From what I gather, it was a plan of Rouse's to make an affordable touring car to sell to independant teams - no manufacturer support. He went to Toyota initially but didn't want to fund a domestic touring car programme when they had their motorsport budget tied up with the WRC Celica and Corollas.
From here:
www.supertouring.co.uk/never_raced/Toyota_Corolla.htmlA typical privateer team in the BTCC does not have the financial resources or expertise to design and manufacter their own supertourer (Teams Dynamics being a noteable exception). To get onto the grid, teams usually purchase ex-works cars, ideally from the previous season, but sometimes older versions if the budget does not allow.
But this is not always ideal, as the level of technical knowledge and support required to run these cars puts most teams immediately onto a steep learning curve. The cars are also extreemly expensive to run with a competitive season typically osting in excess of £300k.
With this Corolla, Andy Rouse attempted to offer the privateer teams a different option - running a brand new car with a full support and spares service by the team that builds them. Rouse also estimated the running costs as half that of going down the traditional works car route.
Obviously the car would not be as advanced as the very expensive works cars but it would be built in the traditional Rouse way where reliabilty and honest-to-goodness engineering would provide a much better base for the privateer.
When looking for a suitable car for the project, Rouse chose a marque that he had worked with previously but which was no longer represented in the BTCC - Toyota.
Their Corolla model is smaller then the traditional supertourer but Rouse believed that he could use all the knowledge he learnt when running the works Carinas to turn the Corolla into a winner. Rouse used the same 2 litre engine that was fitted to the Carina, which he knew very well, and much of the suspension was similar too.
Rouse received no manufacturer support, other than Toyota GB providing a production shell on which to base his prototype. However, the FIA required the manufacturer to homologate the car ready for racing, which was something only Toyota in Japan could compelete.
Toyota Corolla on track
This is unfortunately where problems started as Toyota Japan were not totally sold on the idea of a privateer running their cars in this way. The problems came while Rouse, and potential driver Patrick Watts, were testing the car and attempting to put a deal together for the 1998 season.
The delays lead to Rouse putting a halt on development and testing, by which time the season was well underway and it started to look unlikely that the car would appear, despite all the comments from Rouse to the contrary.
In the end the car never raced was subsequently sold to a customer in New Zealand. At the end of the season Rouse closed down his race team, deciding to retire from BTCC for good.
There was also this Super Touring Mazda 323 Lantis:
www.supertouring.co.uk/never_raced/Mazda_323.html
Mazda's presence in the BTCC was all too fleeting and although the team had some moments of success, their low budget and under-sponsored effort resulted in poor results. Mazda finally withdrew mid way through 1994 following an accident at Silverstone which saw Matt Neal crash heavily, writting off one of the cars.
This was a shame as the Xedeos was a very attractive looking car and was well engineered by Roger Dowson's R D Developments team on an extremely tight budget.
With hope that Mazda would return in 1995, Dowson started work on developing a new car for the following season, based on the new 323 model.
A protoype 323 was built for works Mazda driver Matt Neal to contest the World Cup at Donnington Park. This mainly utilised components left over from the works Xedos cars, including the same V6 engine as used in the Rouse Mondeos but prepared by Zytec rather than Cosworth.
A second car was then built to contest the following season, but with the withdrawl of Mazda as a works team, Dowson looked to run it as a privateer entry in conjuction with a suitably funded driver.
Mazda 323 on track
Before the start of the season a deal was struck with Swedish truck racer Slimm Borgudd, running under his Team Magic banner. Unfortunately a very late loss of sponsor resulted in Borgudd pulling out of the BTCC just before the very first race.
The bright orange car therefore never raced and is believed to have been put up for sale soon after. However, it remain unsold for several years until it was purchased to race at clubman events in the uk.
www.supertouringregister.com/register/vehicle/130/
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Ax GTi Turbo
. definitely worth a watch though, love the older touring cars but being of the younger generation I don't remember anything touring car related pre 1997. Definitely need to get hold of some of those videos now.