Great Group C cars at the Goodwood Festival

2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed

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A collection of Group C sports cars were assembled for the Goodwood Festival of Speed to mark 30 years since the introduction of a category which saw some of the most dramatic endurance racing machines.

They include Le Mans and the World Sports Prototype Championship winners from the likes of Porsche, Jaguar, Mercedes and Peugeot.

The Mercedes C291 shared by F1 drivers Michael Schumacher and Karl Wendlinger was also on display. Read more about Schumacher’s time at Mercedes’s sports car team here:

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Images © F1 Fanatic

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “Great Group C cars at the Goodwood Festival”

  1. That Martini livery is pretty special, I like it a lot. The two Mercedes remind me very much of the silver arrows from the 50’s, not so much in shape but just in their finish and pure simplicity on the eyes.

  2. xeroxpt (@)
    2nd July 2012, 3:48

    blundells mazda had also a great livery, those group c cars were the best prototypes to ever run at Le Mans nowadays i would rather see the show either returning to the origins with road cars or to a more open wide prototype class, but thats impossible since audi bought the 24 hours, i dont know if you heard this but audi asked ACO to reduce the power limit of the hybrid systems, simply because toyotas was more powerfull.

    1. if that’s true, i don’t think their wish was granted. the future will be limited fuel, unlimited engines and unlimited electric power

      1. Audi was also in favour of the limited fuel direction they simply asked for less power on the hybrid system from 1.0 mega jouls to just 0.5 because audi could only achieve 0.4 and toyota 0.8.

  3. oh yes, let the monsters out! the 962 isn’t one of the greatest ever race cars, it’s possibly THE greatest ever race car. hail to the king, baby!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhOsDzSJ0bk

    1. yes but

  4. Christopheraser
    2nd July 2012, 3:53

    I notice Jason Richards name on the 962 alongside Bell, Stuck and Holbert. Is that some sort of tribute as I don’t remember him driving a 962. Still very nice sentiments, he was a good man and a great driver

    1. Yeah, Jason would have only been 11 years old when that car was racing. I do believe it must have been a tribute.

  5. I’ve always loved those Martini Racing liveries. I wonder what it would look like on a modern-day Formula 1 car. It might even be better than the Gulf liveries that everyone goes googly-eyed over.

    1. It’s almost impossible to buy any kind of merchandise these days at Le Mans if you don’t want to become one of the Gulf squad. It’s a nice colour scheme, no doubt, but like you say there are so many other nice liveries out there. The Silk Cut jag, various martini cars, and so on. Where are all the modern iconic liveries? The current breed of prototypes look nice but could you even draw a passable picture of the R18 e-Tron’s livery from memory? I couldn’t, and I spent about 18 hours looking at the thing a few weeks ago!

      1. and the Mazda one that livery plus the silk cut and the martini, rothmans beside being brands, those designs became history in a way like you’ve said this new liverys will never achive i too spend 18 hours looking to the audi and i cant even sketch any bits of it the reason why its because audi, toyota and peugeot were there to expose themselves they were never going to agree in having a sponsor like those in the 90’s the only reason they even thought of running in Le Mans was both to win and to have an huge billboard saying Audi. and the Gulf design is older than the 90´s silk cut and martinis liverys, perhaps explaining its dullness.

  6. Isn’t it great to see that much of car heaven together!

  7. I really wish all of these automotive wonders were in Gran Turismo 5, especially the Spice Cosworth, Lancia Ferrari, Peugeot 905 and Porsche 962. The lines and curves make these things look sexy!!

    1. The Peugeot is.

  8. I’ve always say “Bring back Group C!” everytime I see one of these cars. The LeMans Prototypes today are not too shabby, along with the Daytona Prototypes here in the States…(I’ll give the edge to the DPs for now) However nothing will ever top the diversity or competitiveness the Group C cars had for a prototype class. The raw power, acceleration, agility, appearance, and most certainly the sound these cars made just reeked of awesomeness and is dearly missed.

    I guess you can say all good things must come to an end though. The prime, per say, of these cars was passed when I was a young kid just starting to get interested in racing overall, but I’ve seen some great racing videos on youtube, and some horrific crashes in which some guys usually didn’t walk away from. It sucks these cars aren’t run competitively, but that may be a blessing in terms of safety. Honestly they all belong in a museum with a well documented history of their performance and engineering for fans to admire. They do not belong getting abused and trashed in historical races driven by people with deep pockets, no disrespect intended.

    1. I actually watched the Group C memorial race that was on Eurosport just before this year’s Le Mans, they were absolutely brilliant, but the rain and an early crash meant that the cars didn’t quite get the race they deserve..

      …And this is coming from someone who is really too young to reminisce about Group C’s.. I get a hell of a lot of this from my dad!

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