Found on Flickr: Group 44 Audi Quattro - Hurley Haywood

Group 44 Audi Quattro Hurley Haywood, a photo by Cobby17 on Flickr.

Video Post: Secrets of speed - pure 80s Audi awesome

Although the video quality leaves a little something to be desired, any footage of the 1980s Audi Sport racing efforts in the USA is just too good to be ignored. It's unfortunate that the Trans Am Audi 200 and IMSA 90 GTO only raced a year apiece, because they are undoubtedly two of the best sounding cars ever to grace American race tracks. I suppose however that when family sedans from Germany are beating the best from the USA, the powers that be will turn the screws to make sure it doesn't happen for long... The Trans Am 200 team, run by IMSA legends Group 44, was partially in response to the ridiculous 'unintended acceleration' PR problem that Audi was dealing with at the time.

Trans Am

Following the ban of Quattro (and indeed all foreign made engines and cars) in Trans Am, Audi moved up to IMSA's GTO category with a tube-framed Audi 90 silhouette racer. Competition here was fierce, with factory teams from Nissan, Toyota and the 'big three.' Nissan used the same engine as they did in the GTP class, as did Toyota, which meant horsepower levels were well into the 900hp+ range for sprint races... With more power than before thanks to a 4-valve head (about 720hp, compared to just over 500hp in the Trans Am 200), the 90 GTO was still underpowered compared to the competition, but it was again dominant in just about every race that it entered thanks to the Quattro system.

IMSA 90 GTO

Makes me wish they'd use a 5-cylinder turbo in their GT racing these days...not to knock the power of the TDI, but it sure sounds sterile and boring compared to the fire-breathing 5's.

_WRS

Group 44 Jaguar XJR-5 at Watkins Glen

The 962 which I wrote about yesterday was not the only GTP machine at the event, but it was the only one which took to the track. The first GTP which I laid eyes upon, and made a mad-dash to go check out, was this Group 44 Jaguar XJR-5. This rather fascinating beast was beyond immaculate, and it was quite obvious this car spends it's time being pampered rather than spanked on a race track.


I'm a little torn about that fact, as I mentioned yesterday, I prefer a car on the track as opposed to the garage, and it seems a shame for this american-built chassis with its V12 British heart to not be put to good use. That said, if I owned a Le Mans class-winning car I might not be too eager to write it off just trying to have some fun. This car, running the #04 (all the Group 44 machines ran with 40, 44 or 04) was actually chassis number 008, out of ten total built. I'd like to say that if I ran a race team, all my cars would be 05 or 55, so any sponsors who want to get on board should get used to it. Just saying.


Group 44 was an American team headed up by Bob Tullius, a man passionate about his British sports cars, and who was almost single-handedly responsible for bringing Jaguar back to Le Mans, and sports car racing in general. It's a fascinating story, and one well worth reading about. check it out on Ultimate Car Page.

So as the story goes, I happened to be wasting time on GrandTouringPrototype.com earlier, and was very pleased to see they had the video from the Daytona 3 hour Finale of 1986 posted up. It was complete and random chance that I noticed this, and it just so happens this race was the final win for Bob Tullius and the Group 44 Jaguar. So set aside some time, sit back and enjoy some great racing. I couldn't figure out if chassis 008 was being raced at Daytona, but it doesn't really matter...just listen to that engine screaming around the banks and don't worry about anything else. Larger pics over at the WRS Flickr Page.

_WRS

GTP: 1986 Daytona Finale IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt1 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: 1986 Daytona Finale IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt2 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.