Welcome, friends and family, to Group C-smas! What is Group C-smas, you ask? Why, it's a holiday of festive fun and cheer of course! Also, it's Christmas, so we're going to just bring you awesome videos of Group C and GT1 Le Mans racing all day. Yeah, this really is the Best Christmas Ever.
Don't ever say we don't treat you right.
Group C, and its successor, the GT1 category, hold a special place in our hearts. Don't get us wrong, we love the crazy monsters of the 1970s, like the Porsche 917K, and the absurdly quick spaceships of the modern era, like the Audi R18, but something about their futuristic designs just doesn't feel quite as close to Raph's Baja Bug, if you know what I mean.
So today, we celebrate the innovations and design of our own childhoods. First up is a look at Group C cars screaming around the track, from a heritage day at the Circuit Spa-Francorchamps. Featured heavily is the Sauber C9, winner of the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans. It hit the ridiculous speed of 248 MPH down the Mulsanne straight, in one of the last years before chicanes were installed in a desperate bid to prevent drivers from killing themselves.
As Raph noted in our original writeup of the car, it produced so much downforce, at such high speeds, that it had a tendency to make its rear tires completely explode.
Also featured is the Mazda 787B, the only car ever to win at Le Mans without any pistons. It's quad-rotor Wankel engine sounds more like a buzzing hive of steroidal bees more than anything else. Plus, no Group C race is ever complete without a Porsche 962, which was so good it was competitive into the 1990s, and a number of which were later converted into road cars.
We hope you enjoy Group C-smas, and above all, we wish you a very Merry Christmas.