European Touring Car Cup unveiled.

Touring Car stars from the various different national championships around Europe will have the chance to compete in a one off race to be crowned as European Champion, after the FIA World Motor Sport Council approved the creation of a European Touring Car Cup for 2005.

The Cup will be open to competitors in championships which adopt FIA Super 2000 and Super Production technical regulations, meaning teams from championships in Britain, Germany, Italy and Sweden could be among those to take part.

Super 2000 spec cars will compete in two 50km back-to-back races while the Super Production cars will race in one 75km event, with two titles - the FIA Drivers' European Super 2000 Cup and the FIA Drivers' European Super Production Cup - up for grabs for the winners.

"Because the FIA European Touring Car Championship will become World Championship in 2005, we wanted to do something in order to keep the European title alive," Marcello Lotti, general manager of WTCC organisers KSO, said on the official WTCC website. "We finally had the idea to organise a one-off event, like the FIA Super Touring World Cup in the early Nineties. We unveiled this plan in October, during a meeting with the different promoters of the national Touring Car championships, and they agreed to forward the proposal to the WMSC.

"It is important to point out that FIA WTCC drivers and teams will not be eligible to take part in the Cup, which is intended only for the competitors of the national championships, and also that we are working to fund a large prize money."

A date and a venue for the event has yet to be organised.