Group A – unusual cars around the world

[Jesper OH]

Just been inspired to this thread from these posts: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...46#post2366946
I think these cars deserve a thread on their own, so here goes. The following three cars are the only three of it’s kind to appear in Group A racing anywhere around the globe, but I might be wrong. There should be some other one-offs or at least very rare Group A tourers to have been raced, so what’s your nominations?

My first nomination will be a Ford Sierra XR4i – the normally aspirated 2.8 V6 – for the Danish Group A series and selected Swedish events in 1988. Competition consisted of Volvo 240 Turbos so driver Erik Poulsen did little in terms of results. I’m told it still had the original tech spec stickers from ’88 on the aluminium roll cage when the car was found at a junk yard around 2002/2003. The car reappeared in Special Saloon Car racing in 2003 looking like this (car #88):
http://www.motorsporten.dk/news.asp?aID=8858

DTM of 1988 vintage might not be strictly Group A, but the Peter John Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z is another nomination. There seems to have been several second generation Camaro Z28s around in the early days of Group A, but this is the only third generation car I know of. John’s results with the car might explain why there weren’t more IROC-Zs in Group A.

Dutch Mazda dealer Hans van der Beek had an unusual car in his rotary 929 (actually homologated as the Mazda Luce). Unlike the previous two, Beek ran his car for at least three seasons in Group A; 1986-1988. Here’s a very nice shot of the car at the ’86 Silverstone TT ETCC:
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...lverstone.html
and from Spa ‘88
http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...988%20Spa.html

Jesper