You want to see who’s really the best driver? Put them in identical cars and have them go at it on the track. No excuses, no complaints; just pure racing. What’s better is to have those cars be something rather pedestrian, or at the very least something that isn’t some million-dollar machine far removed from any actual road-spec automobile.
What street car do you think would be good to use as a single-make-and-model racing series?
America tried this years ago with the International Race of Champions, putting drivers from different series into identical racing Camaros to duke it out on famous tracks. You might remember the Long Beach races where celebrities competed in identical Toyota Celicas.
There are plenty of other examples of same-make race series where everyday cars rubbed door handles and separated the amateurs from the pros. Renault has been especially active in this area, most famously with their Renault 5 Cup series.
These are maniacal heats that end up looking like those soccer games your five-year-olds played in where everything is just one big pack moving against each other. Either that or just an answer to the question, “what would it look like if a traffic jam moved along at sixty miles an hour?”
In America, Renault even created a series with their R9-based AMC-built Alliance.
This was surprisingly entertaining stuff, and if you’ve ever complained that some series is totally uncompetitive, then this is the antidote.
Still, what kind of car would also be ideal as the basis for a series? I’m thinking a bunch of Toyotas like a Prius (what is the plural of Prius?) might work:
Oh, how about Mitsubishi Mirages? Laugh all you want; put some good drivers in these tin cans, all looking for any kind of edge, and we’ll separate the adults from the kids in short order.
So what’s your choice? A Maverick Cup? Altima-te Challenge? Let us know!
Top graphic image: Renault
Fun-Bad – Ford Excursion
Fun-Good – MX-5 Cup (already exists, but peak)
Fun-Weird – 6-Wheeled EcoSport
Nissan had a factory Micra Cup series, and they even sold a Micra Cup Car from the dealer, but of course they only sold it in Canada, not the US 🙁
The Altima Challenge would have them on 4 donuts LOL
How about a Kia Rondo Cup? 😛
We still have that in Canada, kinda. In 2022 it switched from the Micra Cup to the Sentra Cup. You could buy a race prepped Sentra Cup car for around $50k.
For 2026 they replaced the one make series with the Nissan Challenge which is open to race prepped Nissan Zs & Sentras.
The 2CV Rally . The course immediately takes you through plowed fields — remember, keep the barley on your left and the mustard fields on your right — while you are transporting a large basket of eggs sitting in the back, which must remain unbroken when you reach the finish line. The supplied baguette and bottle of wine may be consumed to provide sustenance during the race, but there no “pit stops” allowed during your pit stops, so consume wisely. The winner is awarded a new CR-V or RAV4, which it is assumed that they will sell for the cash since who would want to keep such a wretchedly boring thing?
2CV Rallye Raid is/was a thing.
Cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMygdzQgMGE
I’ll just leave this here.
URAL sidecar bikes! Drives like shit, will tumble over just by the power of thought, but hard to break.
I‘m probably about a hundred years late, but I totally would watch a racing series with Leyat Helica propeller-driven cars.
You may remember them from this clip:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RW4oz4YzIks&ra=m
That would be a Dungeon Crawler Carl-level atrocity. Just maximum speed body blender, GO!
Chang-Li 10, could they all make it ten miles? What is the top speed?
Maybe make a tie competition be a 1/4 mile drag with whatever charge is left after 10 miles.
Oh, and make it YouTubers and the start of the race is actually unboxing and assembling the cars. Or maybe the pole position is determined by that the night before since there is like going to be a need to charge them all before start of the race.
The K-Car Cup should be a thing. Take a cars that’s mediocre, but important, and take them racing. You can have all styles – convertibles, wagons, 2-doors or 4, heck you could even pick an early minivan. It would take forever, but would be hilarious.
The YouTuber Cleetus McFarland has the Ford Crown Vic “series” which will sometimes have stars from different racing series driving.
For example Clay Millican from top fuel NHRA
Carson Hocevar from Nascar
Travis Pastrana
Lots of action.
This would have been a great option for the Yugo.
Make it a 24 hour race, using fresh from the factory vehicles, with no mods (okay, maybe a roll cage).
The starting sequence would be to line up all the cars, gather the drivers, and then go down the line front to back handing a key to a randomly selected driver as you go. That driver then unlocks the car and can take off while the rest of pack marches down the line waiting for their keys.
The issue isn’t just who made it the farthest in 24 hours, but rather who made the greatest distance regardless of whether it was still running at the 24 hour mark, with bonus points awarded for actually making it the full 24 hours and points deducted for parts lost along the way.
Plot twist: Yes, the first driver to get a key can go unlock a car, start it, and go… but they don’t know WHICH car they’ve just been handed a key to.
For safety’s sake, probably couldn’t do this. You can’t have a vehicle blocking the ones behind it with drivers running around trying to figure out which car belongs to their key. Too high a likelihood a driver gets hit.
The chaos would be beautiful; the broken bones, not so much.
LeMans start. Have them angle parked on the side of the track. No one gets blocked in that way. If you want MORE chaos, park them nose-in, so they have to back onto the track, then go.
That’s easy to solve. If we’re talking left-hand drive cars you just have to make sure cars pull out to the right like you would parallel parked on the left side on a one-way street (speaking as someone in a country with left-hand drive cars, UK, Japan, and the like can do the opposite way).
Or just do diagonal parking with enough space between cars to prevent feet from being run over and enforce only approaching the doors/cars from the rear.
It’s not totally risk-free, but it eliminates most of the problems.
Geo Tracker
Or maybe a Brodozer series, where it’s single model (we’ll have one for RAM one for Silverados), but you have to have qualifying mods of rock lights, a lift, and silly offset tires.
Squatted trucks get their own series too.
Ford Crown Victoria / Mercury Grand Marquis, mostly stock. I want to see those big boats racing instead of going to church.
Almost…Country Squire and Colony Park wagons instead.
The Family Truckster 200. (Because the Family Truckster 500 would take longer than Le Mans)
Serious answer: Suzuki SV650 race series. But I think that was already done.
On the car side, a FWD base-model economy car challenge
Honda Civic (no CTR), Toyota Corolla (no GR), Hyundai Elantra (no N) race series would be seriously fun competition. And think of the aftermarket that it would spawn.
X-90’s please
The Miata Cup is the best I’ve ever seen, because its spec they stay pretty bunched up. Its like a bag of angry bees flying by every 2 mins.
I would love to see an unlimited mod series using only early 90s Geo Metros with the base 1 liter 3 cylinder engine.
Geo Metro rally racing.
I would pay to see that.
I would pay to be in the amateur series of Geo Metro racing.
I vaguely remember in the 90s there was a brief series of races all in Dodge/Plymouth Neons with celebrity drivers. I remember William Shatner was one of the drivers but I can’t recall anyone else that was memorable. It was highly entertaining.
They could have done that again to promote the Dart or something. I would have watched it at least once.
Isn’t NASCAR already doing this?
“Nicecar”
It’s so completely removed from “road car” that it’s just silly at this point.
It should return to production vehicles, even if that means FWD racing.
Chrysler Cordoba. It’s gotta be a challenge to maintain that competitive edge when you’re being gently caressed by rich Corinthian leather.
And women from the 70s (and are now in their 70s) with huge hair and looked like Charlie’s Angels.
There is only one choice – the Reliant Robin.
You beat me to it! Damn you!
And me! I scrolled the comments, but was on page 2…
That immediately came to mind for me too. I’m sure we’re all thinking of Clarkson.
Actually, I was thinking of Mr. Bean. I think he beat Clarkson to that one by a decade or so.
I think some of the best ones have already been done: A field of DAF 33s all careening bass-ackwards around a Dutch track was top tier racing in my opinion.
I reckon a Yugo-only series might finally eliminate the last of the Slavic Scourge from American shores so that’s a good idea, let’s just pencil that one in…
By the same token as the Yugo, a race series featuring only Hyundai Excels would be a tonic to my soul, even if nobody else’s.
And finally, in the face of gas finally topping $4/gal even at the station close to me where it never keeps up with the peaks (or the lows, it must be admitted), I propose a 2012 Prius Series. Original headgaskets only. Speeds will be modest so driver skill comes to the fore here.
Couldn’t get more amusing than a Reliant Robin race series.
First gen Scion xB’s doing a rallycross.
(I own one of the old Celica’s from the Long Beach series.)
A track littered with angrily buzzing Lego all jockeying for position…
How about the PT Cup?! Watching a bunch of PT Cruisers race on a track where people don’t care would be pretty funny to watch!
excellent way to thin the herds of them from dying retirees. Altima series is finally helping at least a little with removing those cockroaches.
Dang! Beat me to it. Call it the PT Cruiser Classic and allow all configurations (ESPECIALLY convertibles) and unlimited modifications with a wacky rulebook à la Lemons. Let the glorious carnage ensue.
Altima –
A combination death-race/demolition derby with all drivers on the phone talking to their sisters about how her BF done her wrong.
The “Donut Spare 500”.
The Russian Amber EV, obviously
Spec Jeep Renegade RallyCross, using the 2014-2018 1.4’s with the manual transmissions
Lets go with manual 2 door jeep wranglers. The last driver to still have all 4 wheels on the pavement wins.
What if it’s still on fire at the start line because you’re racing the 4XE?
DQ’ed asap. 🙂
Minimum of 10 ducks on the dash….
Each duck that flies off the dash and out the door opening is a 10 sec. penalty.