Super Touring Shoot-Out confirmed for 83rd Members’ Meeting

Following on from 2025’s hugely entertaining GT3 Shoot-Out, and the prior Sidecar Shoot-Out, the Members’ Meeting’s one-lap competition returns once again with a field of legendary 1990s touring cars

Those in attendance will have the opportunity to experience these spectacular Super Tourers lapping the Goodwood Motor Circuit at full speed, something that has never been seen before.

The Shoot-Out will follow the same format as last year, with a practice session and qualifying on Saturday followed by a second practice run before the final on Sunday. It’s bound to be dramatic, fast-paced and competitive, and we’ll soon find out more about which cars and drivers we can expect to see in action.  

That mouth-watering prospect headlines a compelling celebration that will see the largest collection of Super Touring cars ever assembled congregate in the paddocks of the Goodwood Motor Circuit.  

At least 40 cars will be brought together for a magnificent showcase of one of motorsport’s most popular eras, and we’ll be treated to a demonstration by a field of around 20 cars which will be unleashed for two outings on the Motor Circuit across the Members’ Meeting weekend.

This is going to be a rare occasion, especially here at Goodwood, to experience the equivalent of a full grid of Super Tourers out on track together once again. Everyone has a favourite car from that era, and the odds are pretty strong that yours will be in action over the course of the weekend.

The 1990s were the de facto peak of touring car racing, particularly here in the UK, for many reasons. The cars themselves were incredible feats of engineering, which in turn helped to lure some of the world’s greatest drivers to compete.

But that was only possible thanks to the enthused participation of manufacturers. Counting just on two hands, there was Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Vauxhall and Volvo.

Super Touring was borne from the 2.0-litre formula which was first introduced by the British Touring Car Championship in 1990. The ‘Super Tourer’ name wasn’t adopted until 1995, by which time the French, Italian, German, Belgian, Spanish, Australian and Japanese Touring Car Championships were also using that same formula.

These cars quickly grew to become icons of ‘90s motorsport and wider culture. Their traditional four-door family saloon on steroids appearance made them instantly recognisable, while the action on the track was arguably the most exciting going on anywhere in the world at the time.

The regulations stipulated that engines would be a maximum of 2.0-litres up to six cylinders, naturally aspirated with a rev limit of 8,500rpm. Cars were generally producing upwards of 300PS (220kW) and re-writing the record books on a yearly basis at racetracks all over the world.

But the engines themselves were only the start of what made these cars so spectacular. While they very much looked like the kind of road cars you could buy in the 1990s, they were anything but when you peeled away the bodywork.

Many of these cars were being co-developed by world-leading racing teams. Williams Grand Prix Engineering, which at the time was dominating the Formula 1 World Championship, was deeply integrated into the design and development of the Renault Laguna between 1995 and 1999.

The Laguna’s four-cylinder engine was mated to a Hewland sequential gearbox, it had four-wheel independent suspension — all four corners were comparable to the kind of setup you’d see on an F1 car.

Super Tourers also had incredibly intricate aerodynamics, which is something perhaps overlooked. These were, in every sense, bespoke racing machines, and their resulting prowess on the track was as you’d expect.

Driven by a list of memorable names like Alain Menu, Rickard Rydell, John Cleland, Jason Plato, Gabriele Tarquini, Yvan Muller and Anthony Reid, these cars were and remain to this day the pinnacle of touring car racing.

But their complexity and brilliance were eventually what caused their downfall. By the late 1990s, manufacturers were spending somewhere in the region of £5 million per car over the course of a season — that was the required cost to compete.

When the finances became impossible to control, all those big-name makers who had built up the Super Touring era walked away, and the whole thing came crashing down. 

And that was the sad end of what had become a global institution. Never before or since has the world of touring cars captivated such a vast audience, which is what makes opportunities like this one at the 83^rd Members’ Meeting such an exciting prospect.

The 83^rd Members' Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport takes place on the 18^th & 19^th April 2026. Tickets are on sale now for GRRC Members and Fellows

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