Can you buy a new car with a genuine motorsport connection?
Discussion
Some of my favourite cars ever made came into being due to homologation:
The rules are slightly different now, so most of the cars you see on track or on the rally stage bear little relation (other than the shape) to the cars we can buy and drive on the road. I guess this is both a good and a bad thing. Cheaper for manufacturers to go racing perhaps? (Although there seem to be less factory teams than there were in the days of homologation. Bad because we can't buy cars anything like we see on the track/rally stage anymore and the old heroes (i.e. Impreza WRX STI and Evo seem a bit irrelevant now as road cars when more refined and economical but just as quick rivals are available for similar money. My question is, can you buy a new car any more with a genuine motorsport connection? I know the old 911 GT3 had a race-derived engine but no longer and the RenaultSport Megane has a whiff of motorsport about it but as far as I am aware doesn't compete in any motorsport.
The rules are slightly different now, so most of the cars you see on track or on the rally stage bear little relation (other than the shape) to the cars we can buy and drive on the road. I guess this is both a good and a bad thing. Cheaper for manufacturers to go racing perhaps? (Although there seem to be less factory teams than there were in the days of homologation. Bad because we can't buy cars anything like we see on the track/rally stage anymore and the old heroes (i.e. Impreza WRX STI and Evo seem a bit irrelevant now as road cars when more refined and economical but just as quick rivals are available for similar money. My question is, can you buy a new car any more with a genuine motorsport connection? I know the old 911 GT3 had a race-derived engine but no longer and the RenaultSport Megane has a whiff of motorsport about it but as far as I am aware doesn't compete in any motorsport.
Edited by white_goodman on Friday 6th March 19:38
Suppose it depends what you mean.
This is the Elise S Cup R, a track-only customer car which is eligible to compete in the Lotus Cup Series, an FIA approved one make international series.
http://www.lotuscars.com/lotus-elise-cup-r
http://www.lotuscars.com/news/racing/lotus-cup-eur...
This is the subsequent road-going version of it, the Elise S Cup;
http://www.lotuscars.com/lotus-elise-s-cup
This is the Elise S Cup R, a track-only customer car which is eligible to compete in the Lotus Cup Series, an FIA approved one make international series.
http://www.lotuscars.com/lotus-elise-cup-r
http://www.lotuscars.com/news/racing/lotus-cup-eur...
This is the subsequent road-going version of it, the Elise S Cup;
http://www.lotuscars.com/lotus-elise-s-cup
Fleckers said:
anything from the WRC I guess ?
Long way removed from the road cars;http://www.volkswagen-motorsport.com/index.php?id=...
Wadeski said:
Its very disappointing that FWD econoboxes can be raced as AWD / RWD fire breathers with no requirement for lip service to a road car.
Aston Martin GT3, Mclarens etc are all well and good but regular, sub 50k cars with a motorsport connection were special.
There's plenty of FWD racing cars based (at least loosely) on road cars in series like the BTCC. I'm not sure how much, if anything, the BTCC cars have to share with their road-going counterparts, though. Aston Martin GT3, Mclarens etc are all well and good but regular, sub 50k cars with a motorsport connection were special.
ETA: It looks like the answer is "almost nothing", sadly.
Edited by kambites on Friday 6th March 19:41
kambites said:
There's plenty of FWD racing cars based (at least loosely) on road cars in series like the BTCC. I'm not sure how much, if anything, the BTCC cars have to share with their road-going counterparts, though.
Lights and the middle part of the shell. That's all that's identical to the road variant in a BTCC car.Wadeski said:
Its very disappointing that FWD econoboxes can be raced as AWD / RWD fire breathers with no requirement for lip service to a road car.
Aston Martin GT3, Mclarens etc are all well and good but regular, sub 50k cars with a motorsport connection were special.
That's what I was getting at really. The latest M3s for instance are very nice fast road (and occasional track cars) but a long way from the track refugee that was the original. That Elise Cup looks very nice though. Aston Martin GT3, Mclarens etc are all well and good but regular, sub 50k cars with a motorsport connection were special.
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