Quote Originally Posted by sollitt View Post
Yes & no. Grp A cars were production based cars with a minimum build requirement. Essentially there was a requirement for a road going version of the rally car.
With WRC cars there needed only to be a production car providing the body shell. There was no requirement for this car to be 4WD or have the same engine size ... or in fact any of the componentry.
Whilst the initial thoughts were that removing the need for the production car would lessen costs and entice more manufacturers, the freedom to push boundaries with technological advancements added to the costs and limited the numbers who would compete.
You are wrong with Your assumptions or better to say You concentrate only on price for end-customers - teams. Bringing gr.A back would be much more expensive for car manufacturers than to continue current WRC concept hence I'm sure manufacturers would not be interested at all. One single WRC car is more expensive than one gr.A car was. That's for sure. But You don't see the multiply higher expenses behind production of road-going rally cars. There is also the fact they don't suit modern standards of ecology and fuel efficiency (these law-based requirements exist and there is no use in pretending they are not).