Group 4 (racing)

A Ford GT40 contesting the Group 4 Sports Car category at the 1969 1000 km Nürburgring

A Group 4 Porsche 906

A Group 4 Alpine A110 1800

A Group 4 De Tomaso Pantera GTS

The Group 4 racing class referred to regulations for cars in sportscar racing, GT racing and rallying, as regulated by the FIA. The Group 4 class was replaced by Group B for the 1983 season.

BMW M1 Procar, used in the M1 Procar Championship. These cars were designed and built to FIA Group 4 racing specifications.

Production requirements

Prior to 1966, the FIA's Group 4 classification applied to Sports Cars which were in compliance with FIA Appendix C regulations. It also included recognised Series Touring Cars, Improved Touring Cars and Grand Touring Cars which had been modified beyond the respective Group 1, Group 2 or Group 3 regulations under which they had been homologated. In 1966, an overhaul of FIA categories saw Group 4 Sports Cars redefined such that they were now subject to a minimum production requirement of 50 units in 12 consecutive months and had to be fitted with all equipment necessary for use on public roads. A 5000cc engine capacity limit was applied for 1968 and the minimum production requirement was reduced to 25 units for the 1969 season.

For 1969, Appendix J of the FIA International Sporting Code defined groups for Touring cars, Grand Touring cars and Sports cars as follows: (numbers between brackets are required minimum production in 12 consecutive months).

• Group 1: series-production touring cars (5,000)
• Group 2: touring cars (1,000)
• Group 3: grand touring cars (500)
• Group 4: sports cars (25)
• Group 5: special touring cars
• Group 6: prototype-sports cars

For 1970, the limited production sports car category was renamed from Group 4 to Group 5 and, in the same year, Group 4 became the class for special grand touring cars with minimum production of 500 in 12 consecutive months

For 1971, the relevant FIA classifications were as follows:

• Group 1: series-production touring cars (5,000)
• Group 2: touring cars (1,000)
• Group 3: series-production grand touring cars (1,000)
• Group 4: special grand touring cars (500)
• Group 5: sports cars (25)
• Group 6: prototype-sports cars

In 1976, the Group 4 production requirement was reduced to 400 in 24 months.

Sports car racing

A Porsche 911 competing in the Group 4 Special Grand Touring Car category at the 1970 1000 km Nürburgring

In 1966 and 1967 the Group 4 Sports Cars played a supporting role to the Group 6 prototypes. While prototypes like the 7.0L Ford GT40 Mk II and the Mk IV raced for outright victories, the 4.7L GT40 Mk I entries were competing for Group 4 class wins. Indeed, competitors in the two categories were competing for two different championships, the Group 6 cars for the International Championship for Sports-Prototypes and the Group 4 cars for the International Championship for Sports Cars. In 1968, the rules were changed, so that prototypes were limited to 3.0L, but Sports cars of up to 5.0L could still be entered. It was also announced that the minimum production figure for the Group 4 sports cars would be reduced to 25 cars for 1969. With larger engines than the prototypes, the Group 4 cars were now in contention for outright race wins. The Ford GT40 was the winner at Le Mans in both 1968 and 1969. Porsche began work on a production run of 25 cars for the Porsche 917. Ferrari, with some financial help from Fiat, produced the similar Ferrari 512.

For the 1970 season, the Group 4 Sports car category was renamed and became Group 5 Sports Cars and Group 4 designation was applied to a new Special Grand Touring category. The new Group 4 was contested by production based cars such as the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, Porsche 911 Carrera RS and the De Tomaso Pantera.

The Group 4 GT category was replaced by a new Group B GT class for 1983.

Rallying

Roberto Cambiaghi and Emanuele Sanfront on a Fiat 124 Abarth Rally at the Rally delle Regioni 1975 (valid for European Rally Championship)

Fiat Abarth 124 rally

A Group 4 De Tomaso Pantera and Lancia Stratos, pictured in 1973

Group 4 Lancia Stratos HF. The Stratos helped Lancia win the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975 and 1976.

Fiat 131 Abarth Group 4 rally (1982)

The Group 4 regulations were also used as the basis for the World Rally Championships until they were replaced by the Group B regulations. In mid 1970s to early 1980s rallying, it was necessary to produce 400 identical cars for homologation as a Group 4 rally car. Notable cars included the Ford Escort RS1800, Fiat 131 Abarth, Lancia Stratos HF and the Audi Quattro.

List of FIA Group 4 homologated cars

In addition, cars were homologated for Group 4 as variants of Group 3 cars. Before 1976, this was possible using a "100-off rule": clause bb of Art 260 of Appendix J to the FIA's International Sporting Code 1975 (invoked from Art 266). This rule only required production of 100 of a "bolt-on option kit" of parts, not the production of any modified cars as homologation specials, but was deleted after 1975 and approved components banned "Effective from the end of 1977". Such an approval applies to the Group 4 16-valve TR7, the multi-valve head (and other parts) from the Group 1 Dolomite Sprint being approved as "valid for Group 4" on 1 Oct. 1975 in amendment 1/1V to the Group 3 TR7 homologation papers and reapproved (following production of about 60 16-valve TR7 Sprints in 1977) on 1 Feb. 1978 in amendment 10/8v.

Groups 1-9

Categories and Groups of Appendix J 1954 - 1965

Categories	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965
	I. Touring						A. Touring
	II. Sports				II. Grand Touring		B. Grand Touring
	-						C. Sports
Group	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965
Group 1	Normal series production
Group 2	"Grand Touring" series prod				Modified series prod		Modified series prod
Group 3	Special series production						Grand Touring Cars
Group 4	Series production				Normal GT series prod		Sports Car
Group 5	International				Modified GT series prod		-
Group 6	-				GT specials		-
Source:

Categories and Groups of Appendix J 1966 - 1981 (Production requirement)

Categories	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981
	A. Production
	B. Special				B. Experimental Competition						B. Racing Cars
	C. Racing Cars										-
Group	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981
Group 1	Series Touring (5000)
Group 2	Touring (1000)				Special Touring (1000)
Group 3	Grand Touring (500)				Series Grand Touring (1000)
Group 4	Sportscars (50/25)				Special Grand Touring (500)						Grand Touring (400)
Group 5	Special Touring Cars				Sports cars (50)		Sports cars				Special cars derived from Groups 1-4
Group 6	Prototype sportscars						-				Two-seater racecars
Group 7	Two-seater racecars										International formula
Group 8	Formula racing cars						International formula				Formula libre racing cars
Group 9	Formula libre racing cars										-
Source: Note: Special may be replaced with Competition in some official documents.

See also

• World Sportscar Championship

External links

• FIA Historic Racing Regulations
• Historic Appendix J Regulations
• FIA 1969 Appendix J

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Group 4 (racing). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.