BMW has a new engine for the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). BMW’s ‘factory’ BTCC cars are run by West Surrey Racing (WSR), which was created by New Zealander Dick Bennetts in 1981, and it is based in Sunbury-on-Thames on the outskirts of London. Still run by Bennetts, it has contested the BTCC since 1996 and has a total of 16 titles from the series to its credit.

BMW’s recent BTCC Manufacturers’ Championship successes have come with three different models, each designed, built and run by WSR. The 2016, 2017 and 2018 crowns were won with the BMW 125i M Sport, while the BMW 330i M Sport debuted in 2019 and saw a further three consecutive Manufacturers titles prior to the current hybrid era, which began in 2022.

BMW took the 2022 title with the 330e M Sport model, using the specified BTCC hybrid package. Having taken seven consecutive Manufacturers titles, BMW suffered a rare defeat last year, when its drivers felt the car lacked straight line speed, especially when running in traffic. This has been addressed by a number of developments for the current season, including a new engine specification.

The BTCC engine is a direct injected 2.0 litre I4 turbo with ‘fly by wire’ throttle control, regulated to about 350 bhp. All cars use a spec turbo from Owen Developments and a spec charge air cooler from PWR. Under certain conditions the engine output is augmented by a 30 bhp electric motor generator unit (MGU) incorporated into a spec BTCC Xtrac gearbox. The MGU is supported by a 48 V battery and managed by the mandated Cosworth Antares 8 ECU that also controls the engine.

Teams can use either an independent engine builder or a ‘control’ engine, developed by M-Sport on behalf of series organiser TOCA. WSR uses BMW engines developed by Neil Brown Engineering (NBE). For this season, NBE has developed an evolution of the B48 engine, manufactured at BMW’s Hams Hall plant in Warwickshire, whereas the previous engine was sourced from Austria.