Banger Racing at its Best

The Historic Sports Car Club has unveiled the Production Car Challenge, a new race series for production touring, sports and GT cars from the 1980s.  The new series will be open to cars with standard bodyshells and only minor modifications to engines and suspension, and will not be open to Caterhams or homologation specials.  Cars will be split into classes based on engine size, with a separate class for turbocharged cars.  Only treaded tyre types from the Motorsport UK list 1A, 1B and 1C will be allowed.  There are plans to run several pilot races later in 2020, ahead of a fuller programme in 2021.

Photo Courtesy HSCC

The series will complement the Club’s existing Historic and 70s Road Sports Championships, which are for cars from the mid-1950s through to the end of 1979.  The list of eligible cars for the new series is huge and many suitable cars are available and affordable.  Typical cars that could be entered include the Alfa Romeo GTV6, BMW 3-series, Ford Fiesta XR2, Honda CRX, Morgan Plus 4, Porsche 944, Suzuki Swift GTi, Toyota MR2 and VW Golf.

HSCC CEO Andy Dee-Crowne said about the new series, “No organising Club can afford to stand still and we are keen to develop a cost-effective race series for the next generation of cars, which should also appeal to a wide range of drivers.  The Production Car Challenge will offer another way into historic racing for newcomers to the sport.  Our aim is to grow the category over the next couple of seasons.”