Silhouette racing car

Beneath Mickey Thompson's 1971 Mustang Funny Car body is a racing chassis that shares no commonality with the production vehicle.

A silhouette racing car is a race car which, although bearing a superficial resemblance to a production model, differs mechanically in fundamental ways. The purpose of silhouette cars is to provide a manufacturer with a tangible link to their consumer product offerings so as to derive maximum marketing benefit from their investment in the sport. They also provide spectators with familiar, identifiable car models.

Construction

Silhouette cars often employ radically different chassis construction techniques, such as

stiffness of the chassis^[1] or the output of the engine.^[2]

Silhouette racing series

Entire championship fields can consist of silhouettes. Sometimes, only a single class in a multi-class field may permit silhouettes. Notable racing classes where silhouette cars have been used include

Group 5, Group B, DTM, JGTC/Super GT, monster trucks and the Australian Supercars Championship

.

Due to homologation rules (e.g. Group B rally cars), some silhouette racing cars, such as the Lancia 037 and Lancia Delta S4, also end up being sold as road cars.