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The British Touring Car Championship strayed from God’s light starting in 1990, switching to its own, more lax “Super Touring” car regulations. Other series followed suit a few years later, and Group A’s touring car golden years came to a close.
Every year, Jalopnik’s most Chosen members – well, just me this year – have brought you the very best of Group C and GT1 racing from the 1980s and 1990s. We even did a Group B rally theme once. But for some reason we’ve never covered arguable the most successful racing formula of all. It’s the awkwardly-titled Group A-smas, worthy of celebration.
But before they did, Ford raced the Sierra in the BTCC, homologated as part of Group A regulations. There is so much to say about these things, including how Ford always sought to bend the rules with homologation, but I think it is also important to just see and hear the car perform as a car. Not just as a race car, competing for victory, but as a car that brakes and steers and responds to the driver.
For that we have Tiff Needel and old, old Top Gear to give us a guide.
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