Not a Group C car, but, a significant race car in the previous era, of what would become Group 5, for wildly outlandish GT (Grand Touring) cars. Another video from 19Bozzy92.
The JS2 is a mid-engined sports car built by the French automaker Ligier between 1971 and 1975. Its first public showing was at the 1970 Salon de l’Auto in Paris featuring a 2.6 litre Ford V6 but after the official unveil Ford declined to supply engines to Ligier for their JS2, fearing that it could have competed with their new GT70. A deal was reached with Citroën to use Maserati-derived engines for the production Ligier (Maserati had been taken over by Citroën since 1968), at first by a 2.7 V6 engine which was replaced by a bigger 2.9 one, taken from the Maserati Merak, in 1973. The production of the JS2 ended in 1975 when Citroën went bankrupt and merged with Peugeot, putting Maserati into liquidation.
On the motorsport side, the first JS2s were fielded under the Group 5 rules and were entered in the 1972 and 1973 Le Mans 24h races but they suffered from many problems all caused by the Maserati engines. In 1974 Ligier fielded the JS2 in most rounds of the World Championship in the Sports 3000 (S3.0) class but again with limited success due to reliability issues. The year ended with a deserved victory in the Tour de France. In 1975 due to Citroën’s financial problems, Ligier replaced the Maserati V6 on their race cars with a 3.0 Cosworth DFV V8 engine, able to produce 480hp at 10,200 rpm, and tried to achieve an overall win at Le Mans. The goal was nearly achieved after a race-long battle with the Mirage GR8 of Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx, but in the end it had to be satisfied with a second place.
Watch it in action around Circuit Paul Ricard during the 2019 Dix Mille Tours racing weekend by Peter Auto.
#LigierJS2 #LigierJS2Cosworth #CosworthDFV
Group C Sports Cars, the thunder of the '80s 