A while back I was thinking about how much sense corporate demo vehicles make, especially for automotive companies. As I was thinking about potential vehicles, I noticed a certain tire company produced rally, drag racing and track/autocross tires in addition to their street offerings. What would a car that would be perfect for all these tires with a minimum of changes look like?

My guess is not too different from a modern WRC car. Although most truly great cars are made with complete focus on one objective, WRC cars are designed to compete on a variety of surfaces through as season and sometimes even an event. Their active differentials have multiple settings to adjust power delivery to suit any environment the car finds itself in. Suspension would have to be similarly adjustable. A combination of electromagnetorheologic fluid (think GM’s magnetic ride control) and electronically variable valving (think Tein EDFC). Picking a spring rate might be tough, but springs are relatively cheap and easy to carry around. Brakes that hold up to time attack but fit in rally wheels might be tough, but you’d really just have to pick the right pads for the day. The modern turbo-four is a perfect match for the flexibility of the car as you could have drastically different fuel and boost maps for the various uses of the car.

Put all the parts together and you have a supremely adaptable car that can use all the aforementioned tires right at the limit and provide a spirited ride home. Dual-purpose cars are cool (witness Ben’s S2K), but how cool would a quadruple-purpose car be?