Production car racing is also known as showroom stock racing, street stock, pure stock, and U-car racing. It is a type of auto racing where unmodified or very lightly modified production cars are used. Cars used in this race usually have protective roll cages and they run race tires. It is an economical and rules restricted version of touring car racing.
This car racing is intended to be really cheap because all engine modifications are not allowed. The only thing you can do to your car in this race is to tune the motor, and the ROMs must remain stock. The cars used in production car racing does not have any age limit, meaning, cars as old as 50 years and as new as current body styles can join the race.
Before qualifying for the race, your car will be checked thoroughly. There are people from the Tech shed that will download your engine software to check it against factory settings. Also, all of the internal parts of your car will be weighed and measured. The number of parts will also be checked as well as the machine marks that would come naturally if your engine was blueprinted and balanced.
Origin of Production Cars
The earliest use if the term production car being applied to motor cars dates back to June 1914, when it was used in an American advertisement for a Regal motor car. It was a shortened form of a mass-produced or quantity-produced car. It was also used in terms of the car to be made in production, as opposed to the prototype.
Also during those times, production cars pertain to cheaper vehicles that were made in relatively large numbers on production lines such as Model T’s. But in the present time, the term has broadened. Production cars now include vehicles that are assembled by hand, or assembled on a production or assembly line.
Production Car Racing Classes
There are three performance potential based classes in production car racing. They are the E Production (EP), F Production (FP), and H Production (HP). The fastest among these classes is EP while HP runs the slowest in the category. Several cars in the production classes can be used in more than one class by changing the engine between races. Some of the cars included in these Production classes are MG Midget, Turner, Alfa Romeo Spyder, BMW 325, Nissan 240, Honda Civic, and more.
Production Car Racing Series
Production car racing categories are usually based on particular makes of cars. There are a lot of Porsche and Audi racing series being held around the world. They are also called one-make series. There are some series that uses a handicapped start where smaller cars are released up to 45 seconds ahead of the larger cars. The idea of this start is for all cars to be together at the end of the race.
There are many production car racing series that have run all over the world and two of the most famous were Japan’s Super Taikyu and IMSA’s Firehawk Series. Both of these series ran between the 1980s to the 1990s all over the United States.
Some of the major races are the Bathurst 12 Hour, Bahrain 24 Hour, Dubai 24 Hour and Malaysian 12 Hour. These races are sanctioned by organizations such as FIA and Sports Car Club of America or SCCA. These races started as an entry-level formula until they have grown into stand-alone series with national, state, and club events, as well as championships.
On June 19, 1949, the first NASCAR “strictly stock” race was held at Charlotte Speedway. A racing class in this race requires that the cars raced to be production vehicles only. They can only be slightly adapted for racing, that’s why car manufacturers that time only produce a limited run of such vehicles for public sale so they can legitimately race them in the class. They call these cars homologation specials.
During the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, the term production car racing has been used as an alternative for hot rods in British oval racing, as run in the West Country. In the 1970s, a world championship for production cars was held twice. The first championship was won by Spence Morgan in 1974, followed by Ralph Sanders in 1975. They both drove Ford Anglias in those races.
Production car racing is indeed another great motorsport being held worldwide that showcases many amazing sports cars.