Onslow-Cole to drive Milltek's VW Golf BTCC race car

Milltek is very pleased to announce that Tom Onslow-Cole will race its VW Golf in 2011's British Touring Car Championship.

Onslow-Cole has emerged as one of the BTCC's top names in recent seasons – last year he was one of the four title protagonists in Team Aon's Ford Focus and before that was a race-winner in WSR's BMW and Triple Eight's factory Vauxhall Vectra.

Big improvements have been made to the VW Golf (which made its debut in the BTCC in last season) during the winter break and Onslow-Cole believes the team can turn it into a front-running machine.

Most notable of the changes for 2011 will be a more powerful, punchier turbocharged VW TFSI engine – also being used in rival outfit Special Tuning Racing's SEAT Leon, a car Onslow-Cole tested recently at Silverstone. Shaun Hollamby, managing director of AmD Tuning and who raced the Golf in its debut season last year, will take on the role of team manager.

Onslow-Cole, from New Malden, said: "I really liked the feel of the engine in the SEAT and, having followed the AmDMilltekRacing Golf a few times on track last year when I was driving the Ford, I know already that it's a very nimble car around corners with a good change of direction and also very capable over the kerbs.

"With the turbocharged TFSI engine fitted there's a lot of potential here. Of course we won't know exactly where we stand until we're in a properly competitive situation – such as the first qualifying session at Brands Hatch's opening round on the 2nd and 3rd April (full list of BTCC race dates). But I like the set-up here, Shaun has built a very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and positive group of people, I know the team will be built solely around me and I want to work with them and develop the Golf into a regular top ten menace.

Milltek Sport, technical development partner to the AmDMilltekRacing team, has also carried out extensive development on the car. Their involvement is much greater this season and they have produced the following specialist parts from lightweight materials to give the car and the team a boost:

• Full racing exhaust system
• Air intake for the intercooler/radiator
• Solid boost pipes for the intercooler
• Cooling ducts for the front brakes
• Air intake/duct
• Allternator brackets
• Gearbox mount
• Corner-weight equipment trolley
• Cooling fan trolley

Milltek Sport Ltd Managing Director, Phil Millington added "The race car has spent a good deal of time in the Milltek workshops this winter and we look forward to seeing the results of all the hard work from the Milltek engineering team when the car hits the track at Brands Hatch on April 2nd".

There is still a lot of work to do and the car is due to make its running debut at next week's BTCC Media Day at Silverstone. You can catch up on the latest developments as they happen on the team's BTCC Blog and see a full listing of the BTCC race calendar.