In the episode 210 of the V8Sleuth Podcast (https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/gary-scott-part-2-v8-sleuth-podcast/), Gary Scott who drove on various occasions for the Nissan works team and Brock and Mitsubishi, mentioned that Mitsubishi were considering to run a 2.6L turbocharged version of their Starion in Group A racing but nothing came of it. This line of cars which included the 1.8L Cordia and both the 2.0L and 2.6L versions of the Starion, would eventually lead to the production of the 3000GT; which was also known in various markets as the Stealth.
I knew of the existence of every single one of these motor cars but never knew that Mitsubishi had any designs about attacking Nissan in Group A Touring Car Racing. The fact that they did not, led them down another path with the Mitsubishi Galant VR4 and then the highly successful Lancer Evolution series of cars; which would win multiple World Rally Championships.
Hearing this, sent me down the road to Wondering Town and to visit all the shops on the high street. I wonder about lots of things and wonder even more what the 1993 Australian Touring Car Championship could have looked like.
Group A motor racing had basically died in Europe but about 1991. Ford had pretty much killed the game with its RS Cosworth Sierra and then took most of the drivetrain and fitted it to the Escort to go rallying as well. Nobody else really wanted to play any more and gave up.
In Australia, Holden had had fleeting success with their 5L V8 Commodore and Ford were happy to run their Sierra but Nissan who had been quietly working away with their R30 and R31 Skyline, killed the game in Japan and then in Australian with the R32 Skyline GTR.
Nissan carefully looked at all of the rules and decided that their RB30 engine from the R30, could be made smaller and stronger and downsized it to 2.6L, in order to take maximum advantage of both weight limits and tyre allowances. Nissan very effectively saw the rules and then built a car accordingly. Ford and Holden in Australia went apoplectic with rage and then invented a set of rules to ban anyone else from playing in their backyard and that worked for more than two decades. But what if they hadn't? What then?
Mitsubishi:
The 2.6L inline-4 in the Starion or the Astron derived engine in the Magna, was already at that goldilocks 2.6L size. If Mitsubishi had thought a little bit longer about it, then the four wheel drive system from the Galant VR4 could have been fitted to a 2.6L Turbo Magna and Mitsubihi would have had their own version of Godzilla. I think that a Mitsubishi Magna Evo could have been a potent weapon, had the three diamonds had made an effort.
Ford:
Ford already had the RS Cosworth Sierra. I do not know if they would have played with the RS Cosworth Escort in Australia had that car been sold here but I do know that Ford was in a strange place in Australia. The Ford Corsair was a repackaged Nissan Pintara because of the Button Plan, and the Ford Laser was a close cousin of the Mazda 323 because of the Ford/Mazda marriage which wouldn't break up until 2015.
Would Ford have run a Laser TX3 or a Telstar TX5? Possibly. They more than likely would not have run a Corsair as Nissan might have objected. Maybe Ford would have given us an RS Mondeo; which would have been a tasty offering.
Holden:
General Motors always confuses me. From 1980, literally the entirety of the North American lineup could have been instantly junked because the offerings from Vauxhall/Opel and Holden, were always better, for every single model until 2019. Fact.
Holden already had an under-utilised weapon in the Piazza. The coupe made by Isuzu already had a 2L Turbo variant; which if developed could have taken on the RS Cosworth Sierra anbd beaten it. However, hiding in the lineup from Germany was a car which never saw its potential - the Calibra 4x4.
The Turbo Calibra 4x4 was very nearly a WRC winner. If Opel had bothered to pursue the program further, instead of being distracted by a half-hearted DTM campaign, then the 2.4L Calibra 4x4 would have been a good platform for GM to attack Nissan's GTR with. Maybe give it is SS badge to reflect the fact that Holden had been using it in motor racing for 25 years by 1992.
Toyota:
Toyota basically abandoned its Group A program in Australia after it worked out that the Supra would be penalised too heavily under the weight regulations, but they persisted in Japan; this would eventually lead to the GT500 rules in Super GT with Nissan and Honda.
Toyota though, also had a potential Godzilla of their own with the Celica GT4. The Celica GT4 would be used very effectively in the WRC, just like Ford's Escort and Mistubiushi's Lancer. A 2.4L four wheel drive Celica, or perhaps that same drivetrain in a Camry, may have been a fun thing.
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In my imagination of things that never were, the five automakers in Australia would have all had their own versions of Nissan's all conquering GTR.
Magna Evo, RS Mondeo, Calibra SS, Celica GT4 and Nissan GTR - together would have made for a very delicious 1993 Group A Touring Car Championship in Australia. Instead, we got Ford and Holden changing the rules so that nobody else would be allowed to play for a long time.
As I type this in 2022, the Australian Touring Car Championship is being fought between two kinds of car which never existed for the road and one of them is from a brand which no longer exists. Next year, we will move to two different kinds of car which will never exist for the road and one of them will be from a brand which doesn't sell cars in Australia.
One of the common tropes on the Facebook page for the V8 Sleuth Podcast is people making a call to bring back Group A rules but as I survey the car market in 2022, I struggle to think of anyone who would bother to make a competitive car. I guess that there'd be the Toyota Supra, BMW M5, Ford Mustang, and Subaru WRX but all of these look like GT3 cars and not what Touring Car racing was.
The SUVification of everything, the general withering of wages, and the gouging out of all sport by Pay-TV, means that the market to see Touring Car racing wouldn't exist either. Still, it's fun to play on the racetrack of my mind and dream about what was not and what could not be.
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