Video: probably the best race you'll see today

Believe it or not, but there was a time when motorsport was on mainstream TV. Regularly.

Not just Formula 1, either, but all manner of disciplines. And this is when you got just three channels piped through your aerial, not thousands through the witchcraft of satellites and fibre optics.

It was also a time when racing drivers didn’t live behind obtrusive marketing deals, allowing them to clamber out of their F1 car and into an MG Maestro for a race against their mates, with complete ease.

Confused? Simply watch the clip above, from something called ‘BBC Rally Sprint’. It saw stars of F1 and rallying in 1983 battle each other for supremacy in a handful of 110bhp hatchbacks.

And they did so with reckless abandon. The tussle for top spot sees Nigel Mansell swapping places with John Watson (a fellow F1 driver) and Tony Pond (a contemporary World Rally driver), with other big names in the field behind them.

Alright, so we have Race of Champions nowadays. But that doesn't get a terrestrial TV viewing platform, and nor does it see a grid of drivers truly battling each other in door-handle-to-door-handle racing. The clip starts a few laps into Rally Sprint’s final event, and the red mist has clearly long since descended. There's some exceptional overtaking going on.

So how about it, motorsport world? One day, at the end of every season, when willing drivers can put all contracts aside and have fun overdriving some modestly powered cars. Pipe it over YouTube for maximum viewing figures.

It’s unlikely we’ll ever see Ogier and Hamilton trading blows in Swift Sports, but how good would it be if we could?