It’s 40 years since the end of the Group C era, which continues to be a memorable time in Australian motorsport.
Spanning 11 years and two iterations, Group C was Australia’s own formula taking inspiration from Europe’s Group 4 as during the latter stages it allowed the likes of Mazda, Nissan and BMW to enter as factory squads.
Born out of the ‘Supercar Scare’ of 1972 resulting from a front page newspaper article penned by Evan Green, Group C was introduced in 1973 to stop the necessitation of brands to build homologation models for Bathurst.
Improved Production was already being used for the Australian Touring Car Championship, but the likes of Bob Jane’s Chevrolet Camaro, the Ford Mustang Trans Am of Allan Moffat and the Super Falcon driven by Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan were moved aside.
Moffat swapped his Mustang for a Ford Falcon XY GT-HO, while Peter Brock was his new rival in the HDT Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1.
Holden and Ford were the outright contenders during the 1970s, but when the Group C regulations changed to focus on updated models.
The shift for 1980 came at a time when neither Ford or Holden were officially in the sport, so this when Europe’s Group 4 regulations came in handy by opening up the eligible models.
The first of these was Kevin Bartlett in the Channel 9 Chevrolet Camaro, but in future years Allan Grice joined with BMW to be then taken on by Jim Richards, Nissan entered with Fred Gibson and Moffat made his return in partnership with Mazda.
Some exciting racing followed, but also some intense politicking and the move to Group A in 1985 was welcomed by CAMS as homologation was handled by worldwide governing body FISA.
However, Bathurst 1984 highlighted a taste of the future when George Fury in the turbocharged Japanese Nissan Bluebird took pole after setting a scorching 2m 13.850s, with the technology set to dominate both Hardie’s Heroes and the 1000 during the Group A.
In what was billed as the ‘last of the big bangers’, Brock and Perkins led a HDT 1-2 to complete a hat-trick in the new VK Commodore.
The Commodore remained in competition into Group A, as did BMW’s 635CSi, but Dick Johnson turned to the Ford Mustang, while Nissan sat out a season to develop its DR30 Skyline and Mazda was out altogether leaving Moffat on the sidelines.
Group C provided some wild touring cars not only mechanically, but also in appearance, which continue to be remembered fondly by fans to this day.