The FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship will see its format reduced from 15 to 12 events as from 2016, the aim being to encourage greater participation in the Championship. These 12 rallies will be split into three sections (A, B and C) each of 4 events. In order to establish the final classification of the Championship only two results per section (i.e. a total of six) will be able to be retained, plus a seventh result from any of the three sections. In addition, there will be no requirement for a minimum number of participations, and all that will be needed to feature in the final classification of the Championship will be for the competitor to have participated and scored points in at least one event. To encourage entries of cars with small cylinder capacities, more points will now be awarded per class. The calendar of the 2016 edition of the FIA European Historic Sporting Rally Championship will be announced immediately after the next meeting of the World Motor Sport Council (2 December 2015), at the same time as the calendar of the FIA Trophy for Historic Regularity Rallies.

The same principle to award points to the competitors in accordance with the class of their cars’ cylinder capacity will also be applied in the FIA Historic Hill Climb Championship. The upgrading by a coefficient of 2 of the exclusively historic hill climbs (those not combined with modern events) will be abandoned in 2016; however, for the competitors concerned this will be replaced by the awarding of bonus points (2 points for each starter and 3 additional points for each classification). In the final classification of the Championship no driver will be able to count more than two results obtained in the country of his ASN. The calendar of the 2016 edition of the FIA Historic Hill Climb Championship will be announced immediately after the next meeting of the World Motor Sport Council (2 December 2015).

The World Motor Sport Council accepted the submitted proposals to amend several articles of Appendix K with immediate effect.

A standard model of front wing is introduced in order to be able to fit the ground effect Formula One cars, which were provided in period with sliding or fixed skirts (up to the end of 1982).

Article 3.2 of Appendix K will no longer mention the KC Period, given that the cars from after 1990 are no longer considered to be “historic”.

Appendix VII to Appendix K has been greatly enhanced with a variety of clarifications concerning the Volvo, Aston Martin DB3S and Porsche 911 Carrera. For the Volvo 122 S, those specifications and sizes of the rear brake drums, which are missing from the Homologation Form, are now specified in Appendix VII; the same applies to the constant values for the transmissions of the 122 S, 123 GT, 142 S and GL, 144 S, 1800 E and S. For the Aston Martin DB3S, the Dunlop brake callipers comprising a steel bridge with a piston of a diameter of 44.5mm are permitted as replacement parts for the original Lockheed callipers. As regards the Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 RS/RSR, it is now stipulated that the combined spring/damper and suspension domes with a diameter of 100mm are not accepted before the Evolution 3053-15/14 E for the G models.

These amendments may be consulted in the updated Appendix K, which is available at fia.com (click here).

Appendix I to Appendix K has been greatly enhanced with the addition of new categories (HSA1 to HSA9), which allow the issuing of HTPs (Historic Technical Passports) for cars of Periods E to J2 conforming to the supplementary technical regulations of international rallies contested, back in the day, on the African continent (including the Safari Rally).

Following discussions between the FIA Historic Motor Sport Commission and the FIA Circuits Commission, Article 6 of Appendix O to the International Sporting Code was the subject of several amendments aimed at determining the access of the various types of historic cars to the circuits according to the grade of FIA licence they hold (scale of 1 to 4).

Recommended to the ASNs for 2015, the abandonment of the international drivers’ licences of grades H1 to H4 (specific to the historic competitions) will be applied strictly in 2016. The attribution of the licences will be based exclusively on the grades A, B, C, D and, for rallies, R. In order to maintain a price structure that retains a clear distinction between modern motor sport and historic motor sport, the ASNs could issue licences of Grades C, D and R that are strictly limited to historic events, by adding a code “H” to the grade of the licence, with the following text: “For use during historic motor sport events only”. To replace the H4 licence, a code “HREG” could be added to the grade of the R licence with the text: “For use during historic regularity motor sport events only”.