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55-617: The first World Touring Car Championship, which was open to Group A Touring Cars, was held in 1987 concurrent to the long-running European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Additional rounds were held outside Europe at Bathurst and Calder Park Raceway in Australia (Calder used a combined circuit of the road course and the then newly constructed NASCAR speedway), Wellington in New Zealand and Mount Fuji in Japan . The Championship

110-802: A 2.5L Class 1 formula in 1993, while in Japan in 1994 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

165-505: A motor manufacturer. This can sometimes be a motor racing team running cars of behalf of the manufacturer or cars being run directly by the factory. Below is a timeline of manufacturer entries from the beginning of the championship in 2005. Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived touring cars for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying . In contrast to

220-489: A poll conducted by Motor Sport magazine in 2005, Tarquini was voted the 11th greatest touring car driver ever. † As Tarquini was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) † — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) Did not finish, but

275-513: A ride. Following Philippe Streiff 's career-ending pre-season testing crash, Tarquini joined Joachim Winkelhock in the AGS team from the second round of the series. There he finished a fine 8th on the road, being promoted to 6th after the exclusion of Thierry Boutsen and Alex Caffi . He was then one of the stars of the weekend in Monaco , threatening to qualify in the top 6 before ending up 13th on

330-770: A single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He has subsequently raced successfully in Touring Cars, winning the BTCC in 1994, the ETCC in 2003 the WTCC in 2009 and the WTCR in 2018. On 22 November 2009 he won the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship title at the age of 47 years and 266 days. This made him the oldest ever world champion in an FIA series, breaking Juan Manuel Fangio 's record of being FIA Formula One World Drivers' Champion at

385-589: A total of 40 failures to qualify), mainly because he was a regular in the pre-qualifying era, usually in cars which were so slow as to struggle to qualify. Despite this record many consider him to have been a talented driver stuck with uncompetitive machinery (much like contemporary Roberto Moreno ). With the creation of D2 series in 1993, Tarquini passed to Alfa Romeo becoming their top driver and finishing third in Italian Superturismo behind Ravaglia and Giovanardi. The following year Tarquini moved to

440-719: A touring car class across Europe, while in Australia Group A is now a historic class, though only actual cars raced from 1985 to 1992 (complete with log books) are allowed to compete. Under Group A in the World Rally Championship , the cars used were modified road cars, often based on turbocharged , four wheel drive versions of small cars such as the Lancia Delta Integrale , Ford Escort RS Cosworth , Toyota Celica GT-Four , Nissan Pulsar GTI-R , Subaru Impreza WRX , Mazda 323 GT-R and

495-816: A worthy 8th in the season opener at Phoenix but financial constraints meant after Monaco the AGS didn't make the grid again. Late in the season the cash-strapped team sold his contract to Gabriele Rumi 's ambitious Fondmetal outfit in time for the Spanish Grand Prix , soon forming a good relationship with the team. He was signed for a full year in 1992, showing some good speed in the neat but underdeveloped Fondmetal GR02 chassis. However, his car only finished once (14th at Silverstone , hindered by clutch problems) and despite some fine qualifying efforts (including outqualifying Ivan Capelli 's Ferrari in Belgium )

550-643: The 1987 San Marino Grand Prix . He joined Coloni 's Grand Prix team for 1988, having driven for them in F3000 in 1986. The season saw a prequalifying system being put in place as there were 31 entrants for a maximum 30 places in qualifying proper. As such, the slowest of the new entrants for the season (Coloni, Rial, Dallara and EuroBrun) would be eliminated from proceedings after the Friday morning session regardless of their overall position - Tarquini failed to prequalify several times despite often being faster than some of

605-468: The 2005 , 2006 and 2007 Drivers and Manufacturers Championships. In 2008, Frenchman Yvan Muller won the title after Race 1 in Macau in his SEAT León TDI . This marked the first time an FIA sanctioned world championship, in any category, being won by a diesel powered racing car. SEAT León TDI won both championships for a second time in 2009, this time in the hands of Gabriele Tarquini . 2010 marked

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660-911: The BMW 635 CSi and M3 , Jaguar XJS , various turbo Ford Sierras the V8 Ford Mustang , the turbo Volvo 240T , Rover Vitesse , various V8 Holden Commodores , various turbo Nissan Skylines , including the 4WD , twin turbo GT-R , Mitsubishi Starion Turbo , Alfa Romeo 75 (turbo) and GTV6 , various Toyota Corollas and the Toyota Supra Turbo A 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 sizes of 1600–2500cc, Division 1 for cars that are less than 1600cc. These cars competed in standard bodykits, with

715-681: The British Touring Car Championship , winning the title at his first attempt in an Alfa Romeo featuring controversial aerodynamic enhancements. In 1995 Alfa Corse decided to move him back to Italian Superturismo Championship but after 2 victories, 4 third place and 6 DNF, Tarquini left the series and joined to Prodrive to help Alfa Romeo to achieve better results in BTCC. In 1996 Tarquini raced in Class 1 Touring Cars with Alfa Romeo in ITC , where he achieved best results of 1 victory and 1 second place. With

770-611: The Groups Rally which must first be homologated in Group A. Both Groups N and A, and the details of their differences are described in the FIAs International Sporting Code and several of its Appendices J articles. To qualify for FIA approval, 2,500 identical models have to be built in 12 consecutive months. The homologation period lasts for every subsequent year of production and seven years after

825-490: The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution . The cars are modified for greater power and torque, and fitted with suspension and tyres specifically suited to the conditions of the specific rally , which may take place entirely on asphalt roads, different consistencies of gravel and dirt roads and even snow/ice-covered roads on some rallies held in northern Europe. By 1990, Group A cars exceeded the performance of

880-507: The Toyota Supras during the earlier years. The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport had originally announced in mid- 1983 that Australia would adopt Group A from 1 January 1985 to replace the locally developed Group C (not to be confused with FIA Group C racing cars) rules that had been in place since 1973. A class for the new Group A cars was included in selected Australian Touring Car endurance races in late 1984, prior to

935-465: The United States . Technical rules were modified in 2011 to allow 1.6L turbo gasoline engines, and the 2.0L gasoline and turbodiesel engines were outlawed in 2012. In 2014, new car regulations were introduced with the name TC1, with larger wings and more engine power. The old 1.6L turbo cars were renamed TC2 for a year and were dropped for 2015. The series adopted TCR regulations for 2018 and

990-515: The Championship. A silhouette formula championship (proposed by Ecclestone) was announced by the FIA for 1988 which would have seen specialist racing chassis carrying bodywork resembling production roadcars powered by the about to be outlawed Formula One 1.5 litre turbo regulations, but manufacturers did not support the concept. Only one car, based on an Alfa Romeo 164 with a 3.5 litre V10 engine

1045-660: The FIA's points system used in the FIA Formula One Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship. Between 2005 and 2009, the championship adopted the following points scoring system: For the inaugural 1987 season, the championship used the following points scoring system: As per FIA WTCC all-time statistics on the official site of the WTCC. The WTCC features entries with the backing, funding and technical support of

1100-518: The SUNRED 1.6T for Brno onwards. He finished the season 5th in the standings with just one win in a year dominated by the Chevrolet RML team. In January 2012 it was confirmed that Tarquini would drive for Lukoil Racing in a SEAT León powered by the new SEAT Sport turbocharged engine. His teammate will once again be Aleksei Dudukalo . He started from pole position at the first race of

1155-470: The age of 46 years and 41 days in 1957. Tarquini backed up this record by winning the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup at the age of 56 years and 259 days. Tarquini began karting in 1976. By 1985 he was driving in Formula 3000 , spending three seasons with underfunded outfits. His best result was 2nd at Imola in 1987, by which time he had already made his Grand Prix debut in a one-off drive for Osella at

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1210-629: The championship landed in Australia the local teams took exception to the Europeans somewhat liberal interpretation of the Group A rules. Subsequently, the Eggenberger cars were protested against and eventually disqualified from the Bathurst 1000 results. The championship was provisionally awarded to West German Eggenberger Ford Sierra RS500 drivers Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz . It

1265-443: The defunct Group B cars on many events, because although they had far less power they had better handling and traction. They were also much safer. Group A is still used as the basis for most rally competitions around the world, but the most competitive cars are limited-production prototypes, known as kit cars (which competed in the FIA 2-Litre World Rally Cup ), World Rally Cars , Super 1600 and Super 2000 . The last car to use

1320-704: The drivers standings. This gave Chevrolet a clean sweep of both titles. The 2012 championship saw Chevrolet pick up where they left off in 2011, leading to a second year of championship clean sweeps, this time with Rob Huff taking the drivers title. The modern series has held events based all around the world including races in Argentina , Morocco , Hungary , Germany , Russia , France , Portugal , Slovakia , Czech Republic , Japan , China , Thailand and Qatar with former races in Brazil , Great Britain , Italy , Macau , Netherlands , Spain , Sweden , Turkey and

1375-465: The early years there were no further formula for production based race cars. Cars from multiple Groups could contest the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers for example until 1997 when the specific World Rally Car formula was introduced as the only option. In recent years Groups A and N have begun to be phased out in eligibility in championships though they continue to form the homologation basis for most production based race car formulae including

1430-528: The end of D1 Class, Tarquini left Alfa Romeo and signed a 5 year contract with Honda where he raced in BTCC again with Prodrive. The first season with Honda saw him finishing 6th in the general standings with 1 victory, 1 second and 3 third places. In 1998 and 1999 Tarquini raced in Germany with JAS Motorsport in STW Cup where he got 2 victories and several podium. After 2 years in Germany, Tarquini raced for

1485-773: The exempt entrants (such as the Osella and Zakspeed cars). He drew good notices for his performance overall, however - his 8th place at the Canadian Grand Prix would stand as the team's best ever result and his eight starts the most ever garnered by a Coloni driver. Tarquini signed to drive for the FIRST team (again a former employer in F3000) and drove for them at the Formula One Indoor Trophy , but when their car failed crash tests he started 1989 without

1540-410: The final lap. At the wet Canadian Grand Prix Tarquini again ran well until being shoved off the track by René Arnoux (who eventually went on to finish 5th). The series then moved to faster tracks where the AGS was less competitive and the results of others meant Tarquini's entry (exempt for the first half of the season thanks to Streiff's efforts in 1988) would have to prequalify for the second half of

1595-760: The four fastest going through both Tarquini and new teammate Yannick Dalmas struggled and Tarquini would not qualify again that year. AGS attempted to move to larger premises for 1990 but a lack of resources and the late arrival of the JH25 left Tarquini and Dalmas again struggling to get past prequalifying, Tarquini only making it into four races (finishing just once - 13th in the Hungarian Grand Prix ), his early 1989 form long forgotten by most. The team were under even more severe financial constraints for 1991, though they would initially at least avoid prequalifying. Tarquini made it through into three races, finishing

1650-438: The grid. In the race he advanced to a strong 4th before being sidelined by an electrical problem. At the following Mexican Grand Prix he finished 6th, though the team's joy was tempered after Williams and Scuderia Italia successfully appealed against their Imola disqualification and Tarquini lost his point. More bad luck followed at Phoenix where Tarquini was holding 6th despite technical problems before Boutsen passed him on

1705-594: The old Group A homologation requirement in the WRC Manufacturers' championship was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI . Group A cars could continue to enter WRC rallies until 2018 and can still enter the FIA's regional rally championships today. Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian former racing driver . He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 3 May 1987. He scored

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1760-428: The production-derived nature required manufactures to release faster vehicles for the roads in order to be competitive on the track. Tyre width was dependent on the car's engine size. The FIA continued to promulgate regulations for Group A touring cars until at least 1993, however Group A survived in touring car racing in domestic championships until 1993. The German Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) switched to

1815-464: The public due to the intense competition and Eurosport live broadcasts. At the request of interested manufacturers, the ETCC was changed to the current WTCC beginning with the 2005 season, continuing to use Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 regulations. 2004 ETCC Champion Andy Priaulx and his BMW 320i were the dominant driver-car pairing during the first three years of the revived championship, winning

1870-415: The race distance. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) As Tarquini

1925-430: The race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of

1980-453: The replacement of Group C for 1985. The category would be officially termed Group 3A Touring Cars from 1988. From 1993 , CAMS replaced the existing Group A-based category with a new formula which would also be designated Group 3A Touring Cars. 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 competitions still use Group A as

2035-528: The season in Italy but finished third behind Yvan Muller and Rob Huff in race one, he retired from the second race. Contact with Huff in race two in Portugal left him 19th with damage although no penalties were applied. In July 2012, it was confirmed that Tarquini would drive a factory supported Honda Civic run by the returning JAS Motorsport team, alongside Tiago Monteiro in 2013. He qualified fifth for

2090-568: The season opening Race of Italy but was given a five–place grid penalty for race one having tapped René Münnich into a spin during qualifying. He finished race one in fourth and race two in third. He gave the Honda team its first pole position in the WTCC at the Race of Morocco . He finished second in race one but retired from race two when he lost control over one of the kerbs and collided with Alex MacDowall . In his last season of WTCC he moved to

2145-573: The season to finish runner-up to ex-SEAT Sport teammate Yvan Muller in the drivers standings. This was after four victories, plus an inherited victory in Belgium from Jordi Gene after Gene's disqualification. His crash in Japan race two ended his title hopes. In 2011, Tarquini drove for the Lukoil - SUNRED team alongside Aleksei Dudukalo . He started the year with the SEAT 2.0 TDI engine but switched to

2200-595: The season. The expanding entry list meant prequalifying was very different from 1988, consisting of an hour-long free-for-all session on Friday morning between the less successful cars. Featuring the Larrousse cars of Michele Alboreto and Philippe Alliot , Roberto Moreno 's Coloni, the Osellas of Nicola Larini and Piercarlo Ghinzani and the Onyx cars of Stefan Johansson and Bertrand Gachot among others with only

2255-400: The short-lived Group B and Group C , Group A vehicles were limited in terms of power, weight, allowed technology and overall cost. Group A was aimed at ensuring numerous entries in races of privately owned vehicles. Group A was introduced by the FIA in 1982 to replace the outgoing Group 2 as "modified touring cars", while Group N would replace Group 1 as "standard touring cars". During

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2310-493: The standings in 2007, once again winning just one race. 2008 saw considerable improvement for Tarquini as he finished runner-up in the championship to Yvan Muller winning three races. His biggest success of his career came in 2009 when he won the WTCC championship at the last race of the year in Macau. SEAT withdrew from the WTCC for 2010, but provided funding to introduce the new semi-works SR-Sport team, with whom Tarquini attempted to retain his crown. He scored five wins during

2365-449: The start of Chevrolet 's dominance of the championship with its Cruze model. Frenchman Yvan Muller became World Champion, fending off tough competition from Gabriele Tarquini and Andy Priaulx to win the first world championship for Chevrolet . Muller continued his success into 2011, winning both drivers championship and helping Chevrolet to its second manufacturers championship after Muller's two teammates finished second and third in

2420-527: The team struggled to find funding, folding after the following Italian Grand Prix and leaving Tarquini out of a drive. Despite being firmly involved in his successful touring cars career and 33 years old, Tarquini was signed up by Tyrrell for the 1995 season as their test driver thanks to the presence of Fondmetal as a sponsor. He replaced Ukyo Katayama for the European round as the Japanese driver

2475-456: The third time in BTCC. In his last season with Honda he raced in Euro STC where he finished third behind the 2 Alfa Romeo of Giovanardi and Larini although he got 9 victories. After spending 2002 without a car, in 2003 he came back to Alfa Romeo where he raced in the ETCC and he won the title at the first attempt as it happened 9 years before in BTCC. In 2004 for the last season of ETCC he

2530-420: The uncompetitive Lada team where he was able to score 2 victories. After spending the entire 2017 to develop the new Hyundai I30N, Tarquini raced in the new WTCR after the fusion between WTCC and International TCR. The 2018 saw him again protagonist and after an incredible battle with Muller he won his fourth title after BTCC, ETCC and WTCC. He announced his retirement from racing at the 2021 Race of Italy . In

2585-510: The year that less than 10% (250) are produced in one year and the model is considered out of production by the FIA. Evolutions of the series production model homologated are permitted with a ET (Evolution of the type) extension applied. Before 1993 the initial production requirement was 5000. However, not all manufacturers who built such models sold them all, some stripped the majority of them to rebuild them as stock models or used them to allow teams to use modified parts. One such example of this

2640-481: Was Volvo with the 240 Turbo in 1985, an evolution of a model first homologated in 1982. After they had produced 500 such models, Volvo stripped 477 cars of their competition equipment and sold them as standard 240 turbo roadcars. As a result, after FISA's failed attempt at finding an "Evolution" car in any European countries, Volvo were forced to reveal the names of all 500 "evo" owners to be permitted to compete. For touring car competition, vehicles such as

2695-510: Was again the best of Alfa's driver and he finished third behind the 2 BMW of Priaulx and Dirk Muller. He remained with Alfa Romeo as the ETCC became the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2005. He finished seventh overall, with two victories. In November 2005, Tarquini was confirmed as one of six drivers at SEAT Sport for 2006. He finished fifth in the championship that year with one win. He finished 8th in

2750-849: Was built before it was abandoned. In 2001, the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) was resumed with support from the FIA, the precursor to the current WTCC. In 2001, the Italian Superturismo Championship became the FIA European Super Touring Championship, with an extra class for Super Production cars alongside the main Super Touring class. In 2002, this evolved into the brand new FIA European Touring Car Championship, using Super 2000 rules, dominated by Alfa Romeo and BMW , but popular with

2805-545: Was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded 1996 onwards all races) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap – 1 point given 1998 onwards) ‡ Retired before second start of race ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) † — Did not finish

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2860-485: Was injured from his start line accident in the previous race . Out of practice with single seaters (having done very little actual testing due to the team's financial constraints) he finished 14th, six laps down on winner Michael Schumacher . It was his final Grand Prix, and to date, the last occasion a reigning BTCC Champion has competed in Formula One. Tarquini failed to pre-qualify on a record 25 occasions (out of

2915-542: Was not until March 1988 when their Bathurst disqualification was finalised that results were confirmed and Italian Schnitzer Motorsport driver Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW M3 was declared the champion. The Entrants Championship was won by the Eggenberger Texaco Ford No 7 entry. The WTCC lasted only one year and was a victim of its own success — the FIA (and Bernie Ecclestone ) feared it would take money away from Formula One and stopped sanctioning

2970-726: Was renamed World Touring Car Cup (WTCR). Official factory teams are not allowed, though many drivers and teams receive backing from manufacturers. The WTCC uses Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 cars, as cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. Super 2000 engines are 1.6 L turbo-charged 4-cylinder engines producing approximately 380 bhp. Wheels are 18" in diameter, and large front and rear aerodynamic devices are permitted. Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, including variable valve timing , variable intake geometry , ABS brakes and traction control system . Currently, all WTCC races are awarded equal points. From 2010, these points have been based on

3025-524: Was well-supported by the factory European teams of Ford , BMW , Maserati and Alfa Romeo (until Alfa withdrew following the European races), but was embroiled in controversy. Unfortunately, the leading BMW Motorsport teams and the Ford Europe backed Eggenberger Motorsport had developed a situation of "you don't protest us, we won't protest you". While this worked well in the European races, when

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