During the second half of the 1970s, manufacturers exploited the relatively lenient Group 5 regulations to the full extent, creating fantastic production based 'silhouette' racers. The dominant force of the era was the Porsche 935 that was derived from the 911 Turbo. It takes a trained eye to discover the shape of the original road car but underneath the massively flared arches and slant-nose, the racer still retains some of the original metalwork. In historic racing the 935s produced for customers are regularly campaigned but at the Le Mans Classic this very rare ex-works 935 from 1977 returned to the track. Raced only once in period, it has been fully restored by Freisinger Motorsport and was raced at Le Mans by factory driver Romain Dumas.
Among the Porsches' rivals was the Ferrari 512 BB LM, which looks even further departed from its road-going equivalent. It was not able to match the Porsches on outright pace and was left to pick up the scraps. The featured example was campaigned at Le Mans twice and earlier this year starred at the Goodwood Members' Meeting, where Group 5 cars took centre stage.
Also in action at Goodwood in March, and a very rare sight on this side of the Atlantic was one of the Greenwood IMSA Corvettes. Built by John Greenwood and further developed by Bob Riley, these wide-body, big-block engined machines were among the fastest of all the Group 5 cars, particularly in a straight line. The Greenwood Corvette highlighted today spent most of its life in North America but has more recently been acquired by a Swedish enthusiast, who demonstrated it at Goodwood and raced at the Spa Classic in 2018.

Enjoy the links:

1977 Chevrolet Greenwood IMSA Corvette - Chassis CC008 - Ultimatecarpage.com

1979 Ferrari 512 BB LM - Chassis 27577 - Ultimatecarpage.com

1977 Porsche 935/77 'Works' - Chassis 935-004 - Ultimatecarpage.com

2019 Renault Mgane R.S. 300 Trophy - Images, Specifications and Information