The Super Touring era was a golden age for the British Touring Car Championship and its popularity and strong following had not gone unnoticed at Alfa Romeo.

Keen to be part of the action, Alfa Corse, who were the factory racing team of Alfa Romeo, was tasked with designing and building a car to take on the likes of Ford, Renault, Vauxhall, BMW and Volvo for the 1994 season.

The result was the now infamous Alfa Romeo 155 TS BTCC.

In order exploit a loophole in the homologation criteria that stipulated 2,500 road going variants of similar specification had to be sold to the public, Alfa Romeo launched the 155 ‘Silverstone edition’, complete with a much higher adjustable rear wing and adjustable front splitter.

This naturally gave the racing variant a controversial advantage over its competitors, which was made all the more contentious when it transpired that the raised rear wing was supplied in kit-form in the boot of the Silverstone, for owners to install if they wanted.

The fact ...