Born in 1982, Group C was the pinnacle of covered wheels racing including some of the greatest factories like Porsche, Jaguar, Toyota, Lancia, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Aston Martin and smaller manufacturers like Spice, Tiga, Ecurie Ecosse and Ceekar. The Group C regulations limited cars to a minimum weight of 800 Kg and a maximum fuel consumption of 600 litres per 1000 km, which means that with a clever interpretation any constructor could achieve excellent results
FIA’s Group C cars primarly competed in the World Endurance Championship, however, other smaller series around the world began to use Group C regulations like the JSPC in Japan, the Thundersport Championship in Great Britain and the DRM in Germany
Innovation was a key element in this category, one example is the Jaguar XJR 16 with the fitting rear wheel spats….
Lancia competed in Group C with the beautiful LC2, pushed by a Ferrari V8 engine, two KKK turbochargers were added to help the engine provide the fuel economy and power necessary. The power was around 670hp to respect fuel limitations but during overtakings and qualifying sessions the driver could use overboost to reach 850-1000hp
We can’t talk about Group C without mentioning Porsche and their Palmarès. They won the 24 Hours of Le Mans 7 consecutive times from 1981 to 1987 becoming the most dominant manufacturer in those years
At some point Group C cars had more aerodinamyc solutions than F1 cars, like the Jaguar XJR-14, built around the F1 Cosworth V8 and designed by Ross Brawn and John Piper to respect the new 1991 FIA regulations “3.5 Litre Formula” which lowered the minimum weight to 750kg
Nowadays, thanks to the Group C Racing Series, you can see again these engineering masterpieces in various revival events around the world, recreating part of the golden era of motorsport