The March 85G was a mid-engined IMSA racing sports prototype, designed and developed by March Engineering in 1984 and used in sports car racing until 1988. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
The March 85G was a mid-engined IMSA racing sports prototype, designed and developed by March Engineering in 1984 and used in sports car racing until 1988. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
The 85G was the last evolutionary stage of the 82G chassis, which March produced in 1981. The aluminum chassis was made in monocoque construction. The large ventilation opening between the headlights led the air under the car; this was intended to generate more downforce, but this was only partially successful.
Eleven chassis were manufactured at March, three of which were sold to Nissan Motorsports International. Two vehicles were fitted with V6 engines, the third received an in-line 4-cylinder engine. Nissan used the car in 1985 and 1986 as the Nissan R85V in sports car racing.
The remaining vehicles were sold to IMSA teams and equipped with different racing engines. Conte and Ralf Sanchez Racing relied on a V6 Buick turbo engine; the Leon Brothers Racing 85G ran a 6-cylinder Porsche flat engine and the DeAtley Racing car ran a Chevrolet V8 engine. [8] [9]
85G were reported 94 times in 47 races; in five years of use, there was only one overall victory and a total of five places in the top three. The car made its racing debut at the 3 Hours of Daytona in 1984; Two vehicles were reported, both of which failed. Emerson Fittipaldi contested one of his rare sports car races in one of the vehicles. [10]
The only race victory there was in 1985 at the World Sportscar Championship counting 1000 km race from Fuji. Due to heavy rain, almost all of the top teams had decided not to start. The race had to be stopped after just a quarter of the distance because the track was impassable. At the time of the abandonment, the Japanese trio Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Akira Hagiwara and Keiji Matsumoto were leading and thus won the championship run. [11]
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel single-seater racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over relatively large distances, and there is usually a larger emphasis placed on the reliability and efficiency of the car as opposed to outright speed of the driver. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of a sports car racing series.
The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layout, a 3.56-mile (5.73 km) combined road course, utilizing portions of the tri-oval and an infield road course. Since its inception, it has been held on the last weekend of January or first weekend of February as part of Speedweeks, and it is the first major automobile race of the year in North America. The race is sanctioned by IMSA and is the first race of the season for the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive director of SCCA, and his wife Peggy in 1969 with help from Bill France Sr. of NASCAR. Beginning in 2014, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier series resulting from the merger of Grand-Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series. IMSA is owned by NASCAR, as a division of the company.
Bill Adam is a Canadian racing driver born in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
The Porsche 962 is a sports-prototype racing car built by Porsche as a replacement for the 956 and designed mainly to comply with IMSA's GTP regulations, although it would later compete in the European Group C formula as the 956 had. The 962 was introduced at the end of 1984, from which it quickly became successful through private owners while having a remarkably long-lived career, with some examples still proving competitive into the mid-1990s. The vehicle was later replaced by the Porsche WSC-95.
The Jaguar XJR-9 is a sports-prototype race car built by Jaguar for both FIA Group C and IMSA Camel GTP racing, debuting at the 1988 24 Hours of Daytona.
Alvah Robert "Al" Holbert was an American automobile racing driver who was a five-time champion of the IMSA Camel GT series. He once held the record with the most IMSA race wins at 49.
John Lee Paul Jr. was an American racing driver. He competed in CART and the Indy Racing League competitions, but primarily in IMSA GT Championship, winning the title in 1982.
Dyson Racing is a professional sports car racing team based in Poughkeepsie, New York in the United States. Founded by Rob Dyson in 1974, the team competed successfully in North American sports car racing series, including the IMSA GT Championship and American Le Mans Series.
Spice Engineering was a British racing team founded by driver Gordon Spice with Raymond Bellm in the early 1980s, later becoming a successful sports car constructor in 1986. They competed in the World Sportscar Championship in Europe as well as the IMSA GT Championship in North America, at times partnering with major manufacturers such as General Motors and Honda as well as race engine manufacturer Comptech.
IMSA GT was a sports car racing series organized by International Motor Sports Association. Races took place primarily in the United States, and occasionally in Canada.
The Chevrolet Corvette GTP was an American Grand Touring Prototype-class sports prototype racing car which successfully participated in the IMSA Camel GT from 1984 until 1989. The car was professionally fielded in competition as General Motors' Chevrolet Corvette C4 official factory team effort in the IMSA GTP class.
The Nissan P35 was a planned Group C car built by Nissan Motors for competition in the World Sportscar Championship. Developed by Nissan Performance Technology Inc. (NPTI), which had formerly raced under the name Electramotive in the United States, the cars were intended to be completed by the middle of 1992, with competition starting in 1993. However economic troubles for Nissan led to the cancellation of the project soon after testing of the first cars had begun, meaning that the P35s never raced.
The Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo was a series of racing cars developed for Nissan Motors by Electramotive Engineering to compete in the IMSA GT Championship. Running from 1985 to 1990, they were known for being the first car to defeat the Porsche 962 which had dominated IMSA's premiere GTP category. This led to Nissan winning the constructor's championship and 12 Hours of Sebring in 1989 and 1990. During 1990, the GTP ZX-Turbo was replaced by the newer NPT-90.
The Nissan NPT-90 was a racing car developed in 1990 for Nissan Motors by Nissan Performance Technology Incorporated (NPTI), formerly known as Electramotive Engineering. It was a replacement for the highly successful GTP ZX-Turbo that had won the IMSA GT Championship in 1989. The NPT-90 would go on to win the championship in 1990 and 1991 before being retired by Nissan at the end of the 1992 season.
The 1990 Camel GT Championship season was the 20th season of the IMSA GT Championship auto racing series. It consisted of GTP and Lights classes of prototypes, as well as Grand Tourer-style racing cars which ran in the GTO and GTU classes, as well as a tube-frame All-American Challenge (AAC) class during select GT-only rounds. It began February 3, 1990, and ended November 11, 1990, after twenty rounds.
The Lola T600 was a racing car introduced in 1981 by Lola Cars as a customer chassis. It was the first GT prototype race car to incorporate ground-effect tunnels for downforce. The revolutionary aerodynamic design of the T600 was widely imitated throughout the 1980s by International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and Group C prototype cars. The Lola T600 ran initially in the U.S.-based IMSA GT series and later in European Group C races.
The Rondeau M382 was a Group C prototype sports car, designed, developed and built by Automobiles Jean Rondeau in 1981, and used in sports car racing between 1982 and 1986.
The March 86G was a Group C and IMSA GTP sports racing car built by March Engineering. Built as simply a chassis with no engine, it was branded as one of three cars, the BMW GTP, the Buick Hawk or the Nissan R86V depending on which engine was placed in the chassis and which team was running it. There were a number of subtle bodywork changes to reflect the manufacturer which ran the car.
The March 84G was a mid-engined Group C and IMSA racing sports prototype, designed and developed by March Engineering in 1983 and used in sports car racing until 1989. It was powered by a number of different engines, including a Chevrolet small-block, a Buick V6, a Porsche flat-six, and even a Mazda 13B Wankel rotary engine. Power output was around 620 hp (460 kW). It only managed to score 5 wins, and clinch a total of 10 podium, over the course of 7 years and 119 race entries.
| |
| |
|
