Best touring car drivers ever?

[Ranger]

I'm looking to compile a list of the best touring car drivers ever from all disciplines.

In Australia (in order):
- Jim Richards
- Peter Brock
- Dick Johnson
- Mark Skaife
- Craig Lowndes

I say Richards is the best in Australia for a few reasons. Seven Bathurst wins from 1978 to 2002 (as a 55-year-old) and 4 titles. Anyone who isn't a full time driver and can qualify 3rd for a Bathurst-equivalent touring car race at the age of 56 gets my kudos.

[Scuderia ferrari]

Here's MY view:
Andy Priaulx
James Thompson
Yvan Muller
Rickard Rydell
Jason Plato
Fabrizio Giovanardi
Gabriele Tarquini
Anthony Reid
Mat Jackson
Colin Turkington
Matt Neal

[KILOHMUNNS]

For Me

John Cleland
Andy Rouse
Steve Soper
Fabrizio Giovanardi
Win Percy
Frank Sytner

I'm sure there are others but I just can't think right now!!

[Spyder]

Jim Clark

[Brown, Jon Brow]

It's too difficult to compare the earlier touring car drivers to more recent ones as the cars and regulations have changed so much. I know Jim Clark won the BTCC in 1964 but I don't really regard him as a touring car driver. So to make things simple I'll just compare drivers from the last decade or so who have raced in Europe.

1) Yvan Muller -I reckon he is the best F/WD racer around
2) Laurent Aiello -Successful in F/WD Touring Cars and R/WD DTM
3) Alain Menu -Only man to win the BTCC supertouring title twice, but prone to the occasional error
4) Fabrizio Giovanardi - How many titles?
5) Bernd Schneider - How many DTM titles?

[Ranger]

Jim Clark

Likewise Michael Schumacher drove touring cars a bit...doesn't make him the best touring car driver ever!

[I am evil Homer]

I'll add Roberto Ravaglia into the mix. Steve Soper (already mentioned) and Jo Wincklehock deserve a mention

[I am evil Homer]

Likewise Michael Schumacher drove touring cars a bit...doesn't make him the best touring car driver ever!

Esp when he took out Cecotto in the DTM arugably costing the venezuelan the title that year!

[wedge]

Bernd Schnieder, Klaus Ludwig, Frank Biela, Jo Winklehock, Laurent Aiello.

[BDunnell]

Likewise Michael Schumacher drove touring cars a bit...doesn't make him the best touring car driver ever!

Indeed not, but Clark was a truly great saloon car driver of his day.

I think the really outstanding touring car driver of all time is Steve Soper. He is one of the few to have shown an ability to compete regularly against the best from all around the world in different types of car, namely 1980s Group A and 1990s Super Touring. Few of the Aussies managed that, though, in fairness, with such a strong domestic series of their own, they didn't have to. Nonetheless, that to me ranks Soper ahead of the likes of Brock and Schneider, as splendid as they were/are.

Of the rest, it's difficult to choose. I think few drivers have made more of a contribution to touring car racing than Andy Rouse, and on his day he could beat absolutely anyone. Mainland Europe has produced a huge range of brilliant international champions - I'm thinking, for example, of Winkelhock, Aiello, Tarquini, Ravaglia, Giovanardi, Menu, Biela, Muller and Rydell. You have to rank John Cleland alongside them, for while he only ever drove for one manufacturer and in one country there were few better than him in the Super Touring days. Similarly, Klaus Ludwig's largely German-based tin-top career was magnificent.