Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
Even if the comparison is very imperfect because of the penetrator cross section I'll go back to the pistol bullet. It has an energy equivalent to a WRC car moving at only 2 km/h but it can penetrate 4 mm of steel. A car moving at 20 km/h has 86x more energy. What You propose would help just a little and it would bring about 20 kg weight in places which are inconvenient for the vehicle performance.
Not saying it's not a fair point however surface area and materials matter too. A bullet is a concentrated mass made out of a relatively strong material. A piece of wood even if it's sturdy is not the same.

If they were to enhance the protection I suppose they would go from something carbon based instead of heavy metals. Circuit cars have such "survival cells" which are subjected to several tests including intrusion tests. F1 helmets are bulletproof exactly to protect against intrusion. Obviously a rally car is different but I'm sure they could do better.

Maybe it's too expensive for WRC but better is always possible.