It’s official: TG readers say the Volvo 850R estate is the coolest BTCC racer ever

According to you lot, the coolest car to ever compete in the BTCC is… a Volvo estate. No one quite remembers why it got the nod over the saloon, just that the 850R was... wild. Brilliantly, achingly wild. It won no races but it captured the hearts of countless fans during its sole competitive season of ‘94. 

One of those is Jay Kay, who said: "Most winning? M3. Most beautiful? That would be the Alfa. But that's not the question, is it? The question is what was the coolest. And the only answer to that is Tom Walkinshaw's Volvo 850R estate. Any other answer is just plain incorrect."

Samarkand Tony agreed: “I'm surprised the answers aren't unanimous - but some joker will always misunderstand even the simplest question. It isn't the best, or the fastest, or the winningest car. It's the coolest, so it's the 850R. Arguably the coolest race car ever, in any format. Even, arguably, the coolest car ever built. Taking an estate car racing and pulling it off is pretty much the definition of coolness: I have my style, it works for me, and I don't care what everyone else is doing."

Al Kim’s up next: “It's the 850R for me. Throwing a family estate into a racing rep mobile thunder dome is something you would expect of the old Top Gear trio, not Volvo.”

But amongst the 850R's dominance in the comments, there were a few other shoutouts. Unicyclist Periscopes said: “Volvo 850R is number one by a country mile, but honourable mention goes to Gabriele Tarquini’s controversial BTCC-winning 155. You've got to love it when constructors do crazy things in search for some advantage - cue the thousands of cars with excessive wings in the boot.”

Tiago Santos brings this week’s comments to a close: “Anything from the super touring era. The Primera and the Laguna were very cool.”