How motorsport is driving car sales
Turbocharged performance on the track has helped put car makers in the fast lane.
Motoring News
Don't miss out on the headlines from Motoring News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Motorsport is in the fast lane for car makers keen to boost sales in an increasingly competitive market. Brands such as BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari and Porsche sent their best cars, drivers and personnel to Bathurst last weekend, where hundreds of their customers and thousand more fans watched cars battle around the clock.
BMW triumphed with a “perfect” strategy that landed a 1-2 victory over a faster Ferrari.
MORE: BMW secures ‘perfect’ Bathurst win
Sylvia Neubauer, vice president of customer, brand and sales for BMW’s M division, said racing “absolutely” helps sell cars.
“We are an authentic motorsports brand and the brand pillars are ‘born on the racetrack’, ‘made for the streets’ and ‘for a passionate community’.
“This is exactly what we want to convey, that we engineer our cars coming from motorsport and racing, and that we use this engineering then also for our series production cars for the road.”
MORE: Racing ‘Benz fetches $85m at auction
BMW’s win came on a track that hosted the global debut of the new BMW M3 CS Touring last week, an outrageous rapid station wagon with the same engine found in cars raced by the likes of Valentino Rossi.
Neubauer said the Bathurst triumph was “a huge thing for the company”. “We have been waiting for this victory for quite a long time to be honest.”
The fastest car at Mt Panorama was a Ferrari 296 that made its Bathurst 12 Hour debut.
Ferrari had dozens of cars on the mountain, which hosted the first round of the Ferrari Challenge Australasia series that allows customers to race head-to-head on local circuits.
Ferrari Australasia president Jan Voss said racing is “ingrained in our DNA”.
“We were born to race,” he said.
“We live that racing spirit every day – not just on the Formula 1 track but also other avenues such as Ferrari Challenge.”
Ferrari won the famous Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race in 2023 and 2024. Ford hopes to put a stop to that with a return to Le Mans with a futuristic “hypercar” in 2027.
William Clay Ford Jr, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, said the company is “entering a new era for performance and racing”.
“You can see it from what we’re doing on-road and off-road. When we race, we race to win. We are ready to once again challenge the world, and ‘go like hell!’”
The blue oval’s local arm recently announced plans to turbocharge its racing division by working with Triple Eight Race Engineering to field Red Bull-backed Mustangs in Australian competition from 2026.
MORE: Ford shocks with Red Bull ahead of V8 war
Mark Rushbrook, global director of the Ford Performance division, said the company has concrete data that shows a clear link between racing and sales. “It’s not necessarily a Mustang winning on Sunday and selling a Mustang on Monday, but there definitely is the brand affiliation that you can win with Mustang and sell a Ford Ranger on Monday,” he said.
“There’s definitely that connection, and that’s part of why we go racing.
“It’s part of who we are, part of the DNA of Ford Motor Company.”
Ford is racing just about everywhere you look – in Supercars, NASCAR, off-road rally racing, at Le Mans and soon, in partnership with Red Bull, Formula 1.
Toyota, the world’s largest car company, is set to enter Supercars racing in Australia next year. The Supra-shaped racer will join a wide range of Toyota race cars including the entry-level GR86 series, hybrid-powered Hypercars in the World Endurance Championship, and racing cousins of the Camry (NASCAR), Yaris (World Rally Championship) and HiLux (Dakar).
Established brands have enormous racing history. And newer brands are set to join the fray.
Genesis, Hyundai’s luxury arm, showed off two concept cats at last weekend’s Bathurst 12 Hour.
A stunning, low-slung, V8-powered show car points to an upcoming Hypercar that will take on Ford, Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota and BMW at Le Mans. The brand is also rumoured to be building a GT car that could challenge for the Bathurst 12 Hour in the future.
Originally published as How motorsport is driving car sales
The car colours that costs more to insure
It turns out that if Aussies pick these coloured cars, it’ll cost you more in insurance – and the reason will shock you.
Honda fail forces Nissan into horror call
Nissan was willing to merge with bitter rival Honda because it avoided the one thing they hated more. Now, Nissan might have no choice.