Is there a future for R5?
R5 was a good idea to allow amateurs to get new 4wd cars at a reasonable price but with the introduction of S2000 1.6T cars (RCC) in national or regional championships the concept is under threath.
From the past experiences of new categories cost control (remember S2000) the 150m€ price target is difficult to achieve, probably cars would cost near 200m€. At this price and knowing that R5 cars are less competitive than RRC, how many drivers would invest that kind of money with so little changes to win overall?
Probably teams and drivers with budget to run nowadays highly cost S2000NA cars will more easily evolve to RRC cars, so the remaining R5 purpose would be the replacement of N4 cars, but how many manus are interested in developing a 4wd amateurs car? Especially when the development process of a RRC would cost nearly the same?
Toyota has already answer these questions, developing the Yaris under RRC regs. Lets see how many more manus will follow this direction.