I'm guessing that NONE of any manufacturers WRC homologation cars make it over to the states! The "World Rally Championship" seems to be primarily a european motorsport.
One reason is that they're relatively expensive compared to the cooking cars. How many US citizens would pay some $30,000+ for a Ford Focus? I do remember that Audi did send a few U-R Quattros to the US, & they didn't sell. It was the only market where there wasn't a six month waiting list for this car.
Another reason is that Ford, Subaru, Peugeot, GM etc.. only NEED to make & sell a few of the homologation cars to qualify for WRC & almost all homologation vehicles are sold at cost or even slight loss so why make more than the 5000 that you absolutely have to. You'll sell all 5000 in Europe without difficulty so there's no gain to sending any to a market where they're not really appreciated.
While the performance of the WRC homologation cars is nice, their real strength is their handling and agility which is not something that would be appreciated on most US roads.
In short, it's just not worth the manufacturers effort to try & sell WRC homologation cars in a country that doesn't follow or participate in the World Rally Championship. Cars such as the Subaru WRX and Focus RS are fielded to allow competition wins in a popular European motorsport and hence boost sales in the european market.
Mike.
|