Group C

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Group C cars in historic racing, here at Silverstone

The Group C was one of the FIA tender class for sports cars . The sports car world championship was held from 1982 to 1992 with vehicles in accordance with these regulations . In addition, Group C vehicles were used in the German Racing Championship from 1982 to 1985 . This was held in 1983 and 1984 as the International German Racing Championship and 1985 as the International German Sports Car Championship . The end of the use of Group C vehicles at the national level in Germany was the Supercup in the years 1986 to 1989. The longest use in a championship was experienced by Group C in the North American IMSA GTP series , where vehicles of this class of 1981 to 1993 were approved. In addition, vehicles from Group C were used in the European Interseries . Group C was defined as a prototype class . Thus, neither a minimum number of identical built vehicles nor the use of any series parts was absolutely necessary for homologation .

Group C essence and manufacturer commitment

The aim of the FIA ​​was to use Group C to replace both the production racing cars of Group 5 (with roof) and the open sports car prototypes of Group 6. While motorsport classes are usually advertised according to cubic capacity, Group C was as such from the start consumption formula: The FIA ​​stipulated a minimum vehicle weight of 800 kilograms and a maximum tank capacity of 100 liters. The cubic capacity as well as the use of or the waiver of engine charging were optional. Five refueling stops were allowed during a 1,000-kilometer race, which was the minimum distance in the Sports Car World Championship at the time. The fuel consumption of the engines was effectively limited to 60 liters per 100 kilometers. This restriction did not apply to the IMSA GTP series, whose races were played outside the jurisdiction of the FIA.

From a marketing point of view, a Group C engagement was interesting for the automobile manufacturers because Europe and Asia (sports car world championship), North America (IMSA-GTP series) and the 24-hour race at Le Mans (worldwide attention ) all important target markets could be addressed simultaneously. As a result, several manufacturers came on the scene with specially developed vehicles and deployed them at the factory. These were initially Ford , Porsche and Lancia . Jaguar , Nissan , Toyota , Mazda , Aston Martin and Peugeot followed in later years . Regarding Mercedes-Benz's Group C commitment , it should be noted that this always took place in cooperation with Sauber , where the vehicles were largely developed and, above all, produced. In this respect, this commitment is not to be equated with the work assignments by other manufacturers. With Alfa Romeo , another manufacturer of series automobiles had also developed a Group C vehicle by 1992. However, this did not experience any more racing.

Group C2

The commitment of the plants soon meant that those sports and racing car manufacturers whose core business was not the sale of series vehicles could not raise the financial means to develop competitive Group C vehicles. Therefore, the FIA ​​introduced Group C Junior in 1982, which was called Group C2 from 1985. Just as with the large class, henceforth referred to as Group C1, the motorsport authority relied on a consumption formula that was supposed to prevent an escalating technical arms race. Vehicles in Group C Junior or Group C2 had a minimum weight of 700 kilograms and the tank content was only allowed to be 55 liters. With five refueling stops allowed within a 1,000-kilometer race, this meant an average consumption of just 33 liters per 100 kilometers. In order to be able to comply with this requirement, naturally aspirated engines with a displacement of around 3.5 liters were mostly relied on, while group C1 was dominated by turbo vehicles. Alba , Ecurie Ecosse , Gebhardt , URD, Tiga and Spice were manufacturers of successful Group C2 vehicles .

Individual Group C vehicles

The end of group C

For the 1989 season, the FIA ​​reduced the minimum distance of the previous long-distance races from 1,000 to 480 kilometers, then in 1991 to 430 kilometers. Also in 1989 the previous principle of a consumption formula was abandoned. Instead, Group C vehicles should from now on be powered by 3.5-liter naturally aspirated engines. This corresponded to the status of Formula 1 at the time , in which turbo engines were banned from 1989. Group C2 was omitted without replacement. Engine manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz gave up their involvement in sports car racing and instead supplied Formula 1 teams with engines. For private teams, a successful participation in the sports car world championship was no longer financially viable against the background that de facto Formula 1 technology had to be used. Due to a lack of entries, the sports car world championship for the 1993 season was canceled by the FIA ​​before the first race. It is sometimes speculated that the FIA ​​deliberately made Group C unattractive through its changes to the regulations at the beginning of the 1990s, since it has become an overpowering competition in terms of audience and media favor compared to the Formula 1 World Championship (also organized by the FIA) be.

Afterlife

Noteworthy is the successful afterlife that was granted to some Group C vehicles in other sports car classes. So succeeded in 1994 the team of Niirnberger Jochen duration of overall victory at Le Mans on a vehicle called Dauer 962 LM . It was a Porsche 962, which was built according to the specifications of the new GT1 class and therefore did not start as a prototype, but as a street sports car, although this vehicle was not anchored in series automobile production. If one takes into account the fact that the structural basis for the Porsche 962 was formed by the Porsche 956, then the Dur 962 LM at the time of its Le Mans victory was a model that was already twelve years old.

In 1996 and 1997 , the Joest team won Le Mans with a vehicle called the TWR Porsche WSC-95. This was an open vehicle (Spider), for which the chassis of the Jaguar XJR-14 and the engine of the Porsche 962 were used.

The Cologne team Kremer converted three Porsche 962 vehicles into Spiders and used them in races from 1994 to 1998 under the name Kremer K8 Spyder .

There were also two projects to build street-legal sports cars based on Group C vehicles. On the one hand, this was the Schuppan 962CR based on the Porsche 962, and on the other hand, the aforementioned duration 962 LM, which won a version without road approval in Le Mans in 1994. The Duration 962 LM was available on order until the business operations of the Dauer Sportwagen GmbH were discontinued in 2008. In terms of appearance and equipment, the last specimens differed greatly from the racing base of the Porsche 962.

Accidents

Similar to Formula 1 in the 1980s, Group C was not spared from tragic accidents. Drivers who died in racing accidents with Group C vehicles were Manfred Winkelhock (Porsche 962, accident on August 11, 1985 in Mosport ), Stefan Bellof (Porsche 956, accident on September 1, 1985 in Spa ) and Jo Gartner (Porsche 962, accident on June 1, 1986 in Le Mans ).

Others

  • To this day, Group C is the vehicle class that achieved the highest speed in races on a road circuit, i.e. not during training, test or special record drives. As reported, the Sauber C9 with Jean-Louis Schlesser at the wheel drove through the final section of the Hunaudières or Mulsanne straights at 407 km / h in the 1989 Le Mans 24-hour race . According to the official presentation of the organizing Automobile Club de l'Ouest , the speed record in Le Mans is 405 km / h, achieved by Roger Dorchy in 1988 on a World Championship P88 from Welter Racing . Regardless of which value is valid, it is likely to be a record for the ages, as the speed that can be achieved in Le Mans has meanwhile been reduced by the installation of two chicanes on the Hunaudières straight. Other road circuits are out of the question for comparable speeds.
  • Towards the end, Group C became a kind of cadre forge for German circuit racing thanks to the commitment of the Mercedes Junior Team. The later seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher was just as active for this team as the later three-time Grand Prix winner and runner-up world champion Heinz-Harald Frentzen . Schumacher achieved his first two victories in automobile races with World Championship status within Group C: 1990 in Mexico City and 1991 in Autopolis , Japan.

literature

  • Thomas Nehlert: Group C. The sports car races 1982-1992. Petrolpics, Bonn 2011, ISBN 3-940306-14-2 .

Web links

Commons : Group C  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gustav Büsing, Uwe Mahla, Simply a great time: German racing championship 1972-1985 , Group C Motorsport Verlag, Duisburg 2011, ISBN 3-928540-63-7 . P. 178 ff.
  2. ↑ Tom Schwede, 30 years in Group C - Part 2: Jaguar takes over , accessed on February 4, 2012
  3. ↑ Tom Schwede, 30 Years Group C - The End with Horror , accessed on February 18, 2012
  4. ↑ Classicdriver.de , accessed on February 22, 2012.
  5. ↑ http://www.mercedes-fans.de/klassik/klassik_artikel/id=433 , accessed on September 12, 2012
  6. ^ The Ex-Jean-Louis Schlesser / Jochen Mass 1989 Group C World Championship Winning, 1989 Sauber-Mercedes-Benz C9 , bonhams.com, February 9, 2008, accessed on August 15, 2020
  7. ↑ Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissedre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923-1992. Edition D'Art JP Barthelemy et al., Besançon et al. 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .