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Team HARD. to run Passats and Insignias in the 2013 BTCC

By MJP Media | 10 December 2012

Team HARD. have announced that they will be building their own Volkswagen Passats to compete alongside their existing cars in the 2013 British Touring Car Championship.

Artist's impression of the Volkswagen Passat

Team HARD. announced today that they are starting the complete build of two Volkswagen Passat CCs to compete in the upcoming 2013 BTCC season. This will be on top of the existing line-up of the two Vauxhall Insignias and the Honda Civic that they have acquired in the past two seasons. In reality it seems likely that the Civic will be dropped from the line-up at some point. This will make Tony Gilham's Team HARD. the biggest team on the grid in what is sure to be a hugely exciting season.

After spending the past few months extensively redeveloping and engineering the Vauxhall Insignia, the team have taken the decision to design their own car from the floor up. As can be seen from the artist's impression, the car is going to have a massive on-track presence similar to the Insignia which many believed was the best looking car on the grid last year.

The distinctive 2012 Team HARD. Honda Civic

Team Principal Tony Gilham said "We envisage two Insignias and two Passats on the grid for the opening round at Brands Hatch (30/31 March). The plan is to add two more Passats later on in the season and it could be we end up running two teams under different names. We already have one driver signed and are also in very advanced discussions with others. They will be big, exciting names."

Starting out at the beginning of the 2012 season with one S2000 Honda Civic and one Volkswagen Golf GTI, Team HARD. now have in their arsenal 2 Vauxhall Insignias, 1 Volkswagen Passat, 1 Honda Civic, 6 Volkswagen Golf GTIs and 2 Volkswagen Sciroccos. The team are growing so quickly that they are having to move from their base in Dartford to a fully prepared 'live motorsport museum'. Tony said of this "We are moving to new premises which will be very exciting. The first 'live motorsport museum'. It'll be open to the public and they'll be able to come down and see what we're doing."

The Vauxhall Insignia will still be a part of the 2013 BTCC campaign

Watch this space for further exciting developments over the off season and the countdown to the start of the 2013 fun and frolics!

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media