FIA 2-Litre World Rally Cup

With more engine freedoms and lighter weights they could match, even beat the turbo 4WD Group A and WRC cars.

Their ability to snatch wins away from WRC teams became a launching pad into World championship careers, led by Gilles Panizzi and Philippe Bugalski and later emerging French talent Sébastien Loeb.

With the series now renamed the FIA 2-Litre World Cup for Manufacturers, Skoda took the title with their Favorit model, despite it only being a 1300cc class car.

Gilles Panizzi caused a major upset when he finished third outright on the all-tarmac Rallye Catalunya in his Peugeot 306 Maxi, defeating all bar two of the World Championship cars.

To prove it was not a fluke Panizzi did the same on the Tour de Corse just weeks later with team mate François Delecour finishing fourth.

[7] Vauxhall/Opel debuted their Astra Kit Car at the 1998 Rally of Great Britain, with a second-place finish for Jarmo Kytolehto.

In 1999, Renault won the title by seven points from Hyundai, but with only three teams left in the category (one of whom, Volkswagen, were not classified as they had not homologated their new Golf GTI Kit Car), it was phased out at the end of the season.