Gordon Shedden has spent a lot of his profession in Honda equipment so it’s no shock that his favorite automobile comes from the Japanese producer. However it’s not the 2006 Integra by which he scored his first British Touring Automobile win or the Civic with which he took his maiden crown.
The three-time champion swiftly picks the primary Group Dynamics-built Kind R model of the ‘Subsequent Technology Touring Automobile’ Civic that arrived in 2015. “It in all probability needs to be the primary Civic Kind R, with the RML spec components,” he says of the very best automobile of his profession. “It was mega, very nice.”
Shedden took 4 wins and 7 different podiums to take a cushty lead into the Manufacturers Hatch season-decider in 2015. Drama in race two meant Jason Plato was an actual menace and Shedden needed to cost from nineteenth to fourth within the finale to safe the crown by 4 factors.
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Shedden took his third BTCC title with the automobile the next yr, scoring 4 victories as he overcame a deficit of 52 factors on the midway stage of the season. He added three extra wins with the Kind R in 2017 earlier than heading to World Touring Vehicles, whereas Dynamics launched the FK8 model of the Civic for 2018.
“The Kind R was so quick,” provides the 45-year-old. “After they introduced within the NGTC guidelines we had a really robust engineering staff, with Barry Plowman and Eddie Hinckley. They understood the idea higher than anybody else. You take a look at how we have been pegged again on enhance – we’d have gained each race in any other case!”
The unique FK2 NGTC Civic had introduced Shedden his first BTCC title in 2012, and took the 2013 crown within the fingers of Eurotech privateer Andrew Jordan. However Shedden believes the Kind R model, which adopted the profitable Tourer property, moved issues on significantly.
Shedden felt the Kind R was a step up on the unique FK2 NGTC Civic
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“The aero was higher,” he asserts. “And that was across the time groups began to grasp you wanted to make a nasty engine to get extra enhance, which additionally helped with torque.
“The Honda engine was such road-car engine we by no means had any enhance so for Neil Brown Engineering it grew to become about making the stream as unhealthy as doable to get extra enhance.”
Outdoors of present equipment, one other automobile stands out for the Scot. “I’ve to say the Cortina, it’s one of many automobiles that obtained me into motorsport, with Jim Clark,” says Shedden. “Sharing one with Matt Neal at locations such because the Silverstone Basic was tremendous particular.”
“After they introduced within the NGTC guidelines we had a really robust engineering staff, with Barry Plowman and Eddie Hinckley. They understood the idea higher than anybody else. You take a look at how we have been pegged again on enhance – we’d have gained each race in any other case” Gordon Shedden
Though Shedden scored all his BTCC successes in front-wheel-drive equipment, he’s very comfy with the RWD automobiles that predominate in historic competitors, such because the Ford Lotus Cortina: “Years of driving on the Knockhill rally college was the place I discovered my automobile management and obtained sideways, which is what you do within the historics with crossply tyres.
“In trendy racing a well-driven automobile seems to be simple, however once you take a look at historic automobiles it seems to be onerous. It’s nice enjoyable.”
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The Scot additionally picks out the Cortina as a private favorite
Photograph by: Ebrey / Motorsport Images