The Alfa-Ferrari Andy Burton built before the Peugeot Cosworth was pretty spectacular also!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2rROTHn5y0
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The Alfa-Ferrari Andy Burton built before the Peugeot Cosworth was pretty spectacular also!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2rROTHn5y0
You wrote:
"But crucially for me, those types of consumer-series car names are not the future, there's no link anymore so why restrict it to them?"
"I made a list of 10 manufacturers of rally cars that'd be available for sale to the public (hypothetically). They'd all be manufacturers, manufacturing manufacturers' wares. You might say "but I can't buy one". Yes you could. "You don't see anybody driving them on the roads". How often do you see a Rally1/2/3/4/5 being driven?"
to which I asked you what you meant and if you could give me an example. You answered:
"How about a McRae R4 of today, space frame style."
Which is a buggy to me. The RS200 and the 037 are not buggies to me, they were sold to the (not so) general public as road cars. I don't find relevant if they fall into the touring or grand touring or whatever category.
I wouldn't, and I think many fans would get sick pretty soon if there's a championship filled with buggies or protos or fantasy purpose-built cars. I think some fans prefer cars over show, others prefer show over cars.
Growing up, my rally fan classmates and friends loved cars and loved rallying because rally cars were based on road cars (group N, or the huge amount of small FWD French cars, etc) or at least there was a resemblance with the bodyshell like in WRC, racing on everyday town and country roads. Rally cars were not like single seaters, bunch of almost identical looking rockets on 4 wheels with different liveries. Of course, rallying is a great sport to spectate, so show mattered as well.
But to choose show over rally cars, no. You could guarantee to me that if we put Ogier, Neuville and Tanak on dirt bikes, we'd get a super exciting championship with lots of show, I still wouldn't care, I'm not enough of a motorbike fan. I'd rather see them drive Peugeot 106 N2 than a Red Bull buggy, and I'm positive many fans who like cars over show would also be disappointed to have many McRae R4-like cars in the championship. I watch them when I follow Dakar. Hopefully there's something inbetween.