Group A - Touring Cars

Touring Cars

For touring car competition, vehicles such as the BMW 635CSi, Jaguar XJS, Volvo 242 Turbo, Holden Commodore, Ford Sierra RS500 and Nissan Skyline GT-R were homologated. In the European Touring Car Championship, Group A consisted of three divisions, Division 3 - for cars over 2500cc, Division 2 - for car engine size that are between 1600-2500cc, Division 1 for cars that are less than 1600cc. These cars competed in standard bodykits, with the production-derived nature required manufactures to release faster vehicles for the roads in order to be competitive on the track. Tyre width were dependent on the car's engine size.

Group A stopped being used in touring car racing in 1994, when the German Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) switched to a 2.5 L class 1 formula, while in Japan by that year as the Japanese Touring Car Championship organisers followed suit and switched classes like most other countries who had adopted the British Touring Car Championship-derived Supertouring regulations, many of the redundant Skylines found a new home in the form of the JGTC (Japanese GT Championship) with modified aerodynamic devices, showing its competitiveness whilst being up against Group C, former race modified roadcars and specially developed racers, like the Toyota Supras during the earlier years. For 1993 the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport replaced Group A (or Group 3A as it was officially designated in Australia ) with a new formula for Australian Touring Car racing. This was initially open to five litre V8 powered cars and two litre cars (later to become known as V8 Supercars and Super Touring Cars respectively). Hillclimb races still use Group A as a Touring Car class across Europe.