Thankfully, some of the most exciting competition series have required cars to be ‘production-based’: take the Group 3 Grand Touring category (which necessitated 250 GTO production), the GT1 class at Le Mans, or the famous Group B rally category of the 1980s. The rules resulted in ‘homologation specials’ of all shapes, sizes and configurations, but all with one thing in common: the quest to achieve the best possible performance, while meeting the legal requirements of the road – often by the very narrowest of margins.

The process has given us some legendary competition cars reverse-engineered for the road, so here’s a selection of some of our favourites in the Market.

Photos: Classic Driver Dealers, Ferrari, Daimler, Maserati, RM Auctions