As EngageSportMode gears up for another season of bringing you news, reviews and opinion on the world’s greatest Touring Car Championship, the wraps came off the 2014 contenders at yesterday’s Launch Day.

With 31 entrants, representing 14 car models from 11 manufacturers, you certainly can’t say the BTCC will lack variety in 2014. With all cars running to the NGTC (Next Generation Touring Car) specifications, it’ll also finally mean a level playing field with no second-string S2000 cars making up the numbers.

In fact, according to TOCA, the series has actually been oversubscribed with the organisers allowing more than the initially planned 30 TOCA BTCC licences (TBL) to be allocated to teams. All TBL holders are required to attend every race meeting throughout the season; hopefully, this should end the constant chopping and changing with certain teams not being present at each round. Teams will only be able to replace drivers once per season, again aiming to bring consistency instead of allowing whoever has the most money to compete at a certain race.

With seven former champions on the grid (Alain Menu, Fabrizio Giovanardi, Colin Turkington, Jason Plato, Gordon Shedden, Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan) the level of ability and competition should be as strong as the field is diverse. With last year’s title going down to the wire, ESM is quietly confident we’ll see another equally close-matched and exciting season in 2014.

We’ll be planning to bring you regular updates, with full detailed reviews of each race weekend courtesy of our in-house BTCC Correspondent. In addition, we’ll be making the trip to cover at least two rounds in the flesh, bringing you news and exclusive pictures. Keep your eyes out for our BTCC competition to coincide with the first race weekend at the end of the month.