Six car manufacturers you didn’t know raced

Duesenberg

No really, it is a doozy, or Duesenberg to use the full name of the famous American luxury marque, from which the expression ‘that was a doozy’ was derived. Duesenberg is best-associated with some of the finest, most luxurious, over-engineered and expensive cars money could buy in the 1920s and 1930s. But like Rolls-Royce today, it’s not a marque you associate with racing, at least with casual, at-a-distance knowledge and awareness of it. But the reality is that the Duesenberg brothers got their start in racing – bikes to be specific. As it happens, in 1921, a Duesenberg became the first American car to win a grand prix, the 1921 French Grand Prix, and wouldn’t be joined until 1967, by Dan Gurney’s Eagle.

Proton

One a few more may have been aware of but nonetheless, it’ll for sure catch a few others by surprise. Proton, the Malaysian proprietor of bargain basement motoring, was indeed a fairly keen participant in motorsports, particularly rallying. That shouldn’t come as a surprise given that for a good 20 years, Proton owned Lotus, before Geely took a controlling interest in the Norfolk-based sportscar company. Really though, Proton has been present in racing from as far back as 1987. Its coolest car? That has to go to the Satria Neo S2000 that campaigned in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. What an awesome thing.

Perodua

It’s a similar story for Perodua, another Malaysian brand, first established in 1993 and known in the UK for cheap and less-than-cheerful motoring. Perodua, while not as prominent as Proton in competition, has dipped its toe in racing in the past with an array of Kelisa, Kancil, Viva, and MyVi rally cars competing in the early 2000s. In fact, the marque could very fairly have been described as dominant in its home Malaysian Rally Championship.

Pagani

Ah yes, the three Ps. Proton, Perodua and… Pagani. You might laugh, but Pagani, for all its mastery of exotic materials and sophisticated top-tier engineering, really has been somewhat of a stranger to contemporary motorsports over its 30-odd years. ‘Zonda R, Huayra R!’ you may cry, and you’ll be wrong. These are track cars that never raced. Pagani did however take a punt at endurance racing in 2003 and 2004 with the Zonda GR. Two examples of the GT1-spec car were built and perhaps to no one’s surprise, its first outing was an unmitigated disaster. Retirement within minutes of the start of 2003’s Le Mans was down to problems with the gearbox, which was a MacGyvered ‘box from a Porsche 911 mounted upside down.

Lada

Hailing from the other side of the Iron Curtain as was Lada – not a brand we associate with such discretionary activities as motorsport. But, like the Finns, when it’s cold, you have a lot of land at your disposal, and a rear-driven saloon in which to play, people tend to start having fun and learning to go fast as they do so. And believe it or not, that lead to Lada developing, of all things, a Group B-spec car based on the 2105, called the VFTS. Packing a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine fed by twin-Weber carburettors, the 2105 VFTS had 167PS (123kW), or to give it some context, 100PS more than road-going Ladas of the time. It also weighs less than 900kg. What a weapon.

Rolls-Royce

Okay, this one is a bit of a cheat, as Rolls-Royce is the ultimate un-raced motoring marque. But that didn’t stop some from utilising the famous 6.25-litre V8 – an engine entirely geared towards effortlessness and smoothness, for racing. If you’re a regular at Goodwood, you’ll have seen it around, the Marina-Rolls-Royce is an open-topped sports racer you could well see at the 2024 Revival racing against GT40s. The engine took quite some modification to be made suitable for racing, with a dry-sumo oiling system, a hotter cam, side-draught Webber carbs, and a Ford distributor. A brute without a suit, with a very dignified bloodline indeed.

Main image courtesy of Motorsport Images