2002 Arrows F1, Because it was the only F1 car I know of that disappeared halfway through a season and then pitched up with a different engine in the back and competed 4 years later (Super Aguri).
I do believe you've missed the point.
I dare say a lot of people's ideas of "greatest racing cars" are to do with the drivers more than the car itself - especially F1 cars.
Not to mention is a car like the 787B or the R18 really "greatest"? As has been well-covered before in this forum not so long ago, the 787B was a pretty lucky winning car and while its circumstances and the machinery are noteworthy, the car itself is hardly one of the "greatest".
I think some members are suffering from "Gran Turismo-itis":
That if PD says it's worthy of inclusion in
Gran Turismo, then one suffers from a form of myopia that means "Race Car X" is by default really, really good.
The Mazda 787B (and the entire 7x7 series), while famous for winning Le Mans in 1991, never won any other race, or even challenged for any other victories in any other race it participated in. The next-best record to the 787B was the MXR-01, which hooked up the same team for a 4th place the following year, and that car was essentially the Jaguar XJR-14 with a new paint scheme.
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As for the Porsche 956 and Porsche 962, now those were dominant and awesome sports cars of their times, and completely dominant in IMSA GTP, Interserie, and the WSC (and even called the "Dauer" in 1994).
The Porsche 917 was dominant from 1970 through 1973 in sports car racing and Can-Am. Yes, there's even that weird one-off drive in 1981 by the Kremer Brothers at Le Mans, when international sports-car racing was essentially Formula Libre.
The McLaren MP4/4 essentially was the same darn car in 1989-90, when it was christened the MP4/5 and -5B for the next two years. The engine was different, but there was few changes, except for the addition of the airbox. Same goes for the MP4/2, it ran form 1984 through 1985...few changes, save the banned "winglets" for the 1985 season.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Maserati 250F, which ran from 1954-1960 in some form or another, propelling Fangio towards two World Titles (in 1954, not all his wins were with Mercedes-Benz).
Or the Lotus 72, from 1970 to 1975...I could go on.
(I changed it to) the Brabham BT46, it raced once & got 15 rules changed. Need I say more.
And that's where we play a big game of "what if"...how would the fan-car competed, or changed the sport? Or if the Chapparal fan cars had a bigger budget and could compete over a longer period of time? Or if NASCAR wasn't as arbitrarily restrictive (see the Plymouth Superbird/Charger Daytona, et al)? Or the never-allowed-to-race Lotus 88?
And then there's the cases where the rest of the field wasn't nearly as prepared...Can-Am from 1967-1970, when McLaren destroyed the field (losing a mere two races) with their 7.0-liter V8 Chevrolet motors, or the Ferrari Tipo 500, when F1 racing was essentially run with F2 cars?
You guys mentioning F1 cars and LMP's are crazy. If you want to mention any cars which had an actual impact on car industry it's worth mentioning Audi Quattro and BMW M3.
I understand the quattro, for it was a game-changer in a lot of series, to the point where it was outlawed, and the M3, but we're not crazy folks. Well, maybe sometimes...occasionally, they let us run the asylum.
The problem is that many racing series change the rules once one car gets dominant, or the rules are changed swiftly if the car is too radical. And today's top-flight motorsport is either spec-series or it evolves so quickly to render a dominant car nearly useless after a season of competition.
I recall reading something, a few years ago now, along the lines of the Australian teams competing with GTRs were invited to compete in a JTCC race at Fuji Speedway but (I think) Nissan didn't let them compete as they didn't want the Australians showing them up!
