1996 Australian Touring Car Championship

The 1996 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of 5.0 Litre Touring Cars complying with Australian Group 3A regulations. The championship, which was the 37th Australian Touring Car Championship, was promoted as the Shell Australian Touring Car Championship. It was contested over ten rounds between January 1996 and June 1996. The season was contested earlier in the year than usual as much of telecaster Channel 7's broadcast equipment was required for its 1996 Summer Olympics coverage, and was in fact the last year Channel 7 would broadcast the series until 2007, with Network Ten taking over the broadcast rights from the 1997 season onwards. The series was won by Craig Lowndes driving a Holden Racing Team Holden VR Commodore.

At the end of 1995, tobacco sponsorship was prohibited by the Federal Government. A tight sponsorship market resulted in both Gibson Motorsport and Glenn Seton Racing scaling back to one car. Philip Morris sought to circumnavigate this by sponsoring Alan Jones Racing under a generic name.

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1996 Australian Touring Car Championship:

The championship was contested over a ten-round series with three races per round.

Championship points were awarded on a 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 basis to the top ten finishers in each race.

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