Conquering new grounds: ErinSport, the Mk 1 Tauga and Caliban.
Overview
It’s a well known fact within Erin that motorsport is at the heart of everything they do. Every car they’ve ever made has been designed with the intention of being used to compete, or has benefited from the innovations made by ErinSport, the company’s factory race team.
Thus, it was no different when, in the late 1990s, questions were asked about how the team could use the company’s upcoming new mid-size saloon, the Tauga. In terms of touring car racing, ErinSport had made most of its name with the Merna family compact, mainly in BTCC with its directly managed team and with other, sponsored ventures in other championships around the world.
The Mk 1 Tauga was therefore an opportunity to enter into a new race series, and ErinSport set their sites on the continent; they would conquer the European Touring Car Championship.
The incredible world of mid-size saloons in motorsport
The European Touring Car Championship was reinstated after over a decade in 2000 and existed in this form until 2004. Using the Super 2000 rules, cars competed with 2l engines and were allowed only minimal modification to ensure homologation was kept in line.
The first season in 2000 attracted the likes of Merciel, Bogliq, Baltazar and Saminda, with many companies using the series to promote their mid-sized saloon cars in the European market. Erin saw their entry into the series as an essential part of establishing the Tauga in the company’s line up. However, they were also keep to see ErinSport branch out with how they approached this, something that the motorsport outlet did very well indeed.
The Welsh and the English agree to fight together for the first time in…well, forever
Plucky Welsh kit car makers Caliban were enlisted by ErinSport to help develop the touring version of the Tauga. Their extensive racing history stretched back as far as Erin’s did, yet the companies had only ever done minor engine-licensing partnerships and had never joined forces. The UK’s two premier motorsport organisations, working together to take on the ETCC.
Caliban did a lot of work on desgining the engine and refining the powertrain, while ErinSport worked on the suspension, handling and chassis due to their more in-depth knowledge of how the car had been made. Over the course of 2000, the collaboration tested the car and followed the inaugral season of the new ETCC closely, quickly singling out Merciel and Baltazar as the strongest competitors and thus the ones they would have to overcome to win.
Over winter of 2000/2001, sponsorship were finalised and the car was revealed in February, ready for that year’s season.
Hitting the track and proving its worth
2001 ErinSport-Caliban Tauga Touring, in the car’s Casio G-Shock-sponsored blue and green livery which it raced with until the folding of the championship.
Unsurprisingly, the amount of time invested into the partnership paid off well. The car was a storming success in its first season, catching many rival teams off guard over how much effort ErinSport and Caliban were willing to go to win. Alek Rodcheski, at the time still a new driver in the ErinSport roster, really made his breakthrough here, and would go on to race in all sorts of disciplines with ErinSport, including joining their 2018/2019 WEC team. He won the 2001 Drivers Title, and the team won outright in the Constructor’s championship.
2002, 2003 and 2004 proved to be far more challenging series, as the early advantage the car had had was met with fierce competition from a number of competitors. Contendiente famously joined in 2003, determined to take on the whole competition much like ErinSport-Caliban had originally intended, and the two teams became locked in a battle that would go on for years.
However, by the time of the series’ folding, the Tauga had truly earned its place, having won the most number of podium places out of all the cars that competed in the championship, as well as taking home two constructors championships in 2001 and 2003.
The Mk 1 ErinSport-Caliban Tauga touring, presented in ErinSport’s classic turquoise racing colours and standard 19" white racing wheels. Aside from the massive rear wing, lips and sideskirts, very little about the styling of the car was changed from the road-going version.
Post-ETCC: diversification and consolidation
In 2005, the FIA introduced the European Touring Car Cup, an annual race held at a number of European circuits during its existence. Meanwhile, the popularity of the ETCC prompted the FIA to take a more global view, and thus they reintroduced the World Touring Car Championship in the same year. It was only logical for ErinSport to take that direction too, and bring Caliban along with them.
The Mk 1 Tauga Touring competed for the inaugral 2005 season, before being withdrawn due to the end of production. After a 1 year break, the Mk 2 Tauga Touring arrived ready to compete in 2007, having once again been tuned with the help of Caliban.
Caliban, however, would eventually pull out of the partnership at the end of 2009, as ErinSport sought more independence in the WTCC and Caliban looked to focus on other ventures. The success, however, of the partnership ensured that it was a mutual ending to the collaboration, and helped to cement the Tauga’s place as one of the premier touring car chassis’s in modern motorsport. Caliban themselves enlisted advice from Erin when designing the current gen Thunder Infinity too.
And, as Erin have often done before, they decided to celebrate with a homologation special.
2005 Erin Tauga XR-Caliban
The ‘XR’ badge is a namesake saved only for the most wild of Erin performance cars, and this was no exception. The standard Tauga’s interior was stripped out and replaced with a lightweight 2+2 configuration, while the suspension utilised motorsport-quality parts and a similar setup to that of the touring car, making it notoriously sharp but also very uncomfortable. The engine, however, was different. It used Caliban’s Nightbringer 2.0l V6, a skimpy but thwarty unit designed for motorsport that was detuned slightly to make it road-legal.
Producing 256hp and barely weight 1350kg, the XR was good for 0-60 in 5.5 seconds and could set blistering lap times when driven properly. It was seen as the best way to celebrate the 2001 to 2004 period of the partnership, by working on a production car together. Only 250 of these were ever produced, each of them being adorned with three Caliban eagle badges to signify the partnership.
