These are the brands you most want to see in racing, and the motorsports they should be in

Motorsport is cool, isn’t it? For over a century now, manufacturers have taken their most hardcore, stripped-out, no-compromise projects to the world’s greatest bits of tarmac, gravel and dirt to do battle, and few things are more exciting to watch. 

But competing isn’t for everyone, and that had us asking: which manufacturer do you want to see in motorsport, and in which discipline? Here's what you said...

Let’s start with a big shout from Peterson: “Dacia in Formula One. The only team where crashing causes 20 quid’s worth of damage and engines run on LPG because that's cheaper. The steering wheel is from a Sandero to keep costs low. Driver display is a taped-on phone of one of the mechanics running a flaky app with delays of up to three seconds. Driver radio is exactly that - a CB radio yanked from one of the support trucks. And support trucks for Dacia are just a bunch of Dusters and Joggers towing rented trailers.”

A quite brilliant proposal, much like the one suggested by Gandubilli Siddarth: “Let's put more supercar makers into WRC, please. That rally Vantage from a few years ago is possibly the coolest thing ever, and the 911 Dakar and Sterrato are just a little less cool. Come on FIA, give them their category and let's make it happen.”

The whole supercars in the World Rally Championship thing found plenty of favour this week, with a similar proposal from Sam: “I may be going off on a limb here but I reckon Lamborghini in the WRC would be a dream. They may not have a specific ‘performance hatch/sedan’ to plunge straight into the competition, but with 4x4 history with the Urus and experience in rally engineering in the bonkers Sterrato, I think a one-off, lightweight monster could bring some crazy designing and performance to an already exciting WRC stage.”

One more rally-based comment, we think. Imola says: “Why not have Audi, Ford, Lancia, Peugeot and Renault all return to rallying, along with actual regulations? That’s right, let’s get Group B back together.”

Unsurprisingly, Koenigsegg also popped up very frequently in this week’s comments. Dastardly said: “I would like to see the Tiny Friendly Giant in different racing categories. Not necessarily itself as a constructor, but as an engine supplier.”

MJC went one further: “Nothing quite gets the pulse racing like an unexpected manufacturer throwing all the carbon fibre at a Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Who better to let off the leash than Christian Von Koenigsegg himself; because what the Jesko Attack needs is a bigger wing.”

That would be wild. But still short of the wildest idea this week, dreamt up by Mishmash: “Put Mini into a V8 supercar class of some sort. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see a Cooper speeding down Conrod Straight at Mount Panorama with a screaming V8?”

In fact, there were two competitors for the wildest idea of the week, with the other penned by Al Kim: “Land Rover in the WEC. I want to see how many Ship of Theseus cycles they’d go through over a 24-hour race. Oh, and Mazda throwing another rotary into endurance racing. Take an MX-30 apart, dress the powertrain in a modern-day 787B body and turn it up to 11.”

That’s an idea we can very much get behind, particularly the 787B bit. Our final comment of the week comes from Von Blade, who suggested a discipline that didn't get as much love as we expected: “The best racing is tin tops. The rules don’t allow for more than a silhouette formula, so getting all manufacturers to enter the BTCC/DTM, and the pressure they’d apply on the rule-makers, means we’re back in the good old days of Super Touring regulations.”

That’s all for this week folks, we’ll catch you on Monday when the next question drops.