BMW 635, Jaguar XJS, Rover SD1 and more to wow in 75MM Group A high speed demo
It was the appealing ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ ethos that lured big-name manufacturers and their big-name drivers, the ideal marketing campaign and technical test bed that produced dozens of classic machines, made heroes out of countless drivers and provided epic scraps all over the world.
Devotees of the discipline will know that touring car racing is big business – always was (even with the slightly more humdrum title of ‘saloon car’), always will be. Take a production car, modify it for racing and send it out into battle against rivals competing for brand awareness and sales cash.
Since it first took hold, in the 1950s, tin-top motorsport has been a best-seller. Crowds have packed into circuits in the UK, Europe and further afield to cheer on ‘their’ car.
Everyone has a favourite era, but for many the Group A movement was the most exciting. When, in 1982, the touring-car racing police signed off a new breed of street racers, under the title of Group A, manufacturers salivated at the freedom the new rules granted them. Limited numbers of race-bred road rockets, dubbed ‘homologation specials’, sprung up – and they were louder, faster and more dramatic than before. Crack preparation teams had carte blanche to build new weapons for whichever manufacturer they were representing.
And at the 75th Members’ Meeting in March, Goodwood will celebrate that Group A movement and the near-decade-long impression it made on touring car racing in the 1980s with a high-speed demonstration on each day. Split into two groups – one for older cars, one for later racers – an exotic assortment of well-loved Group A machines will take to the Motor Circuit.
Early pioneers, including BMW’s slippery 635 CSi, Ford’s grunty Mustang GT, Jaguar’s V12 XJS, MG’s giant-killing Metro Turbo, Rover’s seminal SD1 Vitesse and Volvo’s ‘flying brick’ 240 Turbo, will charge round in true period style for an appreciative audience, while the later BMW M3s – bouncing off their high-revving, injected four-pot limiters – and Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500s – all wooshing, popping and flame-spitting – will bring the story up to the late-1980s and the advent of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship of 30 years ago.
Whether you remember these Group A greats from their heyday or are set for an indoctrination in one of touring car racing’s finest eras, it’ll be another unmissable treat sandwiched into the 75th Members’ Meeting race programme.
Tickets for the 75th Members' Meeting are on sale now, for more information click here!
75MM
Group A
2017
