A REAL RACER! Wounded Warrior Liam Dwyer, USMC racing at the 2012 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix
Vintage Ford Capri with Cologne V6 2.0L battling with BMW 2002 and Datsun 510 Wagon "Flying Breadvan" B Sedan racing video at Buttonwillow VARA Oktoberfest 2010 (5:51)
Vintage 2.5 Challenge B Sedan cars at the 2010 Coronado Speed Fest - great Datsun 510 vs. Alfa GTV vs. BMW 2002 race starts at about 1:00 (2:57)
American sedan racing evolved out of English and European sedan racing, with a particular bent toward the attention that auto manufacturers crave. Back in the late 1960's and early 1970's new families needed 2- and 4-door sedans to
get them around, yet young fathers still wanted the high performance capabilities of sports cars. Auto manufacturers were happy to develop family sedans with potent small-bore 4- and 6-cylinder cars that appealed to men. Europeans
had always had small sedans, and by the 1960's the Lotus Ford Cortina, Triumph Herald, Renault Dauphine, BMW 1600, Ford Capri and Alfa Romeo GT sedans had serious high performance motors. Americans had the Dodge Dart, Plymouth Valiant and Ford Falcon with their straight 6-cylinder engines
compared to the big muscle car V8s of the era. Then the Oil Crisis hit in the 1970's and Americans suddenly got interested in smaller,
more fuel efficient cars. At the same time a Japanese company named Datsun started shipping its iconic 510 sedan to the U.S. Seeing an opportunity to appeal to manufacturers and help them promote their new small sedans, the SCCA TRANS-AM organizers created
the 2.5 Challenge for under 3 liter cars which raced as a sister series to the full-bore V8 TRANS-AM series at the same events. The ensuing races between Lotus Ford Cortina, Datsun 510, BMW 2002, Mercury Capri and Alfa Romeo GTV are legendary. These cars and similar ones are still raced
today around the world in some of the most competitive manufacturer-backed and amateur events you'll ever see.
