Endurance
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GT cars and others ones
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Interserie- cars
The Ford C100, a sports prototype initially built to Group 6 regulations before evolving to Group C, was intended to take on the likes of Porsche, Lancia and Rondeau but never fully lived up to that full promise. The Ford C100 program was very much a European effort, but under the consent of Detroit
Len Bailey, who was involved with the Ford GT40 program in the 1960s, was brought in to design the car, which was originally intended to debut at Le Mans in 1981 before facing production delays.
Designed in Europe by Len Bailey for Group C competition, the slippery C100 initially ran with the 3.9L Cosworth DFL V8 (approx. 540 hp), a derivative of the famous 3.0L DFV Formula 1 engine. The C100 was named for its intended racing class (Group C) and its height in centimetres (100), and actually stood one half inch lower than the GT40.
The car competed in a single race in 1981, the World Endurance Championship 1000-kilometer race at Brands Hatch. While fast (it won the pole position and it led for 40 laps), it retired with a gearbox failure. The car was not race-ready yet; it had incomplete ground-effect tunnels and radiator ducting.
1982 proved to be even worse. At 3.9L the DFL engine caused severe vibration, causing system failures. With extra cash coming from Ford, Cosworth could carry on. In the middle of the project, Len Bailey left. He left behind the definitive chassis, again a sheet aluminium monocoque. The tub had been built by Hesketh Racing, but soon after Alain de Cadenet was authorised to produce a car for his own WEC program, he ordered a honeycomb version. Ford adopted both chassis. The Hesketh car went to Lothar Pinske at Ford Köln and the Cadenet went to Erich Zakowski from Zakspeed. The first runs were dreadful. Zakspeed hired Tony Southgate as engineering consultant. The first real race was at Silverstone. The car took pole, but after a few laps into the race, the engine vibrated everything loose. In the 24hLe Mans race, two Zakspeed-run were there. They did good again in qualifying. However, neither the Manfred Winkelhock/Klaus Niedzwiedz or Klaus Ludwig/Marc Surer-driven cars made it to the finish.
The Ford factory program ended with the conclusion of the 1982 season and used the car as a test car for a planned DFL turbo engine.
Erich Zakowski held on to his honeycomb chassis and rebuilt them to accept a 1.7 litre turbocharged engine, The cars were now renamed as Zakspeed C1/4.
The cars raced in the DRM and one interserie race, one with sponsorship from ‘GWB Service’; the other from Jagermeister. This car did one WEC race at Spa. Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz qualified sixth, but retired with gearboxproblems.
Then the cars were back with the 3.3l DFL power for 1984. When the Nurburgring race was a disaster, Zakpeed dropped the project and concentrated on the Ford Probe IMSA project and the F1.
A Zakspeed C1/8 turned up in 1984 in the hands of Jan Thoelke and Harald Becker with sponsoring from ‘Ginseng’. Later it was Jochen Dauer with sponsoring from ‘Victors’ using the car.
