Group C

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Group C was a category of auto racing, introduced into sports car racing by the FIA in 1982, along Group A for touring cars and Group B for GTs.

It was designed to replace both Group 5 (closed top touring prototypes like Porsche 935) and Group 6 (open-top sportscar prototypes like Porsche 936). Group C was used in the World Endurance Championship and other sports car racing around the globe. The final year for the class came in 1993.

[edit] History

The "C" could also be interpreted as "consumption", since the FIA created a formula limiting the amount of fuel a car could use during the race, instead of limiting minimum weight and maximum displacement. The FIA hoped this would prevent manufacturers from concentrating solely on engine development, as in the late 1970s, a few manufacturers, especially Porsche, Ford and Lancia, had dominated sports car racing by simply increasing turbocharger boost pressure, especially in qualifiying (the 3.2 L Porsche 935 was capable of overtaking the 800 hp mark).

While this meant that cars needed to conserve fuel early in the race, manufacturer support for the new regulations was growing, which each make adding to the diversity of the series. With the new rules, it was theoretically possible for small normally aspirated engines to compete with large forced induction engines. In addition, most races ran for either 500 or 1000 km, usually going over three and six hours, respectively, so it was possible to emphasize the "endurance" aspect of the competition as well.

Ford with the C100, and Porsche were the first constructors to join the series. The traditional turbocharged boxer engine in the 956 was already tested in the 1981 version of the Group 6 936. Sooner or later, several other makes joined the series, including Lancia, Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda and Aston Martin. Many of these also took part in the IMSA championship, as its GTP class had similar regulations.

As costs increased, a C2 class (originally named C Junior) was created for privateer teams and small manufacturers, with more limits to fuel consumption. Most cars used either the BMW M1 engine or the new Cosworth DFL, but, like in the main class, a variety of solutions was employed by each individual manufacturer. Alba, Tiga, Spice and Ecurie Ecosse were among the most competitive in this class.

[edit] Rise and fall

In 1989, as the series popularity grew and grew to the point it was becoming almost as popular as Formula One. As C1 cars were found to be breaking over the 240 miles per hour mark at Le Mans' Mulsanne Straight, with the WM Peugeot being the highest at 254mph, the FIA revolutionized the class by attempting to turn into a formula series, which replaced the C2 category, after they were proved to be unreliable at endurance races and restricting the performance of cars using the original rules (such as the Porsche 962 used by many privateers) and benefitting teams using F1-sourced 3.5 L engines -- essentially, the large manufacturers as they were more expensive to the C1 cars. In essence, this lead to the quick downfall of Group C, as Ford, Mercedes and Peugeot elected to either concentrate on or move to F1, and the F1 engines were unaffordable for teams like Spice and ADA. A lack of entries meant the 1993 WEC was cancelled before the start of the first race, however as in the year before, the Le Mans 24 hour race had became a non-championship race, the ACO still allowed the Gr C cars to compete but with restrictions, but the race didn't go without protests by specators as they placed cloth banners in fences expressing their feelings.

In 1994, the 24 Hours of Le Mans was the last race where Group C cars were allowed as well as modified cars without roofs to comply with the new category formed especially by its organisers. In fact, a former C1 car disguised as a road-legal GT car which was entered in the GT1 category, the Dauer 962, won this race after transmission problems by a leading Toyota 94C-V forcing it to spend much of its time in the pits, the 962 was banned after that. The Toyota was later given a special dispensation to race in the Suzuka 1000km and a few C1 racers were allowed to compete in the newly formed Japanese GT Championship and would be its final year of competition. Many of the open top cars, which consisted of Gr C cars without roofs continued to compete until they were petered out, if not retired out of competitiveness, notably the TWR Porsche WSC which won the 1996 and 1997 Le Mans race utilized the monocoque of the Jaguar XJR-14 and Porsche 962 mechanicals (engine, transmission, etc.).

Afterwards, prototypes nearly disappeared from Europe, resurfacing only in 1998. Recently, interest in Group C cars resurfaced as more of these cars have appeared on historic racing events.

[edit] Group C cars

Some examples of Group C race cars :

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