{"id":869461,"date":"2026-08-26T21:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869461\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T21:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:12:27","slug":"historic-touring-car-racings-eligibility-expansion-push-to-allow-1973-1984-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869461\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic touring car racing’s eligibility expansion push to allow 1973-1984 cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

A PUSH to expand the eligibility in officially recognised historic tin top racing is on in earnest, with plans being pushed by multiple groups to open up Motorsport Australia\u2019s category five regulations to feature touring cars built between 1973 and 1984.<\/p>\n

A challenge facing historic categories across the board is the ever-increasing value of older machinery, with a corresponding lack of period spare parts cited as an obstacle to participation.<\/p>\n

For a generation, strong tin top entries have underpinned the nation\u2019s major historic events, with the primary group of production-based cars morphing from Appendix J, through Group N, to race under the banner of Historic Touring Cars.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The current fifth category, Historic Touring Car, is split into Group Na for pre-1958 cars, Nb for pre-1965 cars, and Nc for cars up to 1972.<\/p>\n

The latest class was added to the roster in 1995, when the newest vehicles were 23 years old, while Nb was established in 1981, giving a home to 16-year-old machinery.<\/p>\n

In the 31 years since the establishment of Nc, there has been no movement in the regulations, meaning that the \u2018newest\u2019 machinery in the class is now some 54 years old.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently, the Australian Historic Touring Cars Association has pushed the concept of Group Ne, as an extension of the existing Group N ruleset.<\/p>\n

Issues facing the push include how best to integrate the later-generation car into the existing racing framework, combining Group N and C regulations to provide a platform equal in performance to the incumbent Nc cars.<\/p>\n

Beyond the extensive drafting of prospective rules, the group recently surveyed competitors about the proposed changes.<\/p>\n

Another group emanating from Queensland under the Group Nd banner is seeking to have a new group or sub-group officially recognised with sanctioned rules and logbooks, underpinned by some rule freedoms in the name of cost saving and ease of parts replacement<\/p>\n

Essentially, this group would run separately from the existing pre-1972 machinery, bringing a fresh cohort of racers to the sport.<\/p>\n

V8 Sleuth understands that the group has also recently presented to Motorsport Australia\u2019s Historic Motorsport Committee.<\/p>\n

Across the board, the need to push historic eligibility cut-offs forward has been ongoing for some time on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n

Heritage Touring Cars, which encompasses genuine Group C (up to 1984) and Group A (up to 1992), remains a popular category at major historic meets.<\/p>\n

Notably, in late 2024, the Motorsport Australia Historic Committee approved early-era Group 3A\/five-litre\/V8 Supercars and two-litre Super Tourers from the 1990s<\/a> for inclusion in the class.<\/p>\n

Featuring in this mix are genuine Commodore VP, VR and VS models and Falcon EB, EF and EL models that raced in the Australian Touring Car Championship and at Bathurst.<\/p>\n

This move followed the FIA\u2019s expansion of historic vehicle eligibility up to the year 2000.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, replica and tribute touring car categories have gained traction in recent years, with a range of reproduction machines taking to the track, donned in liveries akin to the original articles.<\/p>\n

The Touring Car Tributes drew a significant field at the recent Winton Festival of Speed for a series of supersprints.<\/p>\n

Touring Car Masters, meanwhile, began life as an offshoot of Group N Historic Touring Cars some two decades ago, instigating a series of technical freedoms.<\/p>\n

Since 2018, the class has expanded to cater to newer machinery up to 1980, such as XD Falcons and Holden Commodores, with a range of different model builds currently in progress.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Group U Historic Sports Sedans rules have been developed for cars built prior to the end of 1985.<\/p>\n

The next Castrol Supercars throwback livery?<\/p>\n

CASTROL have some fantastic liveries available to throw back to at the upcoming round at the Sandown Supercars event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A PUSH to expand the eligibility in officially recognised historic tin top racing is on in earnest, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,105],"class_list":["post-869461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}