The 10 best road-going rally cars of all time

Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution

Think 'rally car', and it's hard not to think about a four-wheel drive, saloon or hatchback brushing shrubbery as it hurtles around a tight B road covered in snow, sand, mud or, indeed, tarmac. What you probably don't think about is a big, upright SUV landing heavy on its bump stops having lept the crest of a dune at breakneck speeds on the Dakar Rally. Welcome to the world of the Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution. 

With its Tonka toy body kit, the Pajero Evolution has all the vintage of a road car homologated to rally. Under its jutting jawline, you'll find a seriously tough skid plate, and the front bumper curves around, almost undiminished, to form the front wheel arches. The rear wheel arches, meanwhile, are even more beefy. The Pajero's aluminium bonnet also gets the treatment courtesy of a huge boxed air intake and there's a twin deck spoiler at the back. Thankfully, the body doesn't sign cheques the mechanicals can't cash because the Mitsubishi has a 280PS (205kW) 3.5-litre V6, four-wheel drive, a low-range gearbox and front, centre and rear differentials. Even the suspension is tweaked with increased travel and the rear multi-link setup from the Lancer Evo. The Mitsubishi might not be the obvious choice, but it's rare, very much looks and goes the part and, with prices starting from around £20,000, is still relatively attainable.

Mini Cooper S

John Cooper knew the Mini’s potential after Roy Salvadori won an informal road race to the Italian Grand Prix, beating fellow star Reg Parnell in an Aston Martin DB4 with an early Mini Cooper prototype. It took a few years to realise that giant-killing ability on the world stage but Paddy Hopkirk’s famous win in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally, and successive ones for Timo Mäkinen and Rauno Aaltonen in 1965 and ’67, sealed the Mini’s reputation on twisty, snow-covered Alpine passes. The fact you could by one that looked – and went – much like the rally versions from your local BMC dealership is as big a part of Mini legend as Michael Caine and The Italian Job.

Alpine A110 Berlinette

Alpine founder Jean Rédélé was a rally driver at heart and, though he was born and raised in Dieppe, was so inspired by competing in the mountains he had the name for his car company settled from the start. Although Alpine enjoyed success on track at Le Mans and elsewhere the brand is forever associated with rallying and the image of metallic blue A110 Berlinettes sideways between snow banks remains iconic. Anyone buying a blue A110 road car back in the day will have done so with this in mind, the reinterpretation of this classic look in the new A110 meaning it now resonates with a whole new generation of fans.

Ford Escort RS1600

The ‘race on Sunday, sell on Monday’ power of rallying was well-established by the mid-‘60s, homologation rules meaning manufacturers had to shift a decent number of equivalently modified road cars to qualify for competition. After creating the Lotus-engined Escort Twin-Cam for racing and rallying, the Cosworth-engined RS1600 followed, along with the Mexico, RS2000 and a long line of iconic homologation specials. With their endlessly tuneable engines, strengthened shells and inherent toughness these cars have been a fixture of the British privateer rally scene ever since, their road-going brothers the blue-collar performance cars of choice for a generation of fans.

Audi Quattro

On road and rally stage the Audi Quattro’s influence is undeniable, the combination of turbocharging and four-wheel-drive laying a basic template for rally cars that survives to the modern day. A pet project of Ferdinand Piëch – grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, creator of the 917 and Volkswagen overlord until his death in 2019 – rallying was the perfect way to demonstrate the value of Quattro four-wheel-drive to Audi’s customers. The Quattro perfectly embodied Audi’s Vorsprung Durch Technik mantra, the timing perfect as it straddled the transition into the legendary Group B era and proved decisively that technology was the route to world domination, as much in marketing as it was in motorsport.

Lancia Delta Integrale

After the excesses of Group B the switch to Group A regulations meant rally cars based on production models of which at least 5,000 were sold, inspiring a golden era of road legal rally reps. With 46 WRC victories, six consecutive constructor titles and four drivers’ championships the Delta Integrale dominated this early Group A era in spectacular fashion. Thanks to its macho looks the Integrale turned Giugiaro’s square-cut hatchback into a formidable road car that looked but one step away from the rally stage. From its box arches to its scoops and Speedline Monte Carlo wheels it put owners in the shoes of legendary drivers like Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biaision and remains a definitive rally car for the road.

Ford Escort RS Cosworth

Ford’s proud traditions in rallying heaped expectation on the Escort RS Cosworth’s giant rear wing, the car developed as a punchier, more agile replacement for the Sierra Sapphire Cosworth Ford had been using. Indeed, the turbocharged four-wheel-drive Sierra powertrain was shortened and installed into the Escort to that end – a radical change from the transverse, front-wheel-drive set-up in regular Escorts. Of course, Ford had to make road cars to homologate it and, even for a Fast Ford, it was an outrageously bombastic machine in looks, performance and character. If anything, the road car was a greater success than the rally version, which never quite made its mark, caught as it was between the dominant Integrale and the rising challenge from the Japanese manufacturers.

Subaru Impreza

Before a certain Scotsman powered his blue Impreza to the 1995 World Rally Championship Subaru had been little more than a quirky brand building cars for farmers and country folk. That made a natural basis for successful rally cars and the partnership with McRae created a sensation meaning everyone wanted an Impreza on gold wheels with a loud exhaust. As fast Escorts became a fixture of the British fast car scene in the ‘70s and ‘80s so the Impreza was for a generation of enthusiasts in the ‘90s and early 2000s. The genuine homologation spec WRX versions remained Japanese-only models but that didn’t matter – its compact size, four-wheel-drive grip, punchy performance and charismatic sound was successfully translated for the British market to create a modern icon.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

The Subaru Impreza captured everyone’s hearts. But its Mitsubishi Lancer nemesis was the one that got the wins, the partnership with Tommi Mäkinen yielding four titles on the trot in the late ‘90s and a memorable succession of road cars. Unlike the Impreza the Evo remained an exotic sight on UK roads, given it remained a Japanese market car until Mitsubishi’s UK-based Ralliart team imported limited numbers of the Evo VI and celebrated Mäkinen special edition. Those committed enough to run one and put up with the extreme styling, pitiful range and painfully short service intervals were rewarded with the closest to an actual road-going rally car ever sold, in both looks and performance. Tech like Active Yaw Control the Evo was using a quarter of a century ago is only now being adopted by mainstream hot hatches too, demonstrating how far ahead of the game it really was.

Peugeot 106 Rallye

Just to demonstrate that not all rally-derived road cars need turbos, four-wheel-drive, bonnet scoops and big wings the Peugeot 106 Rallye proves less really can be more. Built to homologate the 106 for domestic rallying in the competitive 1,300cc class, the Rallye used a fuel-injected version of the engine from its 205 forebear and stripped it back to the absolute basics. Which pretty much sums up the driving style. The Rallye isn’t fast against the clock compared with other hot hatches but it makes up for it in the purity of its handling, the old-fashioned power delivery of its hot cam engine and the way it dances on the throttle. A Series 2 followed with a bigger 1.6-litre engine but the Series 1 on its characteristic steel wheels is a purist’s icon and good ones are prized modern classics.