Want to go historic racing but don’t have the budget?

Want to be part of some of the largest and exciting race meetings in the Country, like the Phillip Island Classic or Historic Sandown?

Want to rub shoulders with motor racing greats of the past such as Jack Brabham, Peter Brock, John Harvey, Bob Jane and Murray Carter to name a few?

Do you have an old Alfetta GTV that you can’t sell and is collecting dust (and rust) in the back shed?

Then I have the answer – Historic Group S.

What is Historic Group S?

Historic Group S is a low cost way of being involved in one of the fastest growing and most exciting forms of motorsport - Historic Racing.

Group S is one of the fastest growing categories of historic motor racing in Australia, with spectacular grids running up to 50 cars.   Based on mildly modified production sports cars, Group S is designed to provide a forum for competitors to race cars from the '50s, '60s and '70s in a form similar to period club racing. 

And like Group N (Historic Touring Cars) new cars can be built.   That is, cars do not have to have a racing history from the period as is required for all other classes of Historic Racing (Group C Touring cars for example).

The cutoff is 1977 meaning the all 105 Coupe's and the Alfetta GT and GTV 2.0L are eligible and importantly all run on model years, meaning that any steel bumpered Alfetta GTV 2.0L built after 1977 (thru to 1981) are also eligible!

At the recent 2006 Phillip Island Classic there were five Alfa's competing in the Under 2 L Class with an Alfetta GTV posting the fastest time in the class in qualifying and running in second place over the weekend.  Lap times ranged from 2:00 to 2:11 for the Alfa's, the first one home 18^th outright in a field of 44 cars.  The outright cars lap in around 1:56/57 - not that far in front of the Alfa's.  Recent testing suggests that a well prepared Alfetta should be in the 1:58's.

As the name suggests the class is for Production Sports Cars meaning that the cars are showroom standard with minimal modification (similar to our Super Modified Class). The major modifications allowed are:

• Tyres must be from the Production Tyre list and must be 60% profile.

• Engine Internals are free, carby size is free, exhaust is free

• Shocks and springs/torsion/sway bars are free

The complete rules are contained in the 5^th Category/Group Sc section of the CAMS manual.

Cars must adhere to all the normal racing safety reg's including fire extinguisher, roll cage, cutoff switch etc.  You also need at minimum a Provisional Circuit Racing Licence (C3) and the usual race suit, boots etc

Ok you have the car, the gear and the licence - where do you race?

The good thing about Group S is that there are lots of events.   The following is the Group S calendar for 2006.  There are four Victorian meetings including the biggies, the Phillip Island Classic and Historic Sandown plus a number of events in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. 

For more information see the sections on Cost, Building a Car, the Alfa Group S Challenge, the Competition Calendar and the Group S forums.

If you are interested, want more information or have a question, please give me a call on 0400 094 007.

See you at the next major Historic event.

Scott