when Group C appeared on the streets because they wanted to compete on the circuits

Speaking of cars, my father has always told me “why do you want 200 HP if you can only go 120 km/h?” Someone had to say that to the manufacturers who, in the nineties, registered beasts with more than 600 HP designed for driving on the street. Le Mansbut with which someone could go on a picnic on a Sunday morning.

They are the heirs of Group C. And they could only have been possible in one era: the 90s.

Supercars with license plate

The world of motorsports has a lot of rules when we talk about competition. Logic tells us that technological advances should result in increasingly faster and, above all, powerful cars. However, the organization that is in charge of regulating all this four-wheel motor competition, the FIA, has been imposing a series of rules so that the power does not get out of control.

An example we saw it in the rally world. The category is extreme, with cars that accelerate like a racing motorcycle and display enormous speed. However, in the 80s, manufacturers began to modify both the engine and the chassis, taking it to the extreme and creating spectacular machines. Accelerations from 0 to 100 in two seconds on land. It was truly crazy.

In five years, cars advanced a lot and what had to happen happened: uncontrolled power, maximum competition and pressure, insufficient safety measures and some negligence caused fatal accidents.

One of the most remembered is that of Portugal in March 1986, when Joaquim Santos’ RS200 lost control and ran into a crowd, killing three spectators instantly, putting a fourth in the hospital and injuring around thirty people. In May of that year, those who died were those who were driving the car. Toivonen and Cresto lost control and fell off a cliff.

The FIA ​​decided that would cut off the development of Group B because, directly, it had gone too far. And if I tell you all this nonsense it is because, in parallel to this extreme development of rally cars, Group C was also emerging. It was in 1982 when this group was introduced, designed for the competition of purely prototype sports cars.

While in other categories the FIA ​​limited the engine displacement, braking power, in Group C the limitation came due to fuel. They were endurance racing cars. and control was achieved through 100 liters of capacity with a minimum of five refueling stops every 1,000 kilometers. That allowed 600 liters per 1,000 km. A stupid thing.

The FIA’s intention was for manufacturers to limit themselves to improving power through turbocharging. For 20 years, Group C cars put on a show at endurance races and Le Mans, with legendary machines and racing technologies. Formula 1 who were adapting to that competition. The result? Perfect machines that reached average speeds above 200 km/h in Le Mans and peaks of 330 km/h in the Mulsanne straight.

But after two glorious decades, the FIA ​​did what it does best: change everything and distort the competition. Within six years, the organization announced that it wanted non-turbo engines and races of 430 km at most (when before they were 1,000). That completely distorted the competition and the meaning of Group C.

Furthermore, although the new engines would supposedly be more economical, developing them from scratch would be a great effort for the teams, so they abandoned them, and before the start of the 1993 season, the competition and the category were cancelled. This is how the GT1 was born and manufacturers like Toyota, Nissan, Porsche, Jaguar and Mercedes found themselves with hundreds of millions that were going to waste.

And all this context for the girito: unless they took advantage of those supercars that, with a couple of changes, they could register and sell as a street car, taking advantage to finance the development of the cars of the newborn GT1.

The Mercedes CLK that had nothing CLK, the most exclusive Nissan and the flying Porsche

Taking advantage of this technology and development, the companies used the prototypes created for Le Mans to give life to a series of street supercars that shared many characteristics. They used to be carbon fiber monocoques, they had very high-power engines with sophisticated electronic management, transmission made for racing, active aerodynamics in some cases, very low weight and, in some cases, space for a cabin suitcase.

When brands like Nissan, Toyota or Mercedes raced in Group C, they didn’t need to manufacture vehicles with street versions: they only focused on the most untamable beasts. However, heThe GT1 category required the production of some registrable units before validating the racing prototypes.

The companies took advantage of some regulatory loopholes to get racing, but that need to have a street version caused wild racing cars to circulate directly on the streets.

Our colleagues from MotorPassion They have reviewed some of the most representative specimens of this crazy period, and some stories are unbelievable.

Heirs of the Porsche 962

It was one of the most representative cars at Le Mans and its chassis was taken as a reference by three manufacturers. One was the Dauer 962 Le Mansa car modified with the help of Porsche itself that had Kevlar panels, a flat floor for stability, a second leather seat, hydraulic suspension and a trunk in the front.

The engine had 730 HP and, as it was one of the firstachieved approval by producing only 13 copiesnot the 25 street prices that would be requested later. How did they manage to homologate a racing car so that it could circulate on public roads? Through a hydraulic suspension that allowed the car to be raised up to 10 centimeters and, after passing some emissions and crash tests, the German ITV gave the go-ahead.

There were some more heirs from 962, such as Schuppan 962R of which only six units were completed and the Koening Specials C62 which, with three units, achieved approval. We are talking about pre-hard GT1 era cars, so it is understandable that they were not so serious about the 25 street units for homologation.

Porsche 911 GT Straßenversion

That surname, Straßenversion, was given to some German street cars that were basically identical to the track cars, but with minimal variations to achieve homologation. In 1996, Porsche produced just enough units to be able to homologate this car: 25.

First they built the street version with a chassis derived from that of the 962 and a 3.2-liter biturbo engine with 544 HP. It complied with noise, crash and emissions regulations, and after that homologation, they adapted it for racing. It was a successful car on the circuits, but it went down in history for something very different: his ability to fly.

Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Straßenversion

The dream for gamers who grew up with games like ‘Project Gotham Racing 3’ or ‘Gran Turismo 4’. Mercedes managed to develop this car in record time to reach the competition, manufacturing 25 units of a ‘car’ with a 6.9-liter naturally aspirated V12 and 612 HP.

It could have been a Group C perfectly. It had a leather seat, a carbon monocoque and managed to pass the German TÜV tests to be able to drive on the street… as long as someone had 1.5 million dollars.

It was a pure prototype, but it managed to sneak in as a grand tourer. Its aesthetics continue to amaze me and I hope one day I will know how the pilot and passenger could enter through those little doors.

Jaguar XJR-15

For 500,000 pounds you could buy one of the 35 street cars that Jaguar produced of this XJR-15. Carbon and Kevlar monocoque, 6-liter, 450 HP V12 engine. Of the heirs of Group C, it is one of the most aesthetic, and if it reminds you of the McLaren F1 It is because the body modifications so that it could leave the circuits were carried out by Peter Stevens, responsible for McLaren.

Toyota GT-One

Let’s go with two very special ones. On the one hand, the Toyota GT-One of which two street units were produced. That 25 were needed for homologation? Toyota had parts for two and, taking advantage of some loopholes in the FIA ​​regulations, they achieved it. It was another 3.6-liter biturbo V8 beast with 600 HP of power and was modified just enough to pass the German tests for street homologation.

The GT1 cars had to have a trunk with space for a suitcase (the competition ones too, for whatever reason) and the Toyota engineers studied the regulations so much that they squeezed it to the extreme. The FIA ​​said that the suitcase “had to fit”not that they should put it in the trunk to homologate it, so Toyota created a fuel tank that, when empty, being so large could contain a suitcase.

To you and me that explanation would seem very strange, but the FIA… approved it and the Japanese firm first developed the competition version and then the street version that they approved to be able to compete in GT1. It is an example of how to twist the competition regulations to the extreme.

Nissan R390 GT1

This car is one of a kind, literally. If the Toyota case was rare, the Nissan R390 GT1 it was even more so. They only created a street example in 1998 to homologate the prototype. 3.5 liter biturbo V8 engine that they adapted with headlights, mirrors and exhaust to comply with both Japanese and European standards and, again, the FIA ​​accepted it.

The designers started from the Jaguar XJR-15 (that’s why they look so similar) and the street version, in this case, was developed in parallel to the competition version. And it is that unique car in the world that is currently on display in the Nissan museum in Japan.

In short, although today we see cars with more than 1,000 HP sharing public roads with a Dacia, these cars from the 90s were more than supercars: These were vehicles designed with competition in mind. And the death of that Group C and the beginnings of GT1 left us with truly crazy cars registered as if they were normal cars.

Images | Brian Snelson, Herranderssvensson, porsche, Alexander Migl, Thesupermat, Vauxford, Morio, Jorjum

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