For me Buggies are either for pushing young children in and built by Maclaren; or they're a bit bigger for a few adults, powered, and found on the beaches of 1960's California, the moon or a golf course. These usually have no/low sides, no windscreen/windows or rooves, have a high centre of gravity and do not make suitable or safe road-rally cars at all.

I'm not saying WRC2027 cars shouldn't have rules and be a free-for-all designs; the bodywork reference volumes were already decided and they could have been based on production road safety guidelines by prominent bodies. They must be fully closed with windscreens etc. There's your road car connection no? It's an idea that'll rule out the Audi buggy, moon buggy and the sofa. And probably the R4 is too small.

McRae had a plan to build a road legal car useful for various motorsport disciplines and for sale to the public. The only difference between this (being done now) and the Stratos, 037, RS200 is that he wouldn't have had to build a minimum number, and as stories go, neither did Lancia or Ford anyway so they're exactly the same car type. His was the most hideous looking car I've ever seen, but if Loeb turns up to Monte 27 in it, I'm watching.

If instead of WRC you want to see a rally series which has scores of production road car makes involved, with true 2027 road relevance; check out this series.