there were only three takers – Vauxhall, Peugeot and MG, plus a few independents – leading to a seven-car top class grid entered for the 2001 opener at Brands Hatch.

As often happens when a new set of tech rules come in, Triple Eight had spotted the chance to get ahead of the opposition with its new car – and did so spectacularly.

“It was back in the days where we had a proper design team and a proper budget and a proper time to do things,” says then Triple Eight engineer Kevin Berry.

“Ludo Lacroix was the technical director and John Morton was chief designer. We started during the summer of 2000, when the Vauxhall Vectra wasn’t that strong in Super Touring.

“With the new regulations coming along, I think we were probably aware that we were one of the main players, because we still had a strong manufacturer programme designing a new car [in comparison to competitors].”

The new Astra had a similar power output to its predecessor but was heavier (due to less carbon composite components) and less advanced tech used in various areas.

Berry describes the new rules as being “much more cut and dry.” The days of Williams bringing several truck loads of tyres to test its Renault Laguna or Ford gluing its Mondeo windscreen wipers in a certain position for qualifying trim – as it was known to do in ’98 – were over.

When Plato and Muller first came to test the Astra in Spain for pre-season, the former admits to at first being disappointed, then coming to a slow realisation that he might have something special on his hands.

“For me, the secret to success is getting all the details right. We had a really strong team of people, but also a very good mentality of looking for the best performance with the best efficiency.

“I guess the secret was deciding how to best use the resources.”

Triple Eight’s head start on the competition immediately showed. Lining up at that first Brands race in the BTC class were the four works Vauxhalls and three works Peugeot 406s.

Muller would lead home Plato in an emphatic 1-2 for that first race, with those two often trading winner and runner-up placings, but with Thompson often a factor too.

Hardly a stellar field in terms of competitiveness, but that in fact made the season even more intense between Plato and Muller, seemingly knocking chunks out of each other at every round in one of the BTCC’s greatest ever title fights.

Despite the ferocity of the rivalry, no-one else got a look-in – Triple Eight carved up a devastating 25 out 26 races in that debut year, with Peugeot works effort obliterated and the later-entered MG ZS run by WSR managing a single win via a kind safety car.

“I reckon we would have had it if that SC hadn’t come out,” laughs Berry of a clean-sweep denied. “I’m still bitter about that!”

Plato would prevail be the first to win the drivers’ title in the compact yet effective Astra before departing, with James Thompson’s titles in ’02 and ’04 sandwiching an ’03 crown for Muller.

“I mean, I don’t look back tremendously fondly on the season, because it was fraught with so many moods and quite dreadful politics!” says Plato.

“But I remember that car with an enormous affection. It was brilliant and I was lucky to be a works driver then.”

Able to keep himself at arm’s length from the inter-team politics, Berry is only effusive in remembering that period.

“They really were the days,” he says. “I’m still in touch with a lot of the guys in the team, and everyone still remembers 2001 right through to 2009 with the Vectra [Triple Eight / Vauxhall would win at least one title in all but one season up to 2010] as the golden era.”