Quote Originally Posted by motorsportnerd
I'd have to go with Ford. Remember, Ford badged Cosworth engines absolutely dominated Formula One from the late 60s to the early 80s. And Ford Cosworth engines powered Schumacher's championship in 94. So, Ford qualifies on the count of its F1 success.
That was only an engine.
Ford never designed a suspension or chassis for F1.
So if 'diversity' comes to play they lose out big style to quite a few players.
And Renault is my number 4 for the reasons Matra mentioned. However, they biggest successes have been in F1 and WRC. Their touring car and sports car successes have not been over a sustained period like Ford, BMW and Porsche.
ermn, Renault won Le Mans 3 years running. They came 1-2-3, they won WRC, they won Monte Carlo 1-2-3 ( had a bit of help from the stewarsd tho' )
Not sure about Eruope, but they won British Touring cars.
From diversity I can't see anyone who has achieved the full range with ALL aspects of each formula.
Also, Fiat by itself doesn't have much of a heritage. No F1 for example. But the Fiat group companies combined are a different story - Ferrari, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati. But I have to consider one company.
erm that would knock Ford WAY off top spot as the rally was Ford UK, the touring cars was Ford Germany. These were independant legal entities from Ford USA
So due to their US success (mainly due to NASCAR been an American only zone), I have to put Ford at no 1, followed by BMW, Porsche, Renault.
NASCAR ? I though we were discussing motorsport j/k

On NASCAR, I think we would need to apply an 'equivalence'. Nascar is a wholy US formula. Nobody else races it so can't really judge a 'diversity' on such a narrow geography. So it either has to be ingored (no) or an 'equivalent' formula compared. I think the orirginal Le Mans GT prototypes are close. They orirignally matched a body shape, hey were free to engineer the chassis but had to use an engine from their stable. What do you think ?

Alterrnatively, I claim Hillman as the overal winner as the Imp won the North Glasgow Hill climb in 1976 ahead of all the other contendors. So ipso-facto Hilman are best ( )