Ford

Ford C 100

The Ford C100 is a sports racing car, initially built and run as a Group 6 car, but later as a Group C car. The C100 was built by Ford in 1981, and initially featured a 4-litre Cosworth DFL V8 engine, which was replaced by a 3.3-litre version of the same engine in 1983, after the car had passed to private hands. Five cars are known to have been built. Although the cars were often very quick in qualifying (when they had been fully developed), reliability problems plagued them, and restricted their successes to two Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft victories in 1982, and a single Thundersports victory in 1983. Following the end of Ford's involvement in the C100 project in 1983, Zakspeed modified one of the chassis into the C1/4, which used a 1.8-litre turbocharged in-line 4 from their Group 5 Ford Capri. The C100 was also evolved into the Zakspeed C1/8, which used the 4-litre Cosworth DFL in a C1/4 chassis. The Zakspeed cars would prove to be far more successful than the C100 had ever been, and Klaus Niedzwiedz used a C1/8 to win the Interserie in 1984.

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Design and development

Ford Motor Company began the C100 project in 1981, with Len Bailey, who had also been involved on the successful GT40 project in the past, being the man whom was selected to design it. Bailey penned a car with a shovelled nose at the front, and a lofty decking at the rear, and the car was designed to use a Cosworth V8. However, Bailey soon became disillusioned with the project, and left prior to the development of an updated version for the 1982 season. Tony Southgate was soon called in to look at the C100, and was unimpressed by the car. He stated that the steering rack was misplaced, and that the rear suspension looked like it was designed for a totally different car. The original C100s used a simple aluminium chassis, but an updated model, initially built for Alain de Cadenet, used a stronger aluminium honeycomb chassis. Thompson redesigned the suspension at both ends of the car, which led to a significant reduction in lap time. Impressed with his work, Ford offered Thompson a deal to redevelop the C100 for the 1983 season. Thompson promptly redeveloped the car from scratch, bar its windscreen, and the redeveloped C100s used the same aluminium honeycomb monocoque as the de Cadenet car had, whilst the body was initially made out of glassfibre. Thompson and Keith Duckworth worked on a turbocharged version of the Cosworth DFL V8 engine, and its installation in the C100's chassis. However, a week after the new C100 had undergone its maiden test at Paul Ricard, albeit with a regular DFL as the new engine was not yet ready, Ford pulled the plug on the C100 project. Thompson claimed that the updated C100 developed 4,000 lb (1,814 kg) of downforce in its sprint race configuration, and that it was superior to the Porsche 956. The C100 did, however, suffer from high-speed unde

Racing history

=== 1981 === Although Ford attempted to enter the C100 in the 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans, they did not actually attend the event; instead, the car made its début at the Brands Hatch 1000 km three months later. Manfred Winkelhock and Klaus Ludwig were selected to drive the works-entered car, and took a debut pole by 1.1 seconds from the works Lola T600 of Guy Edwards and Emilio de Villota. Unfortunately for Ford, a gearbox failure forced the car out after 40 laps, and the Edwards/de Villota Lola went on to win the race. 1982. For 1982, four further cars were built, and the cars were used in both the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM), and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). In his C100, which had now been reclassified as a Group C car, Ludwig opened the 1982 season with a retirement at Zolder, which held the opening round of the DRM, before taking tenth in the second round, held at Hockenheimring (although he had retired after 17 laps, he had completed enough to be classified.) Ford Germany ran one C100 at the 1000 km Monza, which opened the WEC season; Winkelhock, Ludwig and Marc Surer drove C100 #02, although Ford had also initially entered Surer alongside Klaus Niedzwiedz in C100 #03 as a second entry. Yet again, however, the C100 retired; this time due to overheating after 18 laps. Ludwig then missed the Nürburgring round of the DRM, whilst Surer and Niedzwiedz both missed the 6 Hours of Silverstone. However, Winkelhock and Ludwig did attend the latter event, and became the first drivers to finish a race with the C100; eighth, and fifth in the Group C category, was where they finished. The pair retired again in the 1000 km Nürburgring, having suffered a differential failure after 31 laps, but this was enough to classify them in twentieth. The 24 Hours of Le

Sections adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); text is shortened. Read the full article for the complete history and citations.

Specifications

Measured facts from Wikidata (CC0). Check the linked sources for citations.

More photos

Sources

• Wikidata — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1406619CC0 1.0 · retrieved 2026-10-01
• Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_C100CC BY-SA 4.0 · Text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1285235032 · retrieved 2026-10-01
• Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_C100_3.jpgCC BY 2.0 · Photo: Darren · retrieved 2026-10-01
• Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.

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