Originally Posted By: LubeLuke
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
It's OK, as they could head a
little more towards a Group B likeness and still be the most 'street like' of ANY racing series on the globe, save for any showroom stock road racing classes (IF there are any left).
Somehow, these cars are basically street legal, at least in the countries the WRC rounds are held in, since they MUST BE operated on
open,
public roads during the transit stages.
As long as they don't allow front engine based production cars to be converted to mid engine, and allow the power levels to shoot up to 600+ HP, as they did in the 'Killer B' era.
They are only street legal like an excavator or a tractor is. In most countries these vehicles operate under special licences for rally vehicles, off-road vehicles, recreational vehicles, special purpose vehicles etc. They are called differently for each country. But they are NOT the same as standard car, or truck vehicle registrations.
I hope you are aware that only the chassis and engine blocks may be similar to the road vehicles. Even the subframes are different.
YES, I
know that they are NOT 'street cars', and
especially in European countries the gendarmes would 'look the other way' for them even IF they did not have those said special registrations.
But, they are some of the very few race vehicles on the planet which require (by the FIA rules) some sort of catalytic converter (yes, even though NOT a factory stock item, and VERY high flowing), and have to have operating headlights, tail lights, and turn signals.
Despite only sharing engine blocks, uni-bodies, and
maybe the roof with their standard, road going counterparts, and having gutted, and carbon fibered, interiors with huge roll cages in them, and large fender flares/bulges and inlets/scoops/wigs/NACA ducts, they still at least
resemble their much more humble, econobox, starting points, more than most other full race vehicles on the globe.
