Excitement builds for 2016 Spa Classic

Excitement builds for 2016 Spa Classic

The Spa Classic has achieved the status of one of the major meetings for classic cars on what is considered as the most beautiful circuit in the world. The names of its corners rhyme with so many famous no-holds-barred battles and their history calls to mind glory and victory. Spa-Francorchamps provides a decor and an ambience unlike any other for an exceptional event.

At Spa-Classic there will be almost non-stop on-track action. But it won’t be the only place! At the foot of the Raidillon, not far from the famous “Buvette, L’Arbre qui tue,” shows like the Wall of Death an absolutely breathtaking motorcycle stunt show, "Invisible Wall of Death". The idea came to create wall of death in metal mesh to allow visibility from outside, unlike the traditional wooden Walls that can only be viewed from above. The visibility is perfect, only seeing the riders on theirs bikes, not the wall. The wall is Completely vertical and as well as riding motocross bikes they'll also be throwing tricks on a vintage Indian Scout from 1928.

SLOT RACINGSince the 50s the electronic road circuits have provided thrills and excitement for generations and have never gone out of fashion. The outstanding feature of the track at Spa-Classic is its length of almost 30 metres, and it can accommodate 8 cars at the same time like Ford GT40s, E-Type Jaguars, Chevrolet Corvettes, Austin Healeys, etc. Thus, kids of all ages can do battle while enthusiastic spectators look on in awe! 

EXHIBITORS’ VILLAGESpa-Classic will be a paradise for car enthusiasts who can stroll among the professionals’ boutiques who will present their latest oeuvres, books, automobile antiques, scale models and other rare objects.

PETER AUTO GRIDSSince the early 2000s Peter Auto has created grids devoted to the different periods of the history of motor sport and to different racing cars. The Peter Auto grids, Classic Endurance Racing 1 & 2, Sixties’ Endurance, Trofeo Nastro Rosso, Group C Racing and Heritage Touring cars highlight the GT, Sports, Prototype and Touring cars that have marked the history of endurance racing.Thanks to the reputation Peter Auto has built since its creation and the expertise of its teams, the company has acquired a reputation of being able to assemble the richest and biggest grids of historic cars for which it organises races at its European events.

As proof of the quality of these grids, in 2015 Classic Endurance Racing was awarded the title of the Racing Series of the Year at the International Historic Motoring Awards.

In 2016, C.E.R will celebrate its thirteenth season. A great achievement throughout Europe where the drivers and their cars revived the great days of endurance creating one of the most important historic events. In addition, at the end of 2015 it was awarded the Race Series of the Year Prize at the International Historic Motoring Awards.Since 2004 Classic Endurance Racing has been THE retrospective of endurance races held between 1966 and 1979, an era when this branch of the sport topped the bill in world motor racing. It was the glorious years of the Ford GT40s, Porsches 910 and 917, Ferraris 512S and M, BMWs, etc. driven by the likes of Jacky Ickx, Henri Pescarolo, Gérard Larrousse, whose playing fields were not limited to the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours: they also raced on the greatest European circuits in the context of the Sports Car World Championship. Classic Endurance Racing is much more than a simple historic commemoration. With grids of 50 cars and drivers determined to pay homage to the glorious past of their vehicles, the on-track spectacle is simply awesome!

To meet the demand the field will be split into two at all the Peter Auto events:

CER 1 - GT 1966/1974 1 Prototypes 1966/1971CER 2 - GT 1975/1979 Prototypes 1972/1979

The Group C Racing grid has recently come under the Peter Auto banner, and it will be present at five events put on by the French organiser, in particular as a curtain-raiser to Le Mans Classic. The Group C regulations led to the production of fabulous cars which wrote some of the most glorious pages in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the World Endurance Championship. Early on, the Porsche 956s dominated despite stiff opposition from the Lancia LC2s, and then in 962 configuration came up against much tougher rivals with the arrival of Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota,Nissan and Mazda. Alongside the major manufacturers small constructors like Cougar, Dome, Rondeau, Spice and WM could still pull off the odd coup thanks to an intelligent interpretation of the regulations based essentially on fuel consumption. Group C was abandoned in the early 90s after a brief cohabitation with the Sport 3.5s (Peugeot 905, Jaguar XJR-14, Toyota TS010, etc), but that era is still considered as the Golden Age of endurance racing by the majority of the specialists of this branch of motor sport.

The Group C cars are modern looking with their rounded windscreens and their doors in elytron, and they exert an incredible fascination on all generations of fans with performances that are not too far off those of the current crop of LM P prototypes as their top speed was way north of 300 km/h!

The brand-new Heritage Touring Cup was the 2014 bill-topping Peter Auto grid. It came from the success of the Spa Endurance Touring Car event, which formed, with the Sixties’ Endurance, the core of the Spa-Classic Endurance race: it was the star of the 2013 event.In the same way that Le Mans is the temple of Endurance racing for prototypes and Grand Touring cars, since its early days Spa-Francorchamps has been the House of Touring Car racing with its famous 24-Hours race, which is the favorite playing field for the majority of manufacturers and some of the best-know drivers in the world, as the ultimate highlight. During this long period of Touring Car racing a number of manufacturers won with their flagship makes. BMW was one of the most loyal entrants as over three decades the Bavarian manufacturer raced a whole string of models ranging from the T1800 Ti in the 60s to the famous M3 in the 90s. It holds the record for the number of victories (21) in the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours. The cars from Munich had several rivals over their reign and were beaten by the Alfa Romeo GTAs and GTVs, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SEs, Ford Mustangs and the Capri RSs, Porsche 911s, Mazda RX-7s and Jaguar

Thanks to the success of the Spa event Peter Auto decided to revive this great era of the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) between 1966 and 1984, and has given the Heritage Touring Cup a choice slot on its programme of events.

SIXTIES’ ENDURANCE

2016 will be the seventh season of Sixties’ Endurance racing. Since its debut at the Dix Mille Tours on the Paul Ricard circuit in 2010, it has attracted a large following among spectators thanks to its all-inclusive quality field of pre-63 World Endurance Championship cars and pre-66 GTs.On the track cars, whose names still echo in the memories of fans of this era of endurance racing which, at the time, was the top motor sport category, thrill the crowd. AC Cobras, Ferrari 250 GTs, Lotus 15s and E-Type Jaguars are part of a long list of machines that still bewitch spectators by their shapes and their sounds from another epoch.This diversity, which today’s public really appreciates, gave an in-depth richness to the world championship of the time. During these 2-hour long races the pre-63 sports and GT cars recreate the battles of that long-gone past.A Peter Auto innovation: a classification based on an Index of Performance, in addition to the scratch classification, gives an advantage to the small capacity cars and the oldest warriors faced with their more powerful and more modern rivals like the AC Cobras, which have been the quickest winning on several circuits.

more info:

www.spa-francorchamps.behttps://peterauto.peter.fr/en/evenement/presentation/id/168/nom/Spa-Classic

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