Ford C100

The Ford C100 is a sports racing car that Ford built in 1981, initially built and run as a Group 6 car and later as a Group C car. It initially featured a 4-litre Cosworth DFL V8 engine, replaced by a 3.3-litre version of the same engine in 1983 after the car had passed to private hands, and five cars are known to have been built. Ford began the project in 1981 with Len Bailey, who had also worked on the GT40, as designer, and the original cars used a simple aluminium chassis before an updated model used a stronger aluminium honeycomb chassis. Although the cars were often very quick in qualifying, reliability problems restricted their successes to two Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft victories in 1982 and a single Thundersports victory in 1983. After Ford ended the programme in 1983, Zakspeed modified one chassis into the C1/4 with a 1.8-litre turbocharged four and evolved another into the C1/8, and Klaus Niedzwiedz used a C1/8 to win the Interserie in 1984.