Sports Prototype and GT Racing 1978 to 1981
In the late seventies, the prototype scene was becoming full of old cars and indifferent manufacturers. Fans were sick of seeing one make completely dominate, and longed for the wheel-to-wheel competition of the smaller GT races. The European economy was in a rut due to lingering effects of the oil crisis, and the Cold war was still going strong. The 'golden' era of expensive factory efforts and well-financed privateers had definitely come to a close.
Le Mans remained the only event of any real singifigance for works prototypes. The Renault-Alpine A442, Porsche 936, and the Rondeau cars were the regulars of this era. Renault finally won Le Mans in 1978 with its turbo engine, and promptly quit racing prototypes. They then went on to pioneer the use of turbos in F1 cars.
At Le Mans In 1979, a privateer 'Group 5' Porsche upset the prototypes by taking the overall win. In a rare occurrence, the works Porsche 936 cars did not finish the race.
Group 5 'Sihlouettes'
However, as the protoype racing scene was dying out, the GT classes were thriving. With the World Championship for Makes being a GT only format, there was excellent competition. The top class of these races was designated as 'Group 5', which were essentially production-shaped tubeframe racers. These were not unlike the modern NASCAR or Trans-Am machines. These cars made the top levels of road racing fairly cost efficient for most teams, and grids were full of talented drivers. In Germany, there was the DRM series for these cars. There were essentially three makes in the series: BMW, Porsche, and Ford. They used off-the-shelf turbo engines so performance was quite impressive.
One subtle fact that people often do not realize is that the DRM 'Group 5' classes had subclasses based on engine displacement. The most famous of the under 2.0 litre class being the BMW 320i.
In North America, IMSA was in its 'GTX' period for these production-based turbos. The only problem was that Porsche 934's tended to dominate the grid.
Collectors note: Many of these cars have very misleading information, both on the web and the boxes themselves. While some are labeled as being from the "DRM series", that is not always the case. I have made every attempt to confirm the actual race lists with the cars and numbers, and what follows below is probably fairly accurate. The Spa 24 Hours cars from 1977 and 1978 have been especially hard to confirm, as there is no list that shows that these cars ran that year. Was there a special Group 5 class that ran concurrently with the touring car classes?
Porsche 935/77 vs. Porsche 935/77A...
Porsche created a customer version based on the works 1976 cars called the "935/77A". These cars dominated the German DRM series, and epitomize the late-1970's racing scene. They should not be confused with the cars that the factory raced at Le Mans that were called the "935/77".
1978
Prototypes were completely separated from the GT cars and had their own European Sportscar Championship for the year 1978. This should not be confused with the series of the same name for 2.0 litre prototypes that lasted from 1970 to 1975. These were European privateer 'Group 6' cars that typically were built for Le Mans. There were also some 2.0 litre prototypes that stayed on for good measure.
1979
The 1979 DRM championship was won by Klaus Ludwig in a Porsche Kremer sposored by "Mambo" cologne. It is the preferred fragrance of Ronnie Mund, a.k.a "Ronnie the limo driver"...
|
Place |
Car
Sponsor |
Car # Class |
Model |
Ref. # |
Image |
| Division I (2000cc - 4000cc) |
| | Porsche Kremer K3 'Mambo'
Klaus Ludwig  | 54
| Quartzo
('3000 Series') | 3033 |  |
| | Porsche Kremer K3 'Erzquell Pils'
Axel Plankenhorn | 55
| Quartzo
('3000 Series') | 3034 |  |
| Division II (Under 2000cc) |
| 1 | Ford Capri turbo 'Sachs'
Harald Ertl  | 1
| Minichamps
| 430 798501 |  |
| | | | Quartzo
| 3027 |  |
In 1979 the prototypes were allowed back into select events on the World Championship schedule, but were not eligible to score points. By then, the series was mostly leftover European races. There were some North American rounds, notably the Daytona 24H, being run jointly with IMSA.
|
Place |
Car
Sponsor |
Car # Class |
Model |
Ref. # |
Image |
| DNF | Lancia Beta Montecarlo
Riccardo Patrese 
Walter Röhrl | 51
Group 5 | Best
| 9168 |  |
| 1 | Porsche 935/77A 'Weisberg'
Manfred Schurti
John Fitzpatrick 
Bob Wollek  | 6
Group 5 | Solido
('Racing' Series) | 1925 |  |
1980
1981
1981 was a transitional year before the major reorganization to Group C. The name of the Championship was changed to World Championship for Drivers and Makes. All of the North American Rounds were run jointly with IMSA.
The Joest Porsche 935/81 was a factory authorized copy of the famous "Moby Dick" works car. This model was released by Minichamps in 2000 during their distributor "blackout" period, so very few ever made it to US vendors. They appear occasionally on German eBay, but are quite difficult to find. Because it has an unremarkable history and color scheme, I gave up trying to get one.
Joest eventually sold the car to Gianpiero Moretti who ran it in IMSA. There it had the famous red-and-yellow MOMO colors and sponsorship by Penthouse magazine. Now that would make for a collectable model.
1982
In 1982 the DRM series started a transition to a Group C format, but Group 5 and Group 6 cars were also allowed.
|
Place |
Car
Sponsor |
Car # Class |
Model |
Ref. # |
Image |
| 1 | Ford Capri turbo 'Jaegermeister'
Klaus Ludwig | 1
Group 5 | Minichamps
| 430 828501 |  |
