A new edition to the Scottish Motor Racing Club’s portfolio, the SMRC are delighted to be appointed as the Organising Club for the CHASE Equipment Historic Modsports & Special Saloon Series.
Originally created in 2022 by Promotor Steve Watton, the Series is designed to celebrate the rich heritage of the genre from the late 60’s through to the end of the 1970’s. Our focus is on preserving and re-creating the atmosphere from the period and showcasing these classic racing vehicles which made so much history on the UK scene.
Racing during the 1960’s and 70’s saw predominantly production-based categories for both sports cars and saloon cars. For saloons, the manufacturers dominated the Group 2 and Group 5 categories, which resembled the standard road car on the surface, but under the skin were high tech, highly regulated, high-cost machines which were well out of reach of the club competitor.
The rules for Group 1 cars however, which again required the car to remain recognisable as their road car ancestors, were becoming more relaxed and as long as the basics of shape and dimension remained unaltered, modifications under the skin became more and more unrestrained.
The equivalent sports car category was ‘Modsports’ which whilst slightly more restrictive in the fact that the original engine type and chassis centre section was to be retained, also provided the club competitor with the opportunity to create some pretty quick machines.
Both categories obtained their own set of regulations imposed by the RAC from the early 70’s onwards and were published in the annual ‘Blue Book’ to retain control and credibility, this then spawned a whole plethora of now iconic championships along with a cult following amongst British club competitors and spectators, a cult which exists to this day.
Our series today retains, to a very large extent, those regulations from the Blue Books of the 1970’s and our quest is to try and remain as faithful as we can to the specifications developed during that period. New cars being built from scratch are more than welcome, as long as they comply with our technical regulations and just as importantly, the spirit of the series.
Further information is available on the Series Promotor’s dedicated website www.
