How important is motorsport heritage?

[xRIEx]

I'm guessing a lot of PHers are motorsport fans, we often hear about racing heritage or pedigree, so how important is motorsport success when considering a car?

Is F1 relevant? Touring cars? WRC/BRC? GT/sportscars? Basically, does the billions that manufacturers spend on racing affect what you buy or your perception of a brand?

[xRIEx]

Split opinions there.

Most of the examples are going back 20 or so years, are there any current cars having a similar effect? I'm not aware that Citroen have got any kudos on the back of WRC success, for example.

[xRIEx]

SystemParanoia said:

thats because you cant go and buy a turbo 4x4 Citroen

You couldn't buy a Group B 205 either, what's your point?

[xRIEx]

AndrewW-G said:

Yes you could, like the other manufacturers, they sold a handful of road going versions

From a quick wiki-hunt:
"Apart from the appearance, the road variants had practically nothing in common with the regular production model and shared the transverse mid-engine, four-wheel drive layout of the rally car, but had less than half the power; at around 200 PS (147 kW; 197 hp)."

Half the power of a group B car - not that I was expecting a full power version, but that was the point I was trying to get across: the £££££ race cars have no bearing on their road-going brethren except brand enhancement.

Also:
"A 207 hp (154 kW) version,[7] the DS3 Racing, was introduced at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. It is the road version of Citroën's rally specification DS3 R3."

Again, 'road version' is debatable (being 2WD for a start).

Edited by xRIEx on Sunday 29th April 21:58