Summer '03

Confused Groups?

Back in the “Good Ole’s days”, (before 1970), we used to race Grand Prix Cars-or sportscars-or sedans-or the then new-fangled “G.T” (Grand Touring) cars.

All of this nomenclature then changed. The FIA, (Federation International Automobile), based in Paris and in charge (nominally!) of motor racing around the World decreed that, henceforth, differing types of cars would be split into groups in order to best identify what class they should run in. Group 1 was for perfectly standard sedans / saloons, Group 2 for “Touring cars”, that is, sedans / saloons which were modified as laid down in the FIA rulebook, Group 3 was for series-production G.T. cars, Group 4 would be for G.T. cars built in small numbers, (usually less than 50), Group 5 was for “modified” G.T. cars, Group 6 was for Sports-prototypes, Group 7 for Can Am cars and so on.

It is doubtful if this helped to clarify the differing types of cars to the racing teams who earned their living from entering the cars. The other impact the new system had was to almost totally confuse the paying public, all except the completely anal types, that is. Once again, the FIA managed to shoot itself, and, more importantly, its clients — the racing teams — in the foot. Of course, it was intended to greatly simplify the FIA’s paperwork, although whether or not it achieved that is open to argument.

Here in America, the separate authority that raced these type of road-racing cars, namely IMSA, wasn’t going for what it saw as stuffy European thinking. No, here we had simple “GTU” (G.T.-Under Two Liters) “GTO”, (G.T.-Over two liters), and, later on, “GTX”, (G.T.-Experimental) and “GTP” (G.T.-Prototype), all, I think you will agree, pretty easy for the public to understand.

Back in Europe, over the same time span of 1969 to 1980, we had Group 1 and Group 2 cars racing together (most of the time!), Groups 3, 4 and 5 cars battling it out, (there was a class system in force for differing capacities such as up to two liters and up to three liters). They looked reasonably similar, at least, except that the Group 5 cars had many modifications that the Group 4 cars could not adopt until the following season.

Group 6, the Sports-Prototypes, degenerated until Group C, the fuel economy formula, came in 1981. Still, the FIA never got the overall picture and simply changed numbers for letters, substituting “A” for Group 1, “B” for Group 4 and “C” for Group 6. Why couldn’t they call them Saloons, G.T. and Sports-prototypes? As I’ve said previously, the public just weren’t interested in such stupid categories as the FIA insisted on. Is it any wonder that Sportscar/G.T. racing has deteriorated from the early Seventies on in Europe, (except for Le Mans?)

A small observation to close this piece with: One of my other hobbies is building and flying model airplanes. When I stopped flying in my late teens, we had “Team racing”, Stunt flying”, “Combat” “Free Flight” et cetera. These were all easily understood headings for the various activities. I’ve returned to the fold recently and now the FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the governing body and yes, you’ve guessed it, yet another French organization!) has instituted “F2C”, “F2B”, “F2D” or whatever, for the once-easily understood headings. Once again, the viewing public are alienated, leaving only a few “know it alls” to pontificate.

I’m not one of those to follow the current trend of knocking the French but, when you look at this sort of history, it's no wonder their sporting authorities are laughed at.