Quote Originally Posted by WRCStan View Post
What about 'homologation' rules? Do BMW/Hyundai/Ford HAVE TO be involved with their makes? The only official involvement I see is our good friends from Toyota. Technical rules are kind of moot if this remains an obstacle in WRC.
The cars have to comply with the "NGTC" rules that the BTCC organisers wrote in 2011. Unfortunately they are on a password protected site. There's a general summary here https://btcc.net/about/key-rules-and-regulations/ with a link to this year's championship sporting & additional technical rules. They doesn't answer your question but the web page does say:
The NGTC regulations allows independent teams to compete on a level playing field against manufacturer-backed efforts by keeping costs down whilst at the same time rewarding precise engineering and all-important split-second strategy.
So it looks like there's no need for a link between a team and the manufacturer of the car they're using.

There is also a link to a summary of the 2027 rules, here https://btcc.net/about/2027-technical-regulations/ which states
Firstly, TOCA has unlocked the necessity for the specific model of the car to be sold in the UK.
Clearly any current restriction the BTCC has about cars needing to be sold in the UK wouldn't be relevant to WRC but the principle of letting independant teams develop thier own cars and compete against manufacturers might open a door for the likes of Prodrive & Paddon to join MSport in the WRC. The only battle they'd then have would be budget, for which we really need WRC Promoter to do a better job of marketing the championship so that sponsors are easier to get involved.