One of Bernie's better efforts was the introduction of Procar as a support race on Saturdays for GPs, something which has never really been replaced.

More info, includes car specs

Each driver had an identical car - a BMW M1 (ugly looking brute!) and I belive that qualifying for the series depended upon the results from the F1 Qualifying. Curiously only drivers from Renault and Ferrari didn't take part (due to the BMW link, no doubt)

So how about it? More of this, or are these days gone?

I'd love to see a decent set of race highlights. The only thing I've ever been able to find is brief 1 mintue YouTube thing.

It sounded great. But as you pointed out the Ferrari and Renault drivers didn't do it in 79/80 when F1 was much less up it's own rear than it is now. The Porsche Supercup does the Procar thing now. Just with less excitement and no F1 drivers.

Saw them at Brands in 1980
Forgotten how nice they sounded on-board at Nurburgring <cool>

This was a great series. It ran for two years, and the top 5 qualifiers from the GP got to race the 'works' cars. These were supplemented by regular teams. The Ferrari and Renault drivers were ineligible because their teams were on Michelin tyres, and Procar was supported by rivals Goodyear. This of course meant no Villeneuve, sadly.

The '79 title was won by Niki Lauda (who had a regular ride, rather than relying on the GP qualifying), and the following year Nelson Piquet took the championship. Race winners included Elio de Angelis, Jan Lammers, Carlos Reutemann, Hans Stuck and Didier Pironi. There was an attempt by Ecclestone to set up a similar series a few years later, using a silhouette Alfa Romeo bodyshell with an F1 car lurking underneath the disguise. The car got as far as testing (driven by Riccardo Patrese, I think), but the project was shelved due to costs. Shame.

The only other equivalent series I can remember was the Jaguar XJR15 series that ran in the early nineties - I think they did about five races at GPs.

The late 80s Procar was actually built by Brabham, and is mooted as one of the reasons for the team's decline. Although Gordon Murray leaving and Bernie losing interest probably contributed...

The series was designed to run in sequence with the new 3.5l Group C formula and F1, allowing shared technology to tempt manufacturers into Grand Prix racing. Of course Procar never happened and Group C was dead within 2 years after Bernie upped costs for entrants and never delivered on TV promises. So at the end of it, the cynical among us might say that Bernie had killed off Sports Prototype Racing's greatest ear, one its once mightiest manufacturers and what he had achieved in return was Peugeot in F1. Well worth it then...!

Back on topic, the BMW M1 was run in various guises all over the shop. I was watching footage of one racing in IMSA at Mosport pilotted by Hans Stuck and David Hobbs a couple of days ago. There are still examples racing in historics today. The XJR-15 was a Tom Wilkinshaw dream. It was very similar to the Group C racers from which its name was derived. Off the top of my head, the only race result I can recall is that Derek Warwick won at Monaco. I think the crucial mistake TWR made was using the V12 instead of the V6 turbo engine used in later Group C Jags. The V12 was a tall engine and good for endurance racing due to decent fuel consumption compared to thirsty Porsche turbos. However, a V6 turbo with the boost up would have left a better balanced racing car, and a more exciting prospect for spectators. A valiant effort though!

Along the same lines...does anyone remember Formula Classic? I believe it was a Tom Wheatcroft initiative featuring 20-odd identical single seaters designed to look like 1950s Grand Prix cars. I saw the series supporting the BPR Global GTs at Donington 1995 (either that or ITC, I forget which...) and Martin Donnelly won by a country mile. Anyone else recall it? I wonder what happened to all those cars?!

Just to take yet another tangent. I did think that when Bernie had killed the ITC (I'll avoid another rant!) with Alfa and Opel fleeing due to ridiculous costs, perhaps Mercedes could've created an interesting one-make series supporting grand prix. The list of drivers back then was stella and the cars were more technically advanced than 1996 GP cars, with ABS, traction control, etc. Might have been fun but was just something I considered at the time...

This is almost entirely NOT what I had in mind.

Gilles - one of the FClassic cars is in the Donington Museum - there's a surprise now.

I haven't been to the Donington Collection in a while but I can well imagine Mr Wheatcroft has a fair few of those FClassic cars knocking around...!

This reminds me of that Jag race series that supported F1 at a couple of races in 92 (IIRC). Plenty of JXR15s got battered in that series.

Got Tom Wheatcroft's autobiography recently. He still has all the Formula Classic cars in storage.