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 On April 17 the LMS comes full circle as after 10 years the grid at the MRCL will be filled with Group C's once again . As then, Gr C is intended to draw new slotters into 1/24 modelcar racing. Time for an introduction to the "new" class and a bit of of Classic history.
LMS Group C: a new class with a "classic" model theme.
When we started the LMS we chose "modern" sportscars from the post 1994 era as our "modellist" theme. At the time a logical choice, as each year the latest race cars were produced as (plastic) modelkits. By the end of the century this flow came to a halt, from then on slotters had to look for other more complicated (resin/gfk) kits to build their modern cars. At the time this did not cause immidiate problems as the LMS was a strictly (team) endurance series (a team had always one guy who knew how to build them). But as the skill levels rose, it did became more difficult for new teams to enter on a competitive level.
With the addition of sprint races to the LMS it became crystal clear just how big the difference had grown! Divided in 3 classes , LMP, GT(S) and (intended as an entry level) N-GT , the biggest fun for the "experianced hands" was to take the smallest N-GT cars and (by means of all their building skills) blast the competition away.
Defeat can be a learning experience, but to learn you must be able to compare, and that was a bit difficult with so many different cars and just as many ways to build them. So we looked at ways to level the competition, at least for the required building skills. To make this possible we looked for cars that were easy to get, easy to build and had similar dimensions. A link to Le Mans was off course a major requirement, and it would be nice if the base modelkit provided you with all the parts you might need. All in all it turned out we had come full cirlce, as the most likely candidate to fulfill these requirements was Group C!
With the re introduction of the GR C in the LMS we hope to create a single class where both the experienced slotter and the rookie can compete. The tech rules have been written in such a way that 90% of the slotcar can be build with the parts provided by the standard chasis and modelkit.
 Their simple construction will mean that a rookie can build his car basicly straight from the box, where as the experianced slotter can turn all his modelling skills on detailing their cars or wringing the last bit of speed out of a basic set-up.
Besides recreating a classic era in the history of motorsport we hope that Gr C will do the same for the LMS as it did for Sportscar racing in the 80's... to bring new blood to the competition
Plenty of Porsches to go around
Tamar
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