The indie rockers’ RENAISSANCE
After many years of neglect as a racing category, the Group 1 touring car era is now a booming element of historic competition.
These are the cars of the 1970s and early 1980s, an era when the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Capri and Rover SD1 set the pace in the British Saloon Car Championship. It was in 1974 that the BSCC dropped the increasingly expensive Group 2 formula for a switch to more production-based Group 1 regulations, adopting a set of rules that would be evolved over the following eight seasons.
By 1976, the American V8s were outlawed by capping the top-class engine size at 3000cc. The multi-class format usually delivered champions from the smaller-engined classes where competition was not always as fierce. No over-two-litre car won the overall crown in the Group 1 era, even though Capris and Rovers fought tooth and nail at the front of the races to the delight of the fans.
In 1984, the BSCC moved to Group A rules that would lead to the reign of the E30 BMW M3 and Ford Sierra RS500. From then on, the Group 1 cars were largely tucked away under dust sheets. By the mid-1980s, they were out of date, uncompetitive and undesirable. For the better part of three decades
